We came to find spring!!! KC is green with flowering trees/Saturday for Mary/"You are the Holy One of God!"

A drippy day in KC, but we were impressed by the green grass and the blossoming trees with leaves bursting forth!   Gus is off to soccer practice and Pat is off for Open Table at the Little Brothers in the heart of Kansas City.


Saturdays are devoted to Mary... from morning prayer
"Mary has been made full sharer in the Resurrection of her Son.  She is clothed with the beauty of his Risen glory.  Through her intercession as mediatrix of all graces, the Church is robed in Christ through Baptism."

Blossoms on all the trees, but Bernadette says that looks are deceiving... "they smell terrible."


Pat and I are so ready to see green and for the snow to be gone!  We have heard that there is bright sunshine finally at home, and it seems that we brought the dark gloomy clouds here with us. 

Mom and dad are on retreat, and grandma is figuring out the appliances... microwave and dishwasher are confusing... I set the dishwasher to delay 2 hours by accident and cannot figure out how to fix it!  So I guess I am being taught patience in unusual ways. 


As Pat and I hurtled down the road towards Kansas City last night in the darkness we shared night prayer and the readings for today.  Pat said that he had never heard the reading from Acts where Peter is healing a paralytic and raising a dead woman, who had been generous with her time and energies with others.  Tabitha... It is encouraging and exciting to read about the beginnings of The Church, after the horror of his death on the Cross and how Peter failed him over and over... to witness him on fire for Jesus and sharing his healing and Truth with all is filling us with HOPE!

We can do this!!!

Jesus, we love you and long to follow after you as you show us the way we are to embrace our Most Cherished Cross and follow after You!  We agree whole heartedly with St Peter in the Gospel today when many are appalled when you tell them to eat your Body and drink your Blood...

"Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."  John 6:69

Yes, Lord, we know in our hearts that you are the Holy One, and your Spirit dwelling within us gives you all we need to die to self so that you may live in us!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

The statue from their recent pilgrimage to Fatima!  Mary has become very real and personal for Nancy since she lost Maximilian on Thanksgiving...

Nancy's words:

"And in that silent, dark room, the drugs started to drip in and my body started to slowly, painfully respond.  The hours ticked by and we waited, not really knowing what to expect, except that the baby inside of me was dead and that the future we had fallen in love with was never going to be.
The hours we spent waiting for Maximilian to be delivered were some of the darkest I have experienced. I wept until I was completely dehydrated and numb, and yet, in those moments I also received one of the most profound gifts of my life.
I was allowed to experience Mary.
Thanks to all I had been taught growing up Catholic, I knew to call on Mary in my pain. I began to pray the ‘Hail Mary’, aloud and silently, and when that seemed too much, I fell into simply saying her name. “Mary, Mary, Mary,” and as I did, I could feel her presence in that room. She did not come gradually, but suddenly and all at once, as if she had been just waiting for me to call.
Thinking back on those moments I can visualize exactly where she was standing in the room, just to the right of my bed, looking directly at me.  I never doubted that she was really there, right there.  But more than anything I remember feeling a deep stillness emanating from where she stood. I knew she was there gazing on me with love.
My experience of Mary was really quite simple. There were no bright lights or premonitions or words from heaven. Just a feeling of peace and love, and the comfort of knowing that she was there and she loved me."
http://www.dosmallthingswithlove.com/2018/02/mary-is-real-and-she-loves-you-2.html


I too have felt her peace and love flow all around me with those beads in my fingers during the hard times of my journey!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-story-of-little-lamb-grandson.html
Three such times... Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

Do penance and pray the rosary every day!

Happy Feast Day
Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Doctor of the Church
1033-1109
Feast day: April 21...

Saint Anselm is a Doctor of the church and called the “Father of Scholasticism”. His writings are comparable to St. Augustine’s. He became a monk at the Abbey of Bec and with patience, gentleness and superb teaching skills, he became prior in 1063. The Abbey became an influential monastic school of philosophy and theology. In 1093, he became the Archbishop of Canterbury where he struggled with Kings Rufus and Henry I over ecclesiastical rights and independence of the church. St. Anselm had many crosses to bear throughout his life, especially in the political realm. Though gentle and mild he wouldn’t back down when principles of faith were at stake.