A year ago here in KC for Thanksgiving... Bernadette and Therese with their new baby sisters. Evangeline was just 3 weeks old, and Josephine was 6 months. Today with our heavy hearts at the loss of little 20 week old Maximilian we are given this reminder of all the wonderful life we have to share our lives here on earth with. We are also reminded that we have many to keep our hearts and eyes on heaven forever with Jesus, Mary, The saints and Angels and our family and friends gone before us! Maximilian will join my 7, Nancy's Peter, whom she lost between Dominic and Josephine, and Maria's two. Surrounded by so much love and prayers for our journey!
Bernadette and Josephine on Thanksgiving day before we went for mass and Community meal with our Family of the Lamb.
Gus was telling me this morning that his teacher knew that he would be a big brother again at Easter, and now that has changed for their family. We are still sad and in shock at the sudden change loss of Maximilian. I have been sharing some heartfelt communication with my sister, Marty. The two of us have had this pain of a sudden 5 month loss in our childbearing years. Marty more than I... I want to say that she had 4 of those 20 week losses one after another! Her words this morning that brought tears flowing...It's very hard to walk down the lane of memory... I physically feel the pain you both are going through.
The turkey is in and we are excited to share a meal of thanksgiving for all that we have here with us and in heaven praying for and keeping our focus on getting to heaven forever with Jesus and all the LOVE! This experience makes our lives so deep and powerful and out of this world!
It is a glimpse of heaven as Jesus baffles us with the Gospel today..."They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise. "
So amazing that this day when our hearts are finding comfort knowing that this innocent little life has found a quick path to be with Jesus and Mary... "they are the children of God."
Jesus, we love you and adore you with all that we have to give... may we give without counting the cost. Life is a precious gift no matter how short or small. Jesus, we trust in you. Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke
Into the LIGHT!!! How we long for this to be what we experience in Heaven!
The Crucifixion
Saint of the Day!
St. Catherine of Alexandria
Patron: Apologists; craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters; spinners; etc.); archivists; attorneys; barristers; dying people; educators; girls; jurists; knife grinders; knife sharpeners; s; librarians; libraries; maidens; mechanics; millers; nurses; old maids; philosophers; potters; preachers; scholars; schoolchildren; scribes; secretaries; spinners; spinsters; stenographers; students; tanners; teachers; theologians; turne...rs; unmarried girls; wheelwrights.
St. Catherine of Alexandria
Patron: Apologists; craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters; spinners; etc.); archivists; attorneys; barristers; dying people; educators; girls; jurists; knife grinders; knife sharpeners; s; librarians; libraries; maidens; mechanics; millers; nurses; old maids; philosophers; potters; preachers; scholars; schoolchildren; scribes; secretaries; spinners; spinsters; stenographers; students; tanners; teachers; theologians; turne...rs; unmarried girls; wheelwrights.
The account of her martyrdom is legendary and defies every attempt to cull out the historical kernel. Old Oriental sources make no mention of her. In the West her cult does not appear before the eleventh century, when the crusaders made it popular. She became the patroness of philosophical faculties; she is one of the "Fourteen Holy Helpers." The breviary offers the following:
Catherine, virgin of Alexandria, devoted herself to the pursuit of knowledge; at the age of eighteen, she surpassed all her contemporaries in science. Upon seeing how the Christians were being tortured, she went before Emperor Maximin (311-313), upbraided him for his cruelty, and with convincing reasons demonstrated the need of Christian faith in order to be saved. Astounded by her wisdom, the Emperor ordered her to be kept confined, and having summoned the most learned philosophers, promised them magnificent rewards if they could confound the virgin and turn her from belief in Christ. Far from being successful, a considerable number of the philosophers were inflamed by the sound reasons and persuasiveness of Catherine's speech with such a love for Jesus Christ that they declared themselves willing to offer their lives for the Gospel.
Then the Emperor attempted to win her by flattery and by promises, but his efforts proved equally fruitless. He ordered her whipped with rods, scourged with leaden nodules, and then left to languish eleven days without food in prison. The Emperor's wife and Porphyrius, general of the army, visited Catherine in prison; her words brought both to Christ and later they too proved their love in blood. Catherine's next torture consisted of being placed upon a wheel with sharp and pointed knives; from her lacerated body prayers ascended to heaven and the infernal machine fell to pieces. Many who witnessed the miracle embraced the faith. Finally, on November 25 Christ's servant was beheaded (307 or 312). By the hands of angels her body was carried to Mt. Sinai, where it was interred in the convent which bears her name.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.
“Alone with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my way. What need I fear when Thou art near, oh King of night and day? More safe am I within Thy hand, than if a host did round me stand.” — St. Columba
Photo: Christ of the Lanterns in Cordoba.
Photo credit: Domingo Leiva
Catherine, virgin of Alexandria, devoted herself to the pursuit of knowledge; at the age of eighteen, she surpassed all her contemporaries in science. Upon seeing how the Christians were being tortured, she went before Emperor Maximin (311-313), upbraided him for his cruelty, and with convincing reasons demonstrated the need of Christian faith in order to be saved. Astounded by her wisdom, the Emperor ordered her to be kept confined, and having summoned the most learned philosophers, promised them magnificent rewards if they could confound the virgin and turn her from belief in Christ. Far from being successful, a considerable number of the philosophers were inflamed by the sound reasons and persuasiveness of Catherine's speech with such a love for Jesus Christ that they declared themselves willing to offer their lives for the Gospel.
Then the Emperor attempted to win her by flattery and by promises, but his efforts proved equally fruitless. He ordered her whipped with rods, scourged with leaden nodules, and then left to languish eleven days without food in prison. The Emperor's wife and Porphyrius, general of the army, visited Catherine in prison; her words brought both to Christ and later they too proved their love in blood. Catherine's next torture consisted of being placed upon a wheel with sharp and pointed knives; from her lacerated body prayers ascended to heaven and the infernal machine fell to pieces. Many who witnessed the miracle embraced the faith. Finally, on November 25 Christ's servant was beheaded (307 or 312). By the hands of angels her body was carried to Mt. Sinai, where it was interred in the convent which bears her name.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.
“Alone with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my way. What need I fear when Thou art near, oh King of night and day? More safe am I within Thy hand, than if a host did round me stand.” — St. Columba
Photo: Christ of the Lanterns in Cordoba.
Photo credit: Domingo Leiva
No comments:
Post a Comment