Maria shared on her blog this morning these adorable pictures of our Patrick! The story is that Sunday morning the two older ones were in the bathtub getting "squeaky clean" for mass. Patrick had bathed the night before, and was dressed for Church, and waiting with mom and dad. They turn their back and Patty Joe jumped in with socks and undies! Too cute for words! It fits with my swirling thoughts this day about Our Lady of Lourdes and our experiences there - I have to say with amazement that thanks to our daughters -"Yes!" to her call to religious life - I have been to Lourdes twice! But unlike Patrick, when you enter the cold spring waters, which have flowed ever since Bernadette dug in the dirt in the "pig's shelter" and the water came forth... you are naked!
"On this date in 1858 a beautiful woman appeared to 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous, a poor French girl. Clothed in a dazzling white dress girded in blue, the woman appeared in a dirty, dank hole, a stone grotto known as the "pig's shelter," on March 25, she revealed her name: 'I am the Immaculate Conception.' Only 4 years earlier, Pius IX had declared the dogma that Mary had been immaculately conceived in the womb of her mother, receiving the saving graces of her Son in anticipation of her divine motherhood. Today, the grotto of Lourdes, receives 6 million visitors each year." See www.magnificat.com
John holding his left arm - he had little control of it just a few weeks out of surgery/biopsy through the back of his brain leaving him with ataxia on his left side. He is much better today, but still is the new John as the result of this brain injury! Through this we finally got his diagnosis of PCNSL(Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma) after a month of praying and waiting. John has just come out of the baths, with the help of Fr Craig - going in through the men's side with the sick. We were waiting in the much longer women's line, as he came up to us and described the cold water, the taking off of his clothes and being wrapped in a sheet, almost falling on the stone steps, as they did not understand his balance problems - his guardian angels were on high alert, and he was spared injury, that when they dipped his naked body in, he asked them to pour water over his head as that is where he needed his healing!
His then thick hair wet with the healing waters of Lourdes - such a powerful sight to behold as well as the glowing face of hope in my 20 year old son! He did not leap out of his wheelchair and run around miraculously healed on the spot. But he was deeply moved and healed within... saying that it was a "very good day." Fr Craig said a private mass for our group, got John to confession, as well as the Eucharistic procession, plus the power of the baths! When we returned two years later - John was so in love with Our Lady - it is as though she has become his one true love!
Pat and I were sharing morning prayer this morning and talking about how as a family we have never had secrets and always shared all together. Pat was saying that he is amazed at how our family is so close, and I shared how I have recognized that a lot of this is due to our sharing with each pregnancy of our 11 the Joy of loving that new life immediately and then the 6-7 that we lost not hiding the pain of loss, but sharing that equally too! When you share that pain - you appreciate the siblings/children we have so much more and truly grow in the depth of respect for all life! There is no good to be had by sheltering or protecting your children from pain... the darkness of lies and secrecy is never a good thing. I know that my girls have totally adopted this outlook and see the importance of getting things out in the open to be prayed over and lifted up! What good does it do to hide things from those we love? None!
Pat is so huge on our families staying close no matter the cost of driving for 4 days with a carload of kids! It will be an adventure - I will say that!
Lord, today Solomon realizes that the beautiful temple he built for YOU cannot hold YOU - rather it is a place where we can come to gaze upon a small token of your beauty and "a place where you shall be honored." I Kings 8 How blessed are we in The Catholic Church to have these glorious churches built to lift our minds, hearts, and souls to YOU. Yet, You also come to us in these humble places and to humble little ones - like Your Mother, The Immaculate Conception, in a pig shelter to a poor 14 year old girl! How can these two things go together? We need to remember that we die to self and allow YOU to live and work and breath in us! How clearly we can recognize the LIGHT and shun the darkness when our selfishness gets out of the way! We need hide nothing from YOU, O Lord! When we enter the confessional to confess our sins - You already know them so why try to hide them from YOU? Likewise, in our domestic Church/family - when we are open and share all- we can find the Way, the Truth and the LIFE together! We can share our Faith as we suffer together - bearing one another's burdens. How we long to be YOURS and love and serve YOU as we see your face in each one of those we encounter this day! "My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God... Blessed they who dwell in your house! Continually they praise you." Psalm 84 from mass today Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless all those that are suffering on this World Day of the Sick. Amen and Hallelujah
John walking into Lourdes with the help of Fr and Little Sister Hallel... Humble and broken and wearing his crown of thorns - brain cancer!
John realized that he could walk with a sister under each arm... he looked to be upon the Cross and so he was - His Most Cherished Cross - brain cancer/healing/now what Lord? Through the Cross we find LIFE everlasting!
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"The sick person is a member of the Body of Christ. Like all other members, the one who is ill has been redeemed, a beneficiary of the cross. To be a beneficiary of the cross does not mean that it is better to be in ill health than in good health. It means that the sick person is called in a unique way to give witness to the Crucified. In other words, the sick person is someone who knows that Love has triumphed over everything, over all absurdity and every threat and assault from death. Ultimately, the sick person is someone who knows, in the Light of the Resurrection, that glory radiates from the place of suffering, of agony accepted in the faith of Christ...
One can only be resurrected if he is dead, and the sick must simultaneously accept what has befallen them and recognize that everything in their heart yearns for life, a happy life, therefore a life very different from this one below, namely, eternal LIFE." Mother Marie de Douleurs (1983) foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified
This reminds me of a little Sister of the Lamb telling us early in John's journey that you must pass through the Cross the find the resurrection.
Our Lady of Lourdes, we look to you in our need.
Psalm 139 - Danielle Rose
Nancy is way ahead of things giving some thoughts to prayer life ahead of Lent in her blog - http://www.dosmallthingswithlove.com/2014/02/lenten-prayer-free-printable.html Thanks Nancy for humbly sharing from your heart!
Danielle Rose singing The Crown of Thorns
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