The fabric of my life/Our Lady end the taking of innocent life/my mothers/The Church/Faith/Family/Farm/Christmas Sundaes and Night prayer by the Advent wreath!

Such a fun evening on the Vigil of Our Lady of Guadalupe with John and Bobbi!  Sharing supper, our traditional Christmas Sundaes along with our Belgian cookies, and night prayer with the 2 Advent candles lit... the fact that they are sharing grandma's blanket while we watched the Voice... makes this special also on the anniversary of her death last year.  A very special picture indeed!

The tears are close as I just had a conversation with one of Pat's sisters... she thanked me for all the ways I honor their mother.  How can I not!?!  She has been woven so tightly into the fabric of my life on the farm!  She was a doer of anything you asked of her, and was happy to attend all of our family activities and kids milestones in their lives. She even said "yes" to going to France when she was 92 years old to be with Susan/Hallel and her Community of the Lamb when she took her first vows in 2011! 

Visiting my sister, Mary's, grave in November with my parents.  She died of cancer when she was 28 in 1986 - 31 years ago!


Pat and I were sharing about my family Christmas coming up in a few days, and how blessed I am to have both my parents together in their own home and managing one day at a time fairly well yet!  Dad is  92 and mom is 88, so this is something that we marvel at and pray that it can continue for some time yet.


My parents are the world to me!  They brought me into The Church and I love, love, love it with all my heart!  To share that with them is a grace and I adore to sit at their feet and share and grow in my knowledge of Jesus and His Bride, The Church!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

My sister, Paula, and I with my mother and partially my father a few weeks back.

Such a feast day supreme today!  She is pregnant as the black belt reveals, and it the patroness of the unborn!  She is here with us to end the horror of abortion!  How can it be that babies are killed and left to die?  Everytime I see those stories and read people saying that this can be good or right... I am sick and sad beyond belief.  How did this ever become acceptable?  Cause to weep and mourn the death of LIFE in this world and the culture of death that has been embraced!

So blessed to have this woman, who modeled openness of life to me, and her love of Our Lady brought us into The Church!


These words of Cardinal Burke;

“…our late and most beloved Pope (Saint) John Paul II placed the mission of the Church in America, at the beginning of the Third Christian Millennium, under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe and commended her to us as the Star to lead us to Christ and, in Christ, to the conversion of our personal lives and the transformation of our world.” ...(Cardinal) Burke calls this apparition “the mystery of the Visitation as it was experienced on our continent in 1531. The woman clothed with the sun, bearing the Infant Savior, the Anointed, in her womb, appeared to Saint Juan Diego, from December 9 to 12, 1531, in order that a chapel be built in which she might manifest the all-generous and never-failing merciful love of God for us, incarnate in her womb and alive for us in the Church, above all, in the Sacrament of the Real Presence, the Holy Eucharist.”

Dad with us girls a few years back...

Today Pat, I and John shared morning prayer and read the Gospel of the Visitation from Luke 1!  I love how Cardinal Burke speaks of Our Lady's appearance to Juan Diego is also a Visitation as she held him in her womb!

 “…she has desired to remain with us always, in order that the mystery of the Visitation might be always new for us. She has miraculously left her living image on the tilma or mantle of St Juan Diego. In the magnificent basilica built to her honor, in which the tilma of St Juan Diego is enthroned, the Mother of God continues to visit pilgrims and to announce to them the great mystery of God’s all-loving and never-failing mercy.” ...

“… in 1531, she inspired her sons and daughters to abandon the horror of human sacrifice and to respect the inviolable dignity of every man, both the Native American and the European, so now she inspires us to be tireless disciples of the Gospel of Life, working to end the horror of procured abortion and so-called “mercy-killing,” and to promote the respect for the dignity of every human life from the moment of inception to the moment of natural death.”

Wow!!!  Our Lady of Guadalupe save The Americas from this wide path to destruction with killing of the innocents!  With you in heaven... we know that there is HOPE!!!

There is nothing more wonderful than to have 2 such wonderful earthly mothers and then to have my Spiritual Mother shared and loved by the 3 of us and now with all 5 of my children, children in laws and grandchildren!  I even have a granddaughter, Mary, and a daughter, Maria who has both of her daughters with Mary/Marie for their middle name!  I now have a future Daughter in Law who has Marie for her middle name and my mother has Marie for her middle name, too!  Not to mention that both Pat and I have sisters named Mary!  She is with us so powerfully!!!   Each day is lifted up by her "Hail Mary!"


When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."  The amazing Gospel today!!!
Each time we say "The Hail Mary" we are repeating the Gospel!!!  How powerful is that?

My sisters and I recreated this painting for my mom... delightful for sure!


And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior." 
Yes!!! She brings us to Christ as well as all our needs and loved ones!  Pat and I were just rejoicing at the thought of all those that his mother has met and joined in heaven...."Our 7 little ones, Nancy's 2 including Max just a few weeks ago, Maria's 2, the losses your mother had amidst her 10 children, dad and Donny, her brothers and sisters.  A chorus of praise and a symphony of beautiful music and LOVE!"  She is woven so tightly in the fabric of my life, and what JOY to know of her uniting with those gone ahead of us!

The farm wives, and she was certainly my role model as well as Ruth, who gives me great JOY by loving farm life and embracing the LIFE she had now and making it her own!  I am sure that it gives her grandma Ann in heaven a lot of joy!


Jesus, thank you for all that I have been given!  For the wonderful mothers I have had in my life, and most especially your Mother, Mary Most Holy the Queen of Heaven and earth!  I long to be more like her and to give you my all!  Please end the horror of abortion and protect all life from conception to natural death.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

The wall of marriages... Pat and I certainly need to love and respect each other more with each new day.  John prays every day.."That mom and dad love each other, even when they don't want to."  Yes!  We have to die when we embrace our Most Cherished Cross to find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke




The Truth gives us comfort and HOPE!

I have discovered how to get this now... so I will be sharing it a lot!!! 

Danielle Rose- Memorare

Hail Holy Queen

Let it be done to me - Danielle Rose

Danielle Rose - A Mother's song/the 5th sorrowful mystery The Crucifixion

Yes, the silly one!

A memory from about 15 years ago... I don't think John would call George the cat... "My one true love" anymore thank goodness!  He was very fat and soft and snuggly though.

LOVE!!!!