Christmas 7th day/End of 2018/St John shares the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us!

Love the joyous faces and the wonderful baby bump of baby boy due in early March... Maria had just told Father that he was my new favorite as he covered the Truth like a blanket and gave us real meat and potatoes to eat from his homily of Truth for the good of the family!

After a wonderful mass yesterday starting with a rosary filled with wonderful petitions for the whole world, and then a homily which spoke the Truth relating to all the morals and values which are so important for our families to fight the devil prowling the world for our destruction... Father spoke loud and clear on one man one woman, homosexuality, divorce, contraception, abortion, artificial babies born in test tubes, all that has been trampled underfoot by our society and yet is the key to our happiness and our being forever in heaven with Jesus!  The Church holds these morals out to us in it's serious helping us to get to heaven and finding a small slice of heaven here on earth in our domestic church/family!

Grandpa holding Evangeline during the rosary with petitions before every decade which were far reaching and amazing!

Christmas continues to be celebrated with gifts opened by each of us all 12 days of Christmas!  So far I have received a hand sewn holder for my watercolor brushes from Therese and now a recycled necklace from Hawaii!  Love their heartfelt giving from the heart!!!

Evie pointing to her mommy's baby.  She will shortly be a big sister, and her biggest sister is so excited to have a new baby to help mommy with!  Therese and Evie are so close as "T" has cared for her most every need since she arrived just a little over 2 years ago now.  Mommy fed her, but "T" did a lot of her dressing and diaper changes and now 2 years later... Therese will be big sister extraordinare!

 Father stopped in for a visit and filled all the kids in on his understanding of the space program!

 Grandpa reading to the little ones!

We are being fed with the beautiful words in The Word today from St John!!!!

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1 - The Gospel today and during Christmas day with The Community of the Lamb!

Love this!!!

Jesus, how we love to share your light of Christmas with our family!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

family/Holy Family/Christmas with all our family now... in their homes in KC and Marshall

Grandma grabbed a picture before mass all dressed in church clothes and the dog.  Behind is baby Jesus laying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes.  The straw is pieced of yarn that each represents the penances and good deeds each of the kids did to make a soft bed for the King of Kings!

I am thinking a lot about Nancy's family, who traveled 2 days to the East Coast while we were traveling 2 days to the West Coast to be with Maria.  Bill's grandmother brought his family together for Christmas as she passed away the day after Christmas.

 Altar server David lighting the candles before masss.

Pat and I have filled our hearts, minds and souls with the Truth of Uncle Tom's Cabin as we traveled for 2 days... we are about half way through and very moved with her moving words of Truth in the horrible sin of our country... slavery.  I have wept over and over for the good and the bad we encounter through her moving words and descriptions in chapter after chapter.  How did it ever come to the point where other human beings could be so undervalued?

 Pat with his precious Evangeline at mass... she kisseed and kissed her grandpa and his necklace of Mary he was wearing.

Father gave a most amazing homily and the importance of family in this world and how the family is under attack by the devil.  He started with the fact that the family must begin with the man and the woman coming together in a lifetime commitment!  Open to life, no contraception, abortion much like slavery... how did it ever come to be legal and accepted to take the life of an innocent life in the womb/

I got teary looking at this man and his love for our family!  Open the LIFE and raising LIGHTS!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Evangeline will soon be a big sister to her new baby brother...

 The two Patrick's after mass.   "I am really special to you, grandma.  You baptized me!"  said little Patrick!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-story-of-little-lamb-grandson.html

 The baby bump is a beautiful sight to see!!!

Evangeline showing us the baby...

There is an Evangeline in Uncle Tom's Cabin and they call her Eva.  We call ours Evie, and she is so smart and we are so enjoying our time with this little girl with many words.

 Christmas coming through the beautiful mountains to get here!  Christmas trees on all sides rise above our heads... covered with snow as it gently falls on us and many trucks climbing the mountain and down the other side!

 Visual Christmas on the 4th day of Christmas as we share prayer and the 10 decades of my rosary fill my hours of travel through the such stunning beauty of God's great creation as the words of Harriet Beecher Stowe carry us along... bringing tears and laughter for the journey!

Sharing the rosary before mass.  Joseph shared how sharing the rosary each day as a family has been powerful for their family.  "Mary has helped us come closer to each other and our Lord."

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit he gave us.
I John 3 from mass today.

Only a picture of these dog ears... Maria did not like them and they were quickly changed...

Jesus, we love you and your Holy Family!  May our own families be a domestic Church where we share our faith with JOY!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb and family

A day on the road... ice to clear roads and less and less snow/cows in snow/Holy Innocents/God is LIGHT

 Dominic loves his Hallel and greets her at mass on Christmas!  Only 2 more weeks on her crutches and off of her right leg.  Hopefully she will be as good a new.

Slow start on icy roads.  Nothing coming from the sky thankfully. Sharing morning prayer on this feast of the Holy Innocents.

Loving the reading from I John after mass with the Community on Christmas and reading the Gospel from John 1... I am in LOVE with his grasping of Jesus being our LIGHT/LOVE/LIFE!
"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
then we have fellowship with one another,
and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin."
I John 1

 Blue skies, white snow fresh on the ground., and bluffs and hills and coolies and we are not in Minnesota anymore!

Our LONGGGGGG  pickup with black cows surprisingly on the white pastures covered with snow.  It was unexpected to see them still on the pastures.  Pat says that it could be gone tomorrow and it is going to be 50 tomorrow where we are headed.

In the Grotto of the Nativity of our Lord... Christmas day!  No better place to be with our two families of Hallel and Nancy.  We are praying and thinking about Nancy and Bill and family as they are now in Pennsylvania for the funeral of Bill's grandma.  They have arrived on the East Coast and in a day we will be on the West coast!  We were together 3 days ago and we will soon be about as far apart as is possible and still being in the U.S,

Love this of Berna with her little sister Hallel cookie!

These 4 are so blessed to know the Community as well as they do!  Family for sure!

Bless-bless, Barb

At home with Hallel's Community of the lamb... LOVE!

Maria's family for Christmas/into the storm we go!!!

It was a delight to find this on Maria's blog today!  Soon they will be joined by a baby brother in March!!

We are on our way to them and were hit by a huge snow storm so only got to Sioux Falls for the night... slowly we are getting there.

 This was going to the mailbox before we headed out....deep and getting deeper.  We had very heavy snow, rain, and then ice and snow.  Only as far as Sioux Falls and not sure what the morning will hold!

A lot worse ahead, then better, than so bad that we had to pull off for the night.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Family lies ahead!

Baby Jesus got a soft bed for the next 12 days of Christmas!  The kids did a wonderful job making a bed for him with their penances and good deeds!  Baby Jesus asleep on the hay.


The beautiful LIGHT has entered the world!

Home in the snow... 1/2 Christmas and 1/2 Christian music... Let's celebrate the 1st day of Chrismas with a martyr!

 Bernadette and Josephine ring the bells during the Gloria as we shared mass with Hallel!

What JOY!!!  We are home again after a glorious Christmas with two of our daughters and their families!

We headed home to beat the storm and ended up traveling in rain and then snow about the last half of the trip with Christian/Christmas music as they are down to half and half to ease us out of Christmas now that it has begun... the 12 days of Christmas ending on Epiphany!  Our Christmas could  be jumping ahead to now a trip to Washington and sharing our JOY with Maria and family... on the road in two hours?

Hallel sitting with her leg up... two more weeks unable to walk on it with crutches and...

Wheelchair...

 We heard the angels playing for us during Communion!

 Hallel on crutches and her prince dad coming to her aide!

Caring for our Hallel!  How she loved to share with us.. talking lots and sharing more than I can recall in a very long time.  She was unable to help much so we had her all to ourselves!

Today the feast day of St John the Evangelist and the "beloved of Jesus!"
the Word of life —
for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us—
what we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete."
I John 1!

Talkative (?) Hallel with her cookie from Berna at our meal...

Love this from the community in their Christmas newsletter!
With this new beginning, we have heard a renewed call to ponder God's Word through  "Mundication of the Gospel".  It awakens our hearts to the Presence, setting us on fire when we welcome the pearl that is hidden in the Word.  This way is humble.  It is a matter of accepting being poor, knocking unceasingly on the door of a verse, repeating it, and believing that it hides a powerful presence of God ready to surprise me.  

Nancy and Bill and family are on their way to Pennsylvania at the death of his grandmother this morning.  Pat and I are on our way to Washington to see our family furthering the Christmas for the next 12 days!!!  Jesus, be with those on the road for safe travels!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"When you speak of Jesus... I can feel the love!" Mass with Hallel and her Community of the Lamb, and Nancy's family in KC/Lumen Christi!

Bernadette gives her present little Sister Hallel cookie to her Aunt Little Sister Hallel!

Our nun in her wheel chair heading to the grotto after mass and then to our shared Christmas dinner in the new monastery of the Little Brothers!

Her dad wanted to push her, and it was very sweet.  He and Nancy spent the Vigil with the Community and got home at 3a saying that it was a very beautiful liturgy and they passed around baby Jesus and showed their love and gratitude for him coming to earth to save us from the darkness.

These 4 are so blessed to have their Aunt a nun with The Community of the Lamb!

The readings for Christmas mass are filled with our joy at Jesus entering the world.  Today was especially powerful and filled with LOVE as these men and women/Little Brothers and Little Sisters, who love Jesus with their lives and are contemplative in spending their day in prayer, Adoration and mass... Their love reaches to the heavens and makes the Word come into the world so beautifully and brightly!  "When you read about Jesus today on his birthday, I can feel your LOVE!"  my words to them today... "I felt the tears very close at hand, but that is not surprising for me, right?"

Their lives will be so blessed by their time with this amazing group of men and women that love the Lord with their lives!

 Love so much that my two girls can share their lives... one as a mother of soon to be 5 little ones and one as a Bride of Christ!

Little sister Joyce is the oldest of 11 from the KC area... love that she is such a beautiful example of this wonderful option to all of them!  LOVE!  

 The girls get a ride in Hallel's wheelchair!

How I love to share our family traditions with my youngest daughter!  Belgian cookies!  LOVE having her close by and our shared right knees are on the mend!  Bless-bless, Barb and Merry Christmas to all!

In Kansas surrounded by LIGHT of Christmas!!!

Excited kids greeted us as we arrived in KC for a family Christmas before the snow storm the day after Christmas!  Tomorrow we will see our Hallel with her right leg in a stabilizer and on crutches!  The Little sister blue cookies are for her!

Josephine took us to see baby Jesus and the Lamb by his side and in the loving arms of his mother, Mary the Mother of God!

High pony tails and dancing to Christmas music... the Best!!!

 Works of art!!!

The stockings are hung by their chimney with care with visions of sugar plums dancing.... Wishing you all the most wonderful Christmas ever!  Jesus we love you and are filled with the Love and warmth of LIGHT that entered the world at your coming through the Virgin's "Yes!!!"  Bless-bless, Barb and family!

"In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace."  Luke 1:79 the Gospel today for my dad and all we love!!!

Little Sister Hallel cookie!!!  We will be making Belgian tonight for Hallel to have a taste of her homelife on the farm - Belgian cookies every year!