Maria finally updated her blog and I will be using her pictures today here. Here is a family picture that is too funny to pass up! Even Evangeline seems to have gotten the serious look going...
They must have gotten the John and Bobbi memo from their save the date cards! We play serious around here!
I guess that is just under the surface... really we are a wild and crazy bunch!
The nice one saves the day!
Jesus is sharing with his disciples today that he will be suffering and dying as "Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20
How do we share in that and do the work of Salvation He is longing for in this world of sin and death? By uniting our suffering with His Passion as Caryll Houselander reminds us today;
"Because Christ is in us, any suffering of ours is his Passion... Christ's passion redeems, not because it is our pain, but because it is his love infused in our pain."
Pat with Josephine and Evangeline at my family Christmas - Maria and her 5 flew in for the long weekend with family. It was the only gift I wanted, for all our grandkids to be together!
Yes, I am trying to get my mind around this idea that our suffering is part of the Passion of our Lord for the Salvation of the world. My most profound suffering was the loss of my 7 children in the womb, most especially the two I lost a 20 weeks/still births! My plans for a big family were obviously not the Lord's plan for us. Now that I am over 25 years away from those losses... I see the work they did in me and my family for the positive.
I see that sharing the pain of loss made us so close and that we appreciate each other tremendously. I also see that it instilled in each one of us a profound respect for ALL LIFE! When Father Craig called us a "Prolife Family" when he officiated over the burial of our 20 week old grandson, Maximilian, in November... he was proclaiming the absolute Truth for each and every member of our family!
Maria with a sleeping 16 month old Evangeline Mary in her carrier...
Contentment as her mommy works out... weight lifting must be part of it!
Maria also has experienced loss with 2 miscarriages after David, and both times I was with her! How I prayed that my girls would not have to have the pain of loss in their childbearing years, but it seems to be a hereditary thing that I passed on to them as now both Nancy and Maria have had two and Nancy's on Thanksgiving day was a 20 week loss/stillbirth.
Nancy has shared that in the midst of her pain and suffering that Mary, the Mother of God, profoundly came to her and she is now on a mission to bring others to her through the wonderful Rosary prayer! A prime example of how our suffering becomes part of His Passion for the salvation of the world! His Mother is definitely one of his main ways of bringing us to find our True faith in The Church. If you love his mother there is no place to be but in The Catholic Church!
Pat misses this baby girl so much! He spent 5 months with her in our home a year ago, and longs to see her and spend time with her. We were just sharing fake plans of them staying with us for a week or so after John's wedding and then we would drive them out there. LOVE this idea!!!
It does definitely help to know that Christ transforms our suffering into His Passion! If we are open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS as Jesus and The Church asks of us... the loss and suffering as a result will be to His honor and glory and for our good. And knowing that we will be united with them in heaven keeps our eyes and hearts on heaven and us striving to carry/drag our Most Cherished Cross and follow Jesus.
The 3 boys with their haircuts!
Jesus, suffering is difficult to bear and our plans are not your plans. May we die to self so that you may live in us. May we give our pain and suffering to you to transform it into your passion for the salvation of the world. May we..."But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus to us in the Gospel today - Mt 20
May we serve without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen
Therese loves to have a baby sister after 3 brothers to dress up cute!
I miss my girls!!! And boys, too! Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke
Evangeline hiking off by herself!
"We have decided that this year it is Cha-Cha's Crown.
Every toothpick removed is a child's prayer said for our dear Auntie.
We hope to empty it in record time this year!" Maria sending prayers her way!
“...the Church is called to proclaim with renewed vigour what the Gospel teaches about marriage and the family.”
"Many cultural, social and political factors are in fact conspiring to create an increasingly evident crisis of the family. In varying ways they jeopardize the truth and dignity of the human person, and call into question, often misrepresenting it, the notion of the family itself. The ...value of marital indissolubility is increasingly denied; demands are made for the legal recognition of de facto relationships as if they were comparable to legitimate marriages; and attempts are made to accept a definition of the couple in which difference of sex is not considered essential.
In this context the Church is called to proclaim with renewed vigour what the Gospel teaches about marriage and the family, in order to grasp their meaning and value in God's saving plan. In particular it is necessary to reaffirm that these institutions are realities grounded in the will of God. There is a need to rediscover the truth about the family as an intimate communion of life and love open to the procreation of new persons, as well as its dignity as a “domestic Church” and its share in the mission of the Church and in the life of society."
– Pope St. John Paul II
"Many cultural, social and political factors are in fact conspiring to create an increasingly evident crisis of the family. In varying ways they jeopardize the truth and dignity of the human person, and call into question, often misrepresenting it, the notion of the family itself. The ...value of marital indissolubility is increasingly denied; demands are made for the legal recognition of de facto relationships as if they were comparable to legitimate marriages; and attempts are made to accept a definition of the couple in which difference of sex is not considered essential.
In this context the Church is called to proclaim with renewed vigour what the Gospel teaches about marriage and the family, in order to grasp their meaning and value in God's saving plan. In particular it is necessary to reaffirm that these institutions are realities grounded in the will of God. There is a need to rediscover the truth about the family as an intimate communion of life and love open to the procreation of new persons, as well as its dignity as a “domestic Church” and its share in the mission of the Church and in the life of society."
– Pope St. John Paul II
Hard facts.
Hawk Nelson - Drops in the Ocean
Francesca Batistelli - Lead me to the Cross
the handmade rosaries given to us by Therese 5 years ago in Michigan! LOVE!!!
the handmade rosaries given to us by Therese 5 years ago in Michigan! LOVE!!!
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