Rose heard the 4 wheeler and started walking across the yard saying - "Grandpa." Soon she was happily in his big strong arms and grandpa had a very pleased smile on his face. He loves family and I have shared often that he is my champion for LIFE and raising LIGHTS! http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html Here is the page I have devoted to this story in greater detail. The fabric of our marriage/lives and now that of our children!
How I love this first reading/story from Acts 16! Why do I find it so charming and wonderful? The jailer is such a family man, and when he realizes that these men of God, who were beaten with rods and have wounds are in their cell singing and praying- filled with the Spirit. There is an earthquake and all the doors are open and the chains are broken... Paul and Silas do not escape but call out to the jailer right when he is about to take his own life thinking that he has allowed them to escape. He asks them - "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." ... "he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God."
I love the beautiful part of this story about the family coming together to Faith through the father/ the head of the family. Rereading it now I do see that Paul invites him to bring along his family, but the jailer certainly seems to be a man of great love for his family and of JOY when sharing that faith! This is so true of my husband, Patrick! He shares his Faith with great JOY and there is no greater JOY to be found than to worship together as a family!
This is a very typical sight of his large hands holding a couple grandkids at mass on Sunday. Often people comment on how much they enjoy seeing the joy we share at mass as a family. We are very much a domestic Church/family. Our sharing of faith is foremost in our home on a daily basis with shared prayer, work and relaxation on the farm. Farming is not just a job - it is a way of life! Ruth, our oldest, lives just 3 miles away from us and they are starting to farm with Pat. So we have their family including 5 kids that are the same 9 years apart our 5 kids were... very much involved in our lives on a daily basis! It is a blessing for us, and they know us so well that they are going from one set of arms to the other as we share mass together each week. It does bring smiles to our faces as well as those around us at mass. So often we are told this by others. Thank you, Lord!
Funny farm time!
Today in the Gospel we are told that The Advocate - The Holy Spirit will come to dwell within us to keep us on the right path - Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The LIFE! "I will send him to you" - The Holy Spirit had come to the jailer and his family and filled them with great rejoicing! How this is true of our family also thanks to Pat's listening to the Holy Spirits direction in our marriage/LIFE together! When I asked him if we were being selfish to want to have a large family, he did not hesitate one minute - "The world needs lights." made all of the lies and falsehood of the world evaporate into thin air. For the truth is that on the contrary - being open to life leads to giving up our selfishness and dying to self so that we may tend to the needs of those we are given to care for. The Church in her wisdom is leading us to eternal LIFE! The Church is showing us the path to heaven. The Holy Spirit is revealing the Truth in what the Church teaches us in her unchanging dogmas! We are blessed with each new day!
I call this a photo story of the family kind. Pat showing us a new calf born overnight... a young bull comes up to be petted by Mary, Luke is falling asleep in his daddy's arms, Rose wants to go to the house for a nap so she is trying to start up the 4 wheeler, David is playing with the umbrella and Simon is off on his bike. I love these jam packed with LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT moments captured.
Jesus, so much joy is filling me at the scene presented in Acts first reading this morning... An entire household/family/domestic church sharing the Truth and allowing the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in each heart and in the heart of their home! Sharing that Faith as a family is a small slice of what we can look forward to in heaven here on earth! There is nothing better in all this world! Lord, use us this day to bring families into your marvelous light, and leaving all the lies of sin and death behind them. May your Truth come to dwell in us and may we then share it with all we meet - seeing your face in them. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
"All around we hear the tidings of the Paraclete coming to people and of his longing to dwell in their hearts. Let us not allow him to pass by, but constrain him to visit and comfort us that we may serve him the better. He will need little entreaty; ask him in the Lord's name, for the Father sends him through Jesus Christ his Son. It is our Savior who obtained for us poor mortal creatures, frail, impure, and subject to many evils though we be, the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is higher above us than the firmament is from the earth... Our Redeemer, the Only-begotten of his Father in heaven, abased himself to become Man on earth, and taking our weakness on himself, suffered, toiled, and gave his life, that the Paraclete, the Creator of all things, might deign to come to us, poor vessels of clay... We should go forth with love, to meet him who comes with love; we should feel an ardent longing to receive him, for where he is much longed for, he gladly stays." St John of Avila (1569)
Come Holy Spirit - I long for YOU!
Lights to the world!
This Psalm from mass today is too great to pass up - Psalm 138!
"I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
and give thanks to your name.
Your right hand saves me, O Lord. Hallelujah
Because of your kindness and your truth,
you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
Your right hand saves me, O Lord. Hallelujah."
Truly expressing our JOY!
Chris Rice - Light your world
Kathy Torcolli - Light your world again and again and again!
How we pray for peace and forgiveness in this world!
The three I am missing in Texas - with their little cousin from Oregon at Easter! Therese has lost both of her top front teeth! Soon adult ones will be there!
Grandma loves you "T"!
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