Oh, how fun it was to have Ruth's family together for a picture in the glorious green sunny world of their farm! This was Sunday and we had made a plan to take family pictures after church... It had rained for 2 days, Luke had fallen off a chair and skinned his nose, and the two youngest were close to nap times - all could have spelled failure and disaster, but... The sun came out on the watered earth in all its glory, Luke's nose will be a part of the story, and he wakes up happy and sweet unlike a lot of babies we have known in the family... so we were able to reach our goal! As Ruth stated on her blog - http://familyfarmexperience.blogspot.com/ " My mom is our photographer and she is persistent and patient with taking the pictures. I do think we got some keepers." Ruth
The three American postulants come into the service a month ago in Kansas City - the threatening thunder storm has left us - too many prayers for this day had to keep the rain off of us! They are wearing the polo shirts and long skirts that they have worn for over a year as postulants in the Community of the Lamb.
Now radiant and dressed in their habits in the heat - close to 90 degrees. They glow and beam huge smiles with no hesitation in their decision to take this huge step in their faith journeys!
This morning out of the blue John said that he would like to go to Kansas City and sit down with Little sister Agape, Little Sister Frances, and Little Sister Kateri - "I would like to see how the weight of the habit feels to them after a month." "Yes, I am sure that it is very warm after wearing polos for their postulancy." "No, I think that it would feel very light to them after making this big decision in their lives." "Yes, I am sure that looking at this from the place you are at. That it looks like there would be a huge weight lifted off your shoulders to have taken a step in your life." "Yes, and I would like to sit down in Kansas City and have a visit with them about it." "Why don't you try to do that?" "I am too busy with the play and stuff going on right now."
Two young girls with a clear view of their asking for "The Mercy of God and of the Church, that of the Community of the Lamb in the Order of Preachers, and yours."
The three novices will soon we heading to France, so it looks like John will not have that opportunity to go and have a visit with them. How I pray that he could find the way, and I would probably want to tag along! How we love to have the blessings and graces that always come to us when we are allowed to share time with our family of the Community of the Lamb! Our lives are enriched and filled with so much as the result of their prayers for us... so powerful through the journey of John's brain cancer! We are continually showered with the depth of their encounters with Christ through becoming his Word and knocking on the doors of the poor as Christ! So radical and out of this world - not of this world but of the Kingdom of God on this earth!
"I revealed my name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I gave to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them... And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you." Jesus to His Father in Heaven! in the Gospel today - John 17:1-11
How this is coming to LIFE this day as I look at it in the LIGHT of the Community of the Lamb - how at the end of each day they start "mendicating" the Gospel from the next day and taking it into themselves through repeating each line speaking it 6 times and chanting it 10 times! It becomes very deeply woven into the fabric of their lives and minds and hearts and souls... they carry The Word/Christ forth into their world living among the poor as the poor and begging for their food from the poor! I love to look at people's faces when I say that - "They beg for their food from the poor." Shock, amazement, ridicule, disbelief, critical of this -saying "I would never do that!" Little Sister Marie heard the Lord telling her to do this. "How Lord can you tell me to beg from the poor? Show me!" She was led to the story of Elijah and the widow - I Kings 17:17-24!
I Kings 17:7-24
New International Version (NIV)
Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Jesus, your words to your Father this day in the Gospel ring true as we know of the Community of the Lamb/our extended family through our Little sister Hallel! They embrace Your Word and make it part of them so that they can be You knocking on the doors of the poor. Why the poor? Because You come to those that are lowly and humble - You tell us that over and over in Your Word! May we ask for the humility to allow the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in us and to die to self so that You may live in us! Yes, we will be called to suffer in this process of being made humble! Just ponder this litany of humility and come to the Truth that will set us free to love and serve You without counting the cost!
Litany of Humility
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),
Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X | O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being loved... From the desire of being extolled ... From the desire of being honored ... From the desire of being praised ... From the desire of being preferred to others... From the desire of being consulted ... From the desire of being approved ... From the fear of being humiliated ... From the fear of being despised... From the fear of suffering rebukes ... From the fear of being calumniated ... From the fear of being forgotten ... From the fear of being ridiculed ... From the fear of being wronged ... From the fear of being suspected ... That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I ... That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ... That others may be chosen and I set aside ... That others may be praised and I unnoticed ... That others may be preferred to me in everything... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should… |
Lord, how can anyone pray for this? Yet, we must and will with you ever by our side and carrying us when we are weak and sick. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Mary's profession of Faith and witness to the Truth she has discovered through having an aunt a Little Sister and being embraced and welcomed into the family of the Community of the Lamb!
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"Salvation is from our God and from the Lamb!" Rev 7:10
St Charles Lwanga and companions - 21 other martyr Saints - pray for us and show us how to give our all for HIM!
Me with my first born Ruth Ida at 6 months in 1980... about this time of year... hard to tell if she looks like Luke with the hat. Many say that he looks like his dad...
All I know is that they both are wonderful!
Danielle Rose - the Litany of humility
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