"When I survey the wondrous cross..."

My new favorite picture of... the recognition of Christ!  Look at all the eyes focused on HIM on the altar with the greatest of LOVE and admiration to the Highest of the Heavens!  You can see the angels and Saints kneeling around them and floating all around the altar on which dwells the Lamb who saved the world!  To have my precious daughter there with her total focus of LOVE directed to her spouse - wow!  I wish that I could muster such love and devotion to my earthly spouse/My Most Cherished Cross!  My heart does race with great JOYFUL LOVE for my Savior when I see this sight, and I do have such a deep closeness and happiness fill me as I am gifted with the best hour I have all week in adoration of HIM!  St Pio today is there with his hands raised in devotion beside Hallel - his hands with the nail scars/wounds raised in prayer for the world and all the needs we have!  He was sought after in our lifetime as he died in 1968, so why not continue to ask him to intercede for all the pain and suffering in this world?  Yes!  He knows the Cross personally and very well as the Most Cherished Cross that brings us to LIFE!  St Pio, intercede for us this day... may we give to those closest to us without counting the cost - as the Community of the Lamb lives by - "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE." 

How we truly have come to see that the Cross is what LIFE is all about!  Jesus, himself, tells us that we are to take up our Cross and follow after HIM!  The opening hymn this day before John and I shared the office:

"When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss

And pour contempt on all my pride.

 

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

 

Were the realm of nature mine

That were a tribute far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all."

Gus wearing Hallel's Cross... thinking it is pretty special, and so it is!  It is something that Gus will discover in his walk of life - the hard times that rub off our rough edges and make us a beautiful work of art - filled with the LIGHT of Christ!  How do we assist our children in being LIGHTS upon a lampstand to give LIGHT to all in the house?  By sharing our Faith with them, and bringing them up filled with Jesus- The Way, The Truth and the LIFE!  Jesus and his Bride, The Church, are there to show us the narrow Path upon which we are called to carry our Most Cherished Cross! 

Today is our apple pie filling day - there are 4 pails of apples awaiting us to be cored and peeled and made into our wonderful pie filling...Jesus, we are called to love YOU and your Most Cherished Cross and to embrace it and find LIFE.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

We were allowed to do a tour of the sisters wing and got to see this humble LIGHT filled chapel where they gather for prayer throughout the day... the Cross is embraced here!

Bless-bless, Barb

"We who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." 2 Cor 4:11

A humble Little Sister's cell - O, for a life of a contemplative!  My inner soul is truly called to this and I find my islands of deep prayer throughout my day thanks to Our Lady's rosary prayer that repeats over and over within me! 

Another lover of the Cross!

Casting Crowns - Praise You in the Storm/ the Cross

 

Happy Birthday to my brother, Jim, and Goddaughter, Erika!  Jesus, hold them in the palm of your hand and close to your heart burning with LOVE for them.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless

Lumen Christi - a LIGHT in the darkness!

Francesca Batistelli - Lead me to the Cross