Blessed John Paul II day - he is my marriage!!!!

I was greeted by this beautiful never before seen picture of Blessed John Paul II this morning!  I had to use it to begin my sharing today as it is the day set aside as a feastday for my hero for Family and LIFE - Blessed John Paul II!  He is truly the wind beneath my wings when it comes to my married life! We were married in 1978 just a couple months before he became Pope.  For two newly weds, who shared a deep love for the Catholic Church, to have this dynamic and amazing man become our pope just energized us even more for The Church!  He radiated with so much love and support for Family and from him I learned the Truth that we are called to be a domestic Church within our family.  That is truly where the Faith needs to be shared and is where we raise those LIGHTS to the world filled with a love for Christ and His Bride, The Church!

This hangs on my wall, and fills me with JOY to "see" his love for Christ, Our Lady, and LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/family/domestic Church!  I have shared about our engagement weekend and how we shared that we were hoping for a large family - 10 or so.  All the others shared that they thought it was a terrible world to bring children into and they might have 2 at the most.  When I asked Pat if we were being selfish... he did not hesitate one minute - "The world needs LIGHTS!"  Then for a John Paul to become Pope just a couple months after our marriage, and he led a plea to couples to be open to LIFE and to embrace having children - knowing that this is the path to LIFE, for sure, but also for the world to be brought out of the darkness into the marvelous LIGHT!  How we were blessed each day of our marriage - knowing that he was at our side as we faced all the ups and downs of those years.  The losses were so hard for me, and after John how I prayed that I could have one more so that the world could see, without words, that I hadn't stopped after I had "that boy."  But it was not to be... yes, there were 3 more losses after John and two were boys that I carried for 5 months and died in the womb and are now buried at the cemetery.  I held them in my arms and tearfully asked God why He wanted them.  It keeps my eyes on Heaven to know that they are there and are praying for their mom's struggles here on earth!

Of course, today I have to share this!  While Maria was studying in Rome, Pat and I went there for 10 days.  We attended a Wednesday audience and noticed there were couples dressed for their wedding there.  Suddenly they came forward and knelt before Blessed John Paul, and he blessed them!  How perfect was this!  The champion for marriage and LIFE blessings these young couples as they started their lives together!  So Ruth and Paul went on their honeymoon to Italy with all the papers in order to have their marriage blessed just days after they ministered the sacrament of matrimony to each other on Nov 22 in the midst of an ice storm!  Paul is asking the Holy Father to "bless us with a happy healthy family."  The special thing about this time was there were many audiences he missed due to his failing health, and this one he was able to be there!  Such a wonderful gift to look upon this on my wall every day, too!

"The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: —Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age— (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope."  How I groaned with delight at the words of John Paul II in this precious encyclical on the Eucharist!  I remember reading it one winter day in the pickup outside the sales barn - as Pat had hauled down some cows for sale.  He is super smart and sometimes above my head, but so worth the effort to understand as he is truly a man in touch with the Truth that will set us free!

How blessed are we to have these two in our lifetime? 

Jesus, you remind us this day in the Gospel to be always awake and vigilant - ready to greet you when you come to us.  I am filled with so much JOY this day as I am gifted with this celebration of my hero, Blessed John Paul II!  Our struggle embracing the Truth in the midst of the darkness was so helped by his coming into the Chair of St Peter and fighting for Family and LIFE!  We found a great wise charismatic fighter for all that is right and Good!  He truly gave us so much wind beneath our wings and our marriage and his LIGHT became one!  The day he died was so hard, yet it was carried on and continues to this day by Pope Benedict and now Pope Francis, as he shows us how to live as Christ asked us - to take up our Most Cherished Cross and follow after HIM!  Retweeted Pope Francis (@Pontifex):
"The crucifix does not signify defeat or failure. It reveals to us the Love that overcomes evil and sin."

"Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  St Paul to the Romans 5 - the first reading from mass today.  We see, O Lord, that by embracing our Most Cherished Cross we have brought LIFE into the world and are asked to raise them as LIGHTS!  Jesus, with Blessed John Paul II, at your feet this day... may your Way, your Truth, and your LIFE bring LIGHT into the darkness this day and forever.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced.  I do not think the wide circle of the American society or the wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully.  We are now facing the final confrontation between The Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, between Christ and the anti-Christ.  This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence.  It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously....

We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ.  With your and my prayers, it is possible to mitigate the coming tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can The Church be effectually renewed.  How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from the shedding of blood?  This time, too, it will not be otherwise.  We must be strong and prepared and trust in Christ and in his Holy Mother and be very, very assiduous in praying the holy rosary." 

Blessed John Paul II (2005) was pope for 27 years!

My dad - a permanent deacon and convert from a Protestant minister officiated and preached at our wedding on August 3, 1978 at Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis, MN!

Danielle Rose singing The Saint that is just me

Peter Mayer - Holy Now 

I need to share this again after an early morning conversation with my husband about how everything is a miracle with Christ and His Mother Mary Most Holy, all the Angels and Saints with us - a big Spiritual Army as we fight the foe surrounded with prayers from around the world... looking back at our miracles named John and Patrick!