Half way through the journey to the Cross!

Nancy called from her home today as she returned there yesterday... she has another week to go without her husband as he is in Thailand for work.  She has her hands full with her 3 little ones 3 1/2 and under, and I reassured her that I could come and help her out if needed.  It has been wonderful having them here in this wonderful weather and all he excitement and activity with our calving going on and cousins close by to play with. 

There is always the prime spot of being grandpa's helper and sitting in the little seat with a seatbelt beside him watching as he feeds or pushes with his loader bucket.  The look of amazement in the eyes of the little ones and how they run to him calling "Grandpa, grandpa."  speaks volumes of how much love he shows them in small ways of holding them on his lap while he eats, and including them in his life on the farm.  How he loves to share his life!

Both Father Paul at mass last night and The Magnificat today reminded me that we are half way through Lent at this point and that it is not too late to get on track with our Lenten observances.  It seems that there are other reminders of what lies at the end of that Lenten journey - The Cross - as some have shared their pain with me and their anxieties and their worries and their loneliness and their challenges and their weariness as they battle cancer and all that comes with the ups and downs of the treatments and the loss and the disappointments and all those things that are hard and difficult and hurtful and not as we wished them to be - all the ways we die!  We don't want to die - we want to have life be easy and smooth and filled with all that is good and lovely and wonderful and find happiness in all ways.  We want the perfect life, but we don't find it by following the smooth and easy route.  No!  We find true happiness/JOY by embracing our Cross and dying to self so that we may find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/Jesus! 

The peace which flows from this moment in time of Dominic and the newborn calf was a precious gift!

Psalm 30 from mass around the world today!  John and I discovered this one on the way to one of John's sharings of his journey called brain cancer/healing/now what Lord? in a talk to the Serra club.  As we traveled together we shared evening prayer and it was astounding to hear John's journey in the words of this psalm!  To you Lord, I cried, to my God I made appeal:  "What profit would my death be, my going to the grave?  Can dust give you praise or proclaim your truth?"  The Lord listened and had pity.  The Lord came to my help.  For me you have changed my mourning into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.  So my soul sings psalms to you unceasingly.  O Lord my God, I will thank you forever.  Psalm 30  John burns to share his story more than anything else these days!

 John asked for Faith and was allowed to suffer and survive brain cancer - http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html  This is the page I devoted to John's cancer journey.  There is not a day that goes by that I am amazed to hear John thank God for his brain cancer and how it brought him to Faith!  Today in the Gospel we see a "royal official" whose son is dying, and he pleads with Jesus to heal him..."You may go; your son will live." says Jesus to him and when he arrives home he realizes that at that moment his son was healed!  "He and his entire household came to believe."  Yes!  This has been huge with John's journey in how he taught many the power of prayer and that Jesus is there listening and healing.  It really speaks to me in the words Jesus used - "your son will live."  John has been changed in many ways by all that he experienced on his journey to healing, and there are times that he will say that he should have died and why was he spared.  He has looked at the seminary because of his wondering what the plan is now that he lives!?!  There continues to be this asking and waiting and wondering what the plan is for his life now that he lives.  We know, without a doubt, that there is a PLAN for the new John.

 Jesus, we are often reminded that we are not the center of the universe and that we are weak and we need you to pick us up and carry us down the narrow path.  We attempt to follow after you carrying our Most Cherished Cross and yes sometimes we have to drag it!  Watching Pat struggling with a bad cold as he is called upon to be there around the clock for calving... he needs to rely on you to find the strength he needs.  Please assist him and help all to continue to go well.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

We have been given new eyes to discover the divine reality, namely, our faith.  Faith sees through the outer shall and penetrates to the substance of things... Faith reveals new areas of reality (The Trinity, angels and so on), but faith also enables us to see everything we encounter in a completely new way.  It sees the deep dimension of daily events.  That is why there in no longer anything ordinary for the believer; nothing is uninteresting or boring.  Everything becomes exciting and fascinating.... We seek him in the great things, but he communicates and reveals himself in the small.  Father Wilfrid Stineissen (2013)
This really speaks to me!  Life really has taken on a whole new dimension!  "Never a dull moment" is my LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT in my domestic Church/family.

 Never a dull moment with adventures to be had!

Playing in the corn leaves!

this is why we are half way to The Cross as Lent continues on...

Lead me to the Cross - Francesca Batistelli

Sidewalk Prophets - LIVE like that

We all know that marriage is a challenge in this day and age... here is a great article about the soon-to-be canonization of the first ever married couple!  http://thecatholicspirit.com/commentary/editorials/louis-zelie-remind-us-sainthood-marriages-goal/

Borrowed from Ruth's blog - they got out the pool over the weekend - it was 80 yesterday!