Friday, December 26, 2014

First martyr the day after Christmas/The Cross - keeping it REAL!

I never am prepared for the day after Christmas being the feast of Saint Stephen!  It always hits me with a huge dose of reality as The Magnificat reminded us today in morning prayer - we are not to just stand gazing into the manger at the sweet new LIFE, Jesus, God come as man.  We are to remember that the path leads to the Cross, and that is where our salvation really was made for us!  Our Church brings us to REAL LIFE!  Through the Cross we find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  "You will be hated all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved."  Jesus to us today in the Gospel Matthew 10!
 I need to keep this short today as my house will be filling up about supper time tonight... Both Maria's family and Nancy's will be coming and we will be having our family close-time Christmas over the weekend.  There is a family meal planned at Ruth's tonight, and this new member will be met and gotten acquainted with - Holly, the new puppy at Ruth and Paul's house.  Ruth shared that they all went out with her into the pasture in the nice weather yesterday- as long as you had on rubber boots in the mud.  There is a white film of snow over the brown this morning!
 Luke loves Holly too!

There is such a tendency to want to continue on and on with the sweet little child in the manger, but we are not allowed to just be all sweetness and LIGHT - we are brought back to the reality of where that LIGHT comes from - The Most Cherished Cross in our lives!
 A special picture we took of Susan/Hallel's swim coach with her 3 boys!  Her newborn was baby Jesus this year in the Christmas program.  We plan to send this photo to Rome in Hallel's Christmas package and letter. 
 The children bring us to such a place of JOY at Christmas mass and with our family celebration yet ahead of us we are reminded also of the excitement and sharing that stills lies ahead for us.  It is always such a wonderful place to gain strength to face all the hardships in our day to day lives to have that small slice of heaven here on earth, when we come together placing Jesus first in our lives and our sharing one with the other.
 The Cross is always a part of that journey!
 I can't get enough of these reminders of the gift of LIFE in our family over the last year!  LIFE is the supreme and most cherished gift we must protect all LIFE no matter the cost.
 All 12 of the grandkids will be coming together tonight!  We have 8 grandsons and 4 granddaughters - the tables have turned.  Swords, cars, tractors, light-savers, legos, guns, super-hero capes... boys at play!  When John was born, after 4 girls, we had one small tractor we had gotten when we bought a big one like it.  The girls had barely looked at it, but for John it was played with and played with!  He would take one of the girls' dolls and play with it like it was a truck - "Brumm, Brumm," and let it go flying across the floor!  And people say that it is all how you are conditioned - wrong!
 Grandma will have girl hair to do again!  Maria and family will be living here with us til the end of January!  So excited!

Jesus, thank you for making LIFE REAL with The Cross always there to bring us to YOU.  Yet, we are blessed with these happy moments of Faith/Family/Farm where we share a small slice of Heaven one with the other.  These times give us the wind beneath our wings to carry your Way, your Truth and your LIFE into the world around us!  "do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say.  You will be given at that moment what you are to say.  For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of the Father speaking through you."  Matthew 10/The Gospel for today.  The Psalm from mass today also gives us the promise of your always being with us if we only die to self so that you may live within us!  "Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God.  I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy."  Psalm 31  How we find comfort and encouragement to face all that comes to us through Christ Jesus in His Word to us!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah
 Can't wait to share family time extraordinary.  I would be so glad to get a call from Hallel and share with her on the phone when we have gathered together over the next few days! 
 Meeting new LIFE for the first time!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke


She sees The Truth!
Thinking of John and Amy sharing Christmas in Wisconsin.
Danielle Rose - True LOVE
Peter Mayer - Holy Now

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