"I AM ONLY TREADING IN MY Master's steps." St Katherine Drexel

Two year old Rose Ida is at home in Church, and after mass the huge boulders that appeared for Lent drew her up on the altar called her, with her puppy in arms, to come up and examine them.  She looked up in recognition and awe at Jesus hanging on his Cross over the sanctuary.  About 10 years back we were on a committee to get a crucifix.  We yearned to have a realistic reminder of LOVE to look at, and we got a beauty!  Lifesize and realistic with the wounds and his hanging dead on the Cross/The Tree of LIFE!  Rose has seen him there all her life and her eyes are drawn to Jesus, and I pray that her entire life will be filled with that journey of Faith!  In our home and the homes of our children... Faith is shared with JOY... taking seriously the call to be open to LIFE and to raise LIGHTS for the world of darkness!

We receive The Catholic Digest in our home, and I just read an article in interest titled - Why can't my child choose his own faith?   I am strongly opposed to this, and was interested in how Fr Roland Guilmain would answer this person saying that they had religion "stuffed" into them by their parents and they weren't going to do this to their child - They could wait til they were 18 and decide if they wanted to be baptized.  Fr wrote with wonderful words of insight and Truth - he shared that the child would be exposed to so much to lead him away from Faith - "God doesn't come into the picture because the existence as Creator and Savior negates all the so-called values of the world.  He offers us truth, beauty, and love."  "We quickly realize that faith is not just for church on Sundays.  It affects all aspects of our life: how we treat others, how we relate to others, how we work, how we recreate, how we face the challenges of life.  Today's culture leaves very little space for daily prayer in the midst of all the frenzied activity.  Even 10 minutes a day could keep our life on track for God."  "The decision to baptize or not to baptize will give an orientation to your child's life.  Will it be a life for God or one without God?"  Fr Guilmain

It was so precious to me to have my two preschool grandkids helping me clean in prep for company the other day.

 Today my heart and mind and soul are focused on humility!  Why?  Morning prayer started with this: Pride sets subtle snares.  Whenever we imagine that we are in control of life - our own or someone else's - we have fallen prey to the ancient whisper in the Garden: "You will be like gods." Mortality is the enduring reminder that we become like God not by our own power but by the power of the Cross.  see www.magnificat.com  Just ask John and Pat... I was slapping the table and yelling and hollering at these words!  Some of the situations of LIFE are so filled with those that need and desire to control, and it only leads to misery, and pain, and anger, and hostility, and did I mention heartache and PAIN?  John kept kidding me that I had gone back to my early childhood Baptist roots in how I was raising my hands and my voice at The TRUTH!   Whoever will humble himself will be exalted.  Mt 23:12

Pat's mom is on hospice, and in a weakened state due to age and an old tired heart, greets her grandson loving sweet David.  As I shared with one of Anna's nieces - "Mom always dreaded when she would be a burden to others, but it seems she has come to the place where she sees how she is surrounded by LOVE and caring from her family and others and this is a beautiful thing to experience."  Really this is the place of humility - where we are no longer self-sufficient and need to be helped by others!  When we allow others to serve us, and give back the LOVE they have been given by you... it is a thing of great beauty!  Working with the elderly I see what we all do... at the end of our lives we return to a place of helplessness and need, much like that of a small infant/child.  Jesus tells us time and time again that we need to become like little children!  We need to be humble, and it seems that life has a way of doing that to us at the beginning and the end!

Today is the feast of St Katherine Drexel, who worked with the blacks and the Indians here in the U.S. building them schools and colleges.  This quote of hers is so powerful in the midst of my exclaiming from the rooftops of the Truth this day!  "I am only treading in the Master's steps."  Yes!  Look to Jesus as the true example we are called to follow as we take up our Most Cherished Cross and follow after Him!

 Hugs shared - still having good times with our wonderful mother.  She continues to share LOVE/LIGHT/LIFE/Jesus/ and His Bride The Church with all those who come to see her in her weak state of walking into the sunset of her life. 

Sweet Simon's turn!

 How Mom/grandma/great-grandma loves to have another's hand in hers... holding onto Simon's and sharing the moment in which Jesus is before them in his life-giving/intimate union with Christ Jesus/Eucharist separates us from sin/Through it Christ unites us to all the Faithful in one Body-The Church/"To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest."CCC, 1397/"The more painful the experience of the divisions in The Church which break the common participation in the table of the Lord that the time of complete unity among all who believe in him may return." CCC, 1398/"Someday, when we die, we will meet Jesus Christ face-to-face.  The Church, too, awaits the Second Coming of Christ.  Ultimately, the fruits of the Holy Communion help us prepare for that day, both personally and corporately." Pat Gohn - The five Fruits of Holy Communion in The Catholic Digest this month.

Celebrating!!!!

Jesus, I am so filled with the fire of the Truth which we find in Your Word, Your Church, Your Saints, our time in prayer and most importantly our seeking to be less and less so that you may be more and more in us!  Life is miserable, and sad, and painful, and hard when we take it into our own hands, and think that we deserve to get this or that, or be given what we deserve or "need."  All we need do is look to the example you set for us as you are God and yet you were as a lamb led to the slaughter, and then slaughtered in the most horrible and brutal way for our sins!  You were the spotless Lamb and without blemish/without sin and you did not cry out at what truly was nothing you earned or deserved!  There is nothing that we could ever truly deserve other than to find a place of humility!  Giving up all we think we are and want to have or be, and dying to self so that you may live in us!  O Christ, you washed the feet of the disciples, though you are both Lord and Master.  Strip us of the garments of pride, and free us to do for one another the tasks of love as you have done them for us.  Lord, I know that all the fruits of the Spirit can be found here on earth - ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Galations 5:22  By their fruits you will know them, O Lord!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

So true!

God is stronger!

Lord, I want you and need you each moment of each day!

The Litany of Humility by Danielle Rose

My mother sent this to me at a difficult point in my life.  When I first read it - I thought; "How can anyone pray for this and ask the Lord to give them this in their lives?"  But we need to!  And just listening to this you will understand how hard it is!  The Missionaries of Charity/Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's order pray this each week!  Look at her example of serving without counting the cost!  Wow!  I need to ask for humility right now!  Then I stand back and wonder what I am going to be knocked down by next?!? 

Newsboys - Narnia version of God's not dead

http://www.catholic.org/saints/sofd.php  To read more about the true example of humble service and making a difference in this world - Saint Katherine Drexel

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…  I miss my Patty Joe!