Going back to when Maria and family first arrived here for their visit... a gift that is now a warm memory of pictures of those close times filled with so much LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! Yes, we can keep in touch through blogs, and phone calls, and skyping, and letters, but the actual gathering together in one couch of active arms filled LOVE is super wonderful, and has to be carried on in our hearts! Today what really grabbed me when reading much about St John the Evangelist of the Incarnation... it was him laying his head on the chest of Jesus at the last supper! That takes such a closeness and transparency - a man, who is hiding nothing and has nothing that comes between him and his Lord! Just having the gift of reconciliation before Christmas and getting rid of those things/sins that come between Jesus and me... I feel that I could have that familiarity/closeness with Jesus! To lay my head on his breast and hear that human heart of LOVE beating in his chest as He tells me that He must suffer and die for me, but more than that - I am called to pick up my Most Cherished Cross and follow His example of LOVE and go down the narrow Path to LIFE eternal after HIM!
Patrick glowing with the healing miracle we are all so amazed by! Little Luke meeting his Texas cousins!
Soon Pat and I are to work at a Together Encounter Christ weekend! How we had our lives touched profoundly 15 years ago when our 3rd daughter asked us to make a TEC retreat! I had declined when the first two asked me, but I couldn't say that to the 3rd - "I am OK with my faith." just sounded kind of shallow, so I swallowed my pride and said a weak -"Yes." My faith/prayer life was transformed by that encounter with unconditional LOVE - I met Christ in such a personal and powerful way in the confessional, in the mass, in the personal sharing of peoples stories of Faith! I can, to this day, not get enough of this special gift to others and myself, and work many a year!
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:1-5 I think you know how much I love this!! I must be a true apostle of St John the Apostle - for here is all I could ever say about LIFE- LOVE- and LIGHT! So please, if someone offers you a TEC retreat - do not be like me, but say "Yes!" right away. You will be blessed on and on and on and on!!!!
John - happy feast day today!, and his fellow miracle - Patrick meeting for the first time a couple weeks ago! It was as if they knew deep down in the deepest temples of their souls that they had shared the healing touch of God through Prayer! They both taught the world that prayer is very real and powerful and not just something that you say you are doing for people in a half-hearted sort of way! It is a REAL! I truly started to recognize this at my TEC retreat 15 years ago, and prayer became a daily encounter with Christ - with every beat of my heart and with every breath that I take! But when we heard on Father's day 2009 that John had something in his brain- cancer, and then when I was at the bedside of Maria - October 9, 2012, and I saw that Patrick had no heartbeat in her womb - "Mom, this is the storm and Jesus is in control." That is when your prayer becomes screams of desperation and you fall on your knees so hard that you don't know if you will ever be able to stand up again - rather you might become a huge puddle on the ground - you are so low!!! That is when Prayer becomes a moan of agony, and Christ reaches down and picks us up into his Loving and forgiving arms, and carries us away from the wolves that are there to devour us, or the thorns that are clutching at our woolly hide! You can find Peace in the midst of the craziness that has just become your world. For John that was brain cancer, and after he realized that this was his answer to find Faith, and he was surrounded by Thousands of Prayer Warriors and his Family - he had a true PEACE that made him have the strength of a young David facing Goliath/Cancer and defeating him armed with the slingshot and smooth stone of Faith!
Maria helping the kids making their personal pizza wheels at one of our big meals we shared as Family! Christmas JOY!!!!
So much today!!! I am still just buzzing with great happiness at reading the words of St John in his Gospel - "John simply describes his unheard of experience of the invisible beauty of God made visible. Through the incarnation, God has drawn so near to human beings that we can perceive his love with our senses....In the Son of God who became man, died and rose from the dead, John was struck by something utterly unexpected. He encountered so great a beauty that it took him out of himself, as if he were enraptured, and transformed every aspect of his existence. He had the 'encounter' that Pope Benedict XVI says is the heart of Christianity: 'We have come to believe in God's love... Being Christian is... the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.' " Michelle Borras
I see this encounter with LOVE in my Church through the Sacraments, the Saints, Our Lady, the prayers - rosary which fills each day. I also encounter it through my Family- my domestic Church/small slice of heaven here on earth, and yes - through my Most Cherished Cross! I also am blessed to encounter Christ while working the Catholic retreat which is patterned after the Church seasons - Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and taking forth the LIGHT into the world - TEC retreats!
Beautiful Maria with her miracle son, Patrick, bathed in natural LIGHT!
Jesus, how I feel that I can rest my head on your breast knowing of your unconditional LOVE and forgiveness of me- when I am weak I turn to YOU, so may I always be weak and humble - knowing I only find happiness and Truth in YOU and your Bride, The Church! "We saw his glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 I just want to sit down and groan over the beauty of John 1 today - knowing the place of encountering that LOVE firsthand and recognizing the Truth that this is God dwelling with us in the body of a man!!!! Knowing that John then stood next to Mary at the foot of the Cross and watched that sacred body torn, tortured and the soul leave it in death!!!! John never left your side, Lord, nor did he deny knowing YOU and recognizing that YOU are God with us! What a great Saint to pray to this day to help us to never allow sin to come between us and our following you down the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross! St John, pray for us and thank you for the beauty of your Word to us which became flesh and dwelt among us! After remembering the Cross is where the baby was headed - it is wonderful and Life-giving to know that through embracing that Cross we find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
The two Patricks with their huge hands! They share a name and so much more inside and outside!
1 " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete." I John 1: 1-4 The first reading from mass today!!! Wow! Truly with YOU, O LORD, our JOY is complete!
Peter Mayer - Holy Now! this is so true!!!
The three one year olds will grow up together in the BIG family -so fun and special!
Third Day - your LOVE O Lord
I am not sure what this is of... but it is 3 babies so it has to be cute at least!
I had to borrow this from Maria - too good to pass up!
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