home for a year today!!!!

I just had this burning feeling to check what happened a year ago with Patrick... it was the day that Joe came home to be with his family and face together the traumatic birth of Patrick!  In the first days that Joseph arrived there was a fatal bombing of a truck on the way to the airport and numerous of Joe's men killed!  Joe had almost been on the truck with them!  With that beginning to his time there - we were in a constant state of prayer to get him home safe and unharmed in any way!  With those feelings and constant prayers deep inside and then facing the shockingly death- brought back to new life of baby Patrick... I think you can imagine how emotional it was when Joe walked in the door of their home on Sunday the 14th.  Those group family hugs mean so much and brought out the tears from Maria for one of the first and few times she let her guard down!  Over their shoulders you can see the door open yet, and the LIGHT pouring in...yes, with Joe home there was LIGHT and hope and LOVE to face all that come with the Cross that was put on Patrick's shoulder 20 minutes before he was born! 

"The One that rules over men in justice, that rules in the fear of God.  Is like the morning light at sunrise on a cloudless morning, making the greensward sparkle after rain."  2 Sam 23:3-4

This was from morning prayer this morning and just seemed to fit with not only this photo of Joe knocking at the door of his home a year ago and the delight of his children seeing dad in his uniform at the door in the LIGHT!  And it also fits with the man of Faith, Joseph, and how he serves our country armed with the fear of God and sharing the Truth with his men and all those in the , which isn't the most holy place in this world!  Joe has passed on to his children the strong sense of good and evil and fighting for the Good in LIFE!  Both of his boys now arm themselves with swords to fight the battles that present themselves over the day.  Quite different for us with no connection to the and fighting in battle - other than the spiritual ones like John's brain cancer and Patrick born dead... with the 4 girls that started our family there were no swords or guns around, but I do see the power of the little ones learning to fight the bad guys, because there is in reality a big bad guy, Satan, who wants us to forget that he is in our lives and lying to us and keeping us in darkness.  We need to arm ourselves with the armor of God and fight him constantly in our lives and keep him outside of our domestic Church/family! 

"Through Jesus we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of Faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ... Grace and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Romans 1 

I am super excited to see that we will be having readings from St Paul to the Romans for our first reading at mass - read all around the world in every Catholic Church!  How Maria and I wept on the feast of St Teresa of Avila... when the reading was Romans 8:22-27 - "The inexpressible groaning" of

our need for HIM!  It was one of the few times that I saw Maria weeping!

Jesus, so much comes over and around us this day of bringing Joseph home to the safety and LOVE of his family!  All the prayers that we said on our knees for his safe return were answered and were now the prayers for the recovery and healing of his son, Patrick!  So many emotions are part of this journey called the healing and new life of baby/ Lamb Patrick!  Jesus stood up in our boat tossed in the storm and about to sink and commanded the storm to "Be still!"  We were amazed.. as we were reminded that no matter what we face - Jesus is in control!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barb

Maria and Joseph went right to the NICU to be with Patrick - Maria shared that Joe sang to his little son, and all the doctors, nurses and babies around them!  He has heard those songs many times in the womb, and they let him know that dad was now at his side to fight the battle for LIFE!

The calm after the storm by Fr de Caussade (1751)

"This profound calm which you experience, this sweet and intimate peace in which you find yourself wrapped, is by no means an illusion but a true work of the Holy Spirit who speaks in the depths of your heart.  Peace and Love, as St John of the Cross says, come together in union; peace in a perceptible fashion and love in an imperceptible but very real manner.... To be simply steadfast in the presence of God, abandoning yourself wholly to his love and to the mercy of divine providence, is yet another inclination which the Holy Spirit puts into the soul.  You have nothing to do except to remain simply and humbly in the hands of God, clinging to him and surrendering yourself to his love, that of you, in you, and with you.  Yet never stop short at this blessed peace as though it were your objective; so still farther on, for ever inclining your heart to him who gave you that peace, and emphasizing it only so far as it makes still closer your union with God who is your center, your life, and your all." 

A happy Halloween photo from a year ago - in the loving arms of dad after a scary separation! 

Joseph plays guitar and sings to his kids all the time - he is great!  He sings like Third Day!   Here they sing God of all Creation!

Dancing with dad!

Third Day - Cry out to Jesus