"God so loved the world..." John 3:16

Where do I see God's love in this world?  In the beauty of LIFE in the domestic Church/family!  Yes, there is the beauty of nature all around us and I do see God's love there too!  Yes, there are many needs and problems that come to us with those many members of our growing family, but there even more than other nice parts of our lives brings us to HIM.  Jesus, we need you and we are so filled with HOPE after - "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life..."  John 3:16 which is the Gospel for today. 

Combined with that LOVE of God I find in family is how sharing our Faith in that family truly brings that family to be a domestic Church!  Why do I say this so often?  Because this is where the faith is truly passed on and carried forth into the world - by making our families sacred ground where we pray together and share the Word and the Saints and all those prayers including the rosary that fill our days with what we need to go forth into the world as LIGHTS! 

Here is Jaci Valesquez singing God so loved the World... it just seems right to put it here. 

Mary receiving Jesus for the first time in His Body and Blood - The Eucharist - surrounded by her parents, and then taken by her parents on Sunday to continue to be fed and to come and worship and adore HIM as a family -not out of obligation but out of LOVE for God sending his only-begotten Son to bring us to everlasting LIFE!  We look to HIM in our lives and our struggles bring us to Jesus... those small deaths we experience each day - the Cross - that makes us turn to Jesus to find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! 

Yes, we need to bring The Church to LIFE in our homes! It is there that we grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus and His Bride, The Church.  We come to recognize the faces of the Saints that are there to help us on our journey.  We look to our guardian angel.  We honor and look to Our Spiritual Mother, Mary the Mother of God, as she bears Jesus to us and takes our pleas for help and direction to HIM!  We read and discuss how Jesus speaks to us in his Word, and share other spiritual readings together.  We keep the evil and bad influences out of our homes - we monitor TV and computer use.  None of our kids have cable anymore, and one has no TV at all!  It is very hard to keep the dangers of todays thinking and influences out of our homes!  It is also important to share the service of others as families and caring for those needs of the poor and downtrodden.

When we have that firm foundation shared in our homes and yes that includes sharing the dogmas of our Church without hesitation or without judgment or without picking or choosing what we think we will take - as if we could go through the dogmas like a person with a shopping cart picking this or that and leaving others behind as not what we like or want.  Our Faith is a complete package of believing and trusting in the wisdom of The Church!  And no, the Pope and magisterium does not have to be preaching... abortion is evil, contraception is wrong, homosexuality is not to be practiced with every other breath... they are dogmas that will never change and we need to be sharing that Truth in our homes and instilling them into our children that there is no doubt as to what the Church teaches and upholds as far as life or morals.  To say - "Why didn't the Church tell us that co-habituating before marriage is wrong?"  is the most ridiculous statement I have heard in my lifetime! The true question is: Why didn't the parents do their job in their domestic church/family?

I think you can see that when the family becomes this domestic Church that then the family filled with this knowledge and love of Jesus come joyfully and enthusiastically to share together every week at mass!  This is how the Church is filled with JOY, Peace, Love, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness... the fruits of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22  How?  By families nourishing, and cherishing, and proclaiming, and living, and serving, and listening to the Truths of The Church, and being open to LIFE and raising lights for the world... becoming a domestic Church/family and thereby carrying forth our Faith!  We gather in The Church to share that each week at mass where Jesus comes to feed us His Body and Blood, and reveal himself to us in His Word, we also find Jesus in one another... Jesus is alive and well in this world through The Church filled with all of us! 

Jesus, we love you and want to share that Faith with those you have given to us raise as LIGHTS in our domestic Church/family!  How our hearts are filled with sadness and pain at the horrors against life and your love done in this world.  Truly the darkness is evident and we yearn to bring the LIGHT into all corners hidden from sight.  May we be the light set upon the lampstand - and may others realize that nothing is hidden from You, Jesus.  So why not lay all those burdens at your feet and be free to LOVE and serve YOU without holding back.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Mary and I will be going to Kansas City in a week with other girls looking at religious life as a wonderful possibility in their lives.  How amazing could that life be?  The best!

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

"Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done by God."  John 3:21

Tomorrow our little Rose Ida will be 2!  She is a blossom that is opening in the LIGHT/LOVE/LIFE of our shared Faith in our domestic Church/family.

Third Day - Trust in Jesus