Beautiful Rose at great-grandma's for breakfast after sharing family mass together on this Ascension Sunday - the 7th Sunday of Easter! What a JOY that Easter is celebrated and celebrated and celebrated - 7 long and ever increasingly more summer like weeks! Today we had planned to get some family photos of Ruth's family as Luke was a few weeks old the last time they were taken.
I borrowed this picture taken by a friend of the storms that came and gave us much rain last evening. In our neck of the woods we always take the rain we are given and usually hope for more. So to see over an inch this morning we are happy with that... now more is on the way. After mass it was dark and rumbling and we had a short shower of large wet raindrops. But then the sun came out just in time for a scheduled/planned family picture for Ruth and Paul and their 5!
One of the attempts - Ruth now owns a beautiful camera so I take less with mine and more with hers. There was no perfect one on mine, but I really am fond of the photo stories that each one tells with the different movements and expressions of the 7 of them. The sun coming out made it spectacularly beautiful and using one of their porch rockers kept them out of the wet grass... so picturesque with the red barn behind them and in the shade of their beautiful lone cottonwood tree... My favorite thing to do, and try to capture a snapshot of their growing family... Luke is changing so much and now at 7 months this was a needed picture for their family.
One of the better ones - Luke steals the show with his rug burned nose!
"Why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven." Acts 1:1-11 The first reading for today on Ascension Sunday. We are told that we will not know the time that He will return, but that we are to not just stand there and wait... we are to share our LIGHT with all those we come in contact with - most especially those in our domestic Church/family. We are to take go forth armed with the Holy Spirit of Truth, LOVE, LIFE, LIGHT, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, kindness, self-control, Patience, goodness, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. All the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit that they may flow out from us, as we are always prepared for His return, yet going ahead full force with LIFE and sharing in all the ways we can. Helping others to arrive in Heaven someday too!
Such a wonderful family filled with the brightness of LIGHT/LIFE/LOVE!
The second reading from Ephesians 1... speaks to us of how the Holy Spirit will carry us forth to share the LIGHT!
"May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him... May the eyes of your heart be enlightened..."
Michael W Smith - Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Sharing a wonderful evening with some young friends last evening... it was so uplifting to sit and share with some young women, who are in love with the Catholic Church! Pat, I, and John came away saying that it is such a wonderful thing to share the fire we have for our Faith. Truly the Spirit has opened the eyes of our hearts - the eyes of our hearts has been enlightened to see that The Church gives us so much that our lives, days, each moment is full to bursting with all the graces and blessings we are given through the Sacraments, the Saints, Our Lady, Mary the Mother of God, the Prayer in so many varied and wonderful forms, Spiritual reading... on and on and on and on!!! Our young friends shared with us a wonderful idea about bringing the saints ever more into our journey! You take many varied names of the Saints and place them on small pieces of paper and then each year pick a new one out of a hat, which you learn about and include on your journey for that next year. So cool! I was told that you can find the list to place on the papers on Danielle Rose's site -http://daniellerose.com/category/articles/
Not quite perfect but still wonderful to have!
Jesus, we are not alone and do not need to keep looking for you to come. No, we need to be always ready and follow after Your example of dying so that LIFE may come to the world... being ready so that we are not caught by the thief. Yet, we are to live our lives and follow after You carrying our Most Cherished Cross and following after You to the path to LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! We are not to sit and look at the sky for your return - rather we are to carry the Truth to all those in our lives and seeing your face in the poor and the sorrowful! We are to go forth and share with all those from the great wealth we are given by You and your Bride, The Church. We are to share the faith without ceasing within our domestic Church/family/home and we are to teach and share our stories of Your unconditional LOVE and forgiveness with all those in our lives... whether by word and when that is not possible by living our lives within your Way, your Truth and your LIFE! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
"I am with you always, until the end of the age." Jesus to us in the Gospel today - Matthew 28: 16-20
Truly we are never alone and need have no fear of sharing the Truth in what we say and what we do!
Lord, I lift your name on high by Mercy Me
So fun to sing this at the end of mass today with the hand signs with Mary and Simon and the kids across the aisle - sharing the JOY makes our faith grow more and more together!
"May the heart of Jesus be the goal of all your aspirations." St. Padre Pio
St Pio help us to enter the Heart of Jesus more and more with every beat of our hearts and every breath that we take - "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus..."
From Ruth's camera!! This one as close to perfect as it can get!!!
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