Mary out enjoying her kittens on a beautiful day on her porch. Real live playmates are very special for little girls. She has adopted her love for kittens and cats from her mother and that is very special to watch the loves passed on from one to another. It is a beautiful thing to observe when a parent/coupld shares their JOY in Faith and Family with their children, and what we receive from our little ones is such an amazing gift also!
I was very touched by this beautiful and fun sharing by a father of 5 this morning - shared by Fr Craig on facebook!
"I watch the faces of single people in their twenties after I bring up that I ‘have children.’ I imagine them taking a small step backward as if to avoid contagion, with a look of ‘Sorry to hear that’ on their face. Like I naively volunteer...ed to contract leprosy, forever quarantining myself from the world of having fun by having children. Well, why not? I guess the reasons against having more children always seem uninspiring and superficial. What exactly am I missing out on? Money? A few more hours of sleep? A more peaceful meal? More hair? These are nothing compared to what I get from these five monsters who rule my life. I believe each of my five children has made me a better man. So I figure I only need another thirty-four kids to be a pretty decent guy. Each one of them has been a pump of light into my shriveled black heart. I would trade money, sleep, or hair for a smile from one of my children in a heartbeat. Well, it depends on how much hair.” Jim Gaffigan
John told me that he is a famous comedian... I had Pat read this and his comment was that it was a much larger bed than we had with our 5 joining us in - a old 4 poster double bed! There are many memories of the 5 joining us in bed in the morning... and Pat also noticed the remote - we have never had a TV in our room with the kids. It looks like they are semi quiet watching something with dad. After a morning with our 9 month old granddaughter, Bernadette, joining us for morning prayer - she was in constant action with happiness pouring from every pore and her hands raised as she seemed to be dancing in praise. At one point I said to her that her name should be - Alleluia, and then I recalled that we have someone already named that - Little Sister Hallel! I think that Hallel could learn from Bernadette how to be a physical force for Halleluia by her smiling dimpled face and body of jumping arms in the air movement! It just made morning prayer that much more wonderful and yes - my glasses were torn off my face numerous times and grandpa had some little fingers up his nose on occasion, but just as Jim Gaffigan said - we received great JOY and LIGHT from her presence with us!
So much sweet happiness - I am overflowing with LOVE from the little ones and little things of LIFE! This day Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel of Matthew about marriage being sacred and permanent, and he also writes about those that are called to give up marriage for the Kingdom - religious LIFE. I was overjoyed to read a meditation on marriage by one of my favorites - Caryll Houselander (1954) After I read it to John after we shared the office and the Gospel together - he is the same as me in how he looks at LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT, but he says it much better. I want to quote the entire sharing, but I will try to restrain myself.
"We must grow in wisdom, as Christ did, by deepening our understanding of the sacramental life through the very substance of every day. Until there is nothing we see or touch that is not charged with wonder for us, though it is something as familiar as the bread on the table. And there is nothing that we do, though it be no more than filling a glass with water for a child, which does not sweep the loveliness of God's sacramental plan through our thoughts, like a great wave of grace washing them clean from sin and the sorrow that is inseparable from it.
Then we can increase Joy through compassion, even where there is incurable suffering, for if we want to put on Christ's personality we shall radiate his LIGHT, and he is the LIGHT which shines in the darkness, which darkness cannot overcome."
Jesus, so many blessings are welling up within me this day after such a special day of celebration within our Church and our family. It is such a reminder to me that you called me to embrace my Most Cherished Cross in the sacrament of marriage - in embracing our Cross - just as you brought LIFE to the world we find LIFE! It seemed that starting the day with The Prayer of the Church in the Office it saturates each day with your Way, your Truth and your LIFE! So blessed with the overflowing of your graces! Jesus, be with all new life this day - most especially the little one in Ruth's womb! Protect the two of them, as we know that this little one is to be here and that you are in control. We ask for the protection of ALL LIFE, Lord. May all those contemplating abortion be shown that this is a life to be cherished and protected at all costs. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia!
There is nothing that makes grandpa happier than to have the boys love to be with him and "farm!"
Bless-bless, Barb
"In Matrimony it is the bride and bridegroom who give one another the grace of the sacrament; and it goes on, as they grow together in one another's LOVE, a gradual increase of JOY, which nothing, ultimately, can take away from them. In a sense they are one another's priests, because their life is a lifelong giving and taking of Christ's life. Everything in their lives has a quality of miracle; all their words of compassion or forgiveness are in a sense little absolutions; their union a communion with Christ. Every breaking of bread at their table, a remembrance and more than a remembrance f him.
Human marriage is only a symbol, a shadow of the marriage of Christ with his Church, of the continual growing together in creative love, of the daily transformation of everything that so much touches the hem of his garment; it is we who are the Church!
By our baptism we are bidden to the marriage feast where water is changed to wine. Cana is an image of our Christ-life on earth, but Christ is not only a guest; he is the Bridegroom with whom we must rejoice, who desires for everyone who loves him 'that my joy may be yours, and the measure of your joy be filled up.' ' (John 15:11) Caryll Houselander (1954)
I had to share it all!!! It is too much to not shout from the housetops! Praise HIM!
Just sitting down to a family meal!!! So blessed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9a7TaehRUQ&list=RD02H93HaDeg27c Danielle Rose singing 26 of her songs - one after another
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