It feels so strange to have no new life in the womb to pray for... On Thanksgiving Day Nancy lost her 5 month son, Maximilian, and we went from praying and expecting him to join us to suddenly have him gone! How I prayed and hoped that my girls would not have to experience this very difficult pain of loss as I have 2 sons buried at the cemetery lost at 5 months - William and Robert. Not only did Nancy go through the same thing, but I was with her in KC!
http://www.dosmallthingswithlove.com/2017/12/j1st-022-on-still-being-here.html
Here is a podcast Nancy shared just days later and said much of what I had in my heart 25+ years ago....
After scrolling down through facebook most days I am filled with sadness at the mess of our country most especially in regards to the lack of respect for LIFE! I see horrific headlines like a baby screaming as it is being murdered by abortion, and so many celebrities that say that abortion is life-giving to people and necessary.
A culture of death could be equated to the giant coming to kill young ruddy David today in the first reading from I Samuel 17... Goliath is huge, armed to the teeth with weapons of war and seasoned in being a killing machine. David says; "You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts," Yes, we too are that small trusting follower of the Trinity, who are there to slay the giant of death!
The Gospel today is the man with the withered hand... Mark 3. Jesus asks if the Sabbath is to do good..."to save life rather than to destroy it?" This is the bottom line!!!
How can people be so blind and hardened towards bringing more life into the world... being open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS! The Church asks us to be open to LIFE, by not using artificial birth control and allowing God to be in the picture! I just sadly read an article by a feminist that ridiculed a family for having their 5th child! She says that we are hurting the planet by having large families! No, we are modeling for our children how to bring LIFE/LIGHT/LOVE into our sadly misled world!
http://www.lifenews.com/2018/01/16/pro-abortion-feminist-trashes-chip-and-joanna-gaines-for-having-5-kids-thats-irresponsible/
In my experience of loss - it forged us together so powerfully in love and respect for ALL LIFE! We love and respect each other deeply and are fiercely out there with our sling shots and our withered weak hands and trusting that our small things done with great love with change the tide.
We long to have the world see in our large loving happy families that this is where one can find a small slice of heaven here on earth!
Today is the feast of St Andrew of the desert fathers, who prayed for the world from his hermitage and changed the world! Our daughter, Maria, entered the Poor Clares to discern for 5 months, and it was cloistered with a patrician between us! Spending their lives in prayer for the needs of the world! So very important and powerful and needed! The enclosure is there to keep the world from distracting them and interfering in their love communication with Jesus! We call them for needs and their prayers are depended upon and powerful in our journey!
“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.” ― St. Clare of Assisi
Photo: Five Sisters Adorers made their first vows on March 7, 2017 at the Church of Saints Michael and Cajetan in Florence, Italy.
In the Community, we have this habit to "manducate" the Gospel, it means to repeat it verse by verse that it may enter our memory but most of all our heart. And we beg the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to answer three questions: "Who are you, Lord, who am I, and what do you want me to do?" From the Community letter sent out at Christmas.
They begin the night before reading the Gospel in this way for the next day! At bedtime I turn to the readings for the next day with great anticipation and excitement in my heart, mind and soul! Last night Pat and I did this together and they were out of this world wonderful... David and Goliath, and Jesus healing the man with the withered hand from Mark!
"The devil is afraid of us when we pray
and make sacrifices. He is also afraid
when we are humble and good.
He is especially afraid when
we love Jesus very much.
He runs away when
we make the sign of the cross."
St Anthony the Abbott
a.k.a. - Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert,
Anthony the Anchorite
"Patriarch of Monks"
251-356 (105 y/o)
Feast Day - January 17
Jesus, I am filled with hope and courage knowing that we are on the side of LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE! Certainly these will cast away the darkness of sin and death and allow us to carry/drag our most Cherished Cross and follow after you! May we be healed and made whole and die to self so that you may live in us!! ..."Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out and his hand was restored." Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
"Let the sign of the cross be continually made
on the heart, on the mouth, on the forehead, at table, at the bath,
in bed, coming in and going out, in joy and sadness, sitting, standing,
speaking, walking ... in short, in all our actions. Let us make it on
our breasts and all our members, that we may be entirely covered
with this invincible armor of Christians." - St Gaudentius
LOVE!!!
Let us strive to be models of holiness for our children.
Who might they have become ? Their lives have been extinguished ! We'll never know !
How can Chesterton say in one sentence what I just wrote about for an hour?
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