Lent begins with "I love you" Valentines/Ash Wednesday

Ashes to start our day after a call from my husband in the barn with the first calf mooing in the background.  "I love you, honey, happy Valentine's Day/Ash Wednesday." 


Father placed a magnificent ash cross on my father's forehead with the words... "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return."  The Cross reminds us of True LOVE/the Cross which Jesus embraced for us and asks us to take up ours also.

Ashes to start our Lent today... I can't remember the last time I was with my parents for Ash Wednesday.  Probably 50 years or so. 


Valentines Day/Ash Wednesday marks this year beginning, our Lent and being with my parents to share prayer and mass and fasting and going in for a brain wave test/EEG with my mom to try to get to the bottom of her "feeling her brain" and confusion.  An Ash Wednesday all its own!

Mom with her rosary to calm her and allow her to doze off during her EEG.  The technician's name was Robert just like dad!  He placed the electrodes around her cross of ashes!

Marked with the sign of the Cross and praying morning prayer/rosary for mom while she is having her EEG this morning.


Love this from the first reading today - Joel
"Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God."
Yes, Lord, I want to change my heart and fill it with your LOVE and your Truth!

My magnificent Father Cross with the ash cross marking him so powerfully on this Ash Wednesday... making my egg on dry toast for breakfast after mass.  The Love I experience here is in all the small things done with great love!


St Paul today in 2 Corinthians/Second reading
"We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."


This is a tall order or us to become righteous and Saints... only possible if we die to self so that he will live in us, and the Holy Spirit will fill us with the fruits of the Holy Spirit!  We must embrace our Cross to find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/Jesus!

Mother marked with the sign of the Cross...Mother with Nancy's booklet on the rosary in her quiet place... lots of quiet and rest around here which is a gift to me! 


"In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation."  St Paul continues in 2 Corinthians...


Let us have a lent like no others in which we hold onto the Truth of Christ and His Bride, The Church!  I will be attending a TEC/Together Encounter Christ  retreat for the weekend with a young niece, Bethany!  So exciting to have a family member that said "yes" to a closer walk with Jesus!

Another first time experience of making my letters for the weekend with family picture I took at "the farm" also our wedding and dad's ordination to the deaconate in 1976...over 40 years ago!  Now to add the scripture verses!


 "your Father who sees in secret will repay you."  Matthew 6 from the Gospel today
Our inner temple is where we pray without ceasing and cleanse from top to bottom with frequent confession!  Asking the Holy Spirit to fill us as we die to self so that we can become his hands and feet! 

Mom and dad resting in their peaceful home... mom reading Pope Benedict XVI book on Jesus again.  "It is so wonderful!"


Jesus, we do adore you and receive all the LOVE in the world from your dying for us on the Cross!  You ask us to follow after you... taking up/dragging our cross and finding newness of LIFE, LOVE everlasting, and LIGHT in the darkness.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

An Ash Wednesday like no other and very excited for Lent to bring me closer to Jesus with the Wisdom and help of His Bride, The Church!  We are called to follow and embrace all we are given by The Church to pick and choose what we want to follow is not being a Catholic!  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

The old rugged/magnificent cross! 

Both parents are napping with their rosary... the only sound is the clock ticking and chiming on the hours!  It was very sweet as my father blessed and prayed over my mother before we went out the door to clinic for her test... They kissed and said; "I love you, honey."  It is Valentines Day after all on top of our ashes and beginning of the best Lent yet!


https://aleteia.org/2018/02/12/5-challenging-quotes-from-the-imitation-of-christ-on-humility/?utm_campaign=english_page&utm_medium=aleteia_en&utm_source=Facebook
A blast from my early Catholic days at the Farm - Thomas A'Kempis'  Imitation of Christ!







LOVE this! 

Small Things with great love

Danielle Rose - The Saint that is just me

Danielle Rose - True love/the Cross