He didn't take the serpents away/we are asked to follow him with our cross/Looking upon him to be saved!

Pat moved our chairs under the cross on the hill so that we could get a  better view of our daughter, Hallel/Susan, taking her final vows..."I promise unto death!"

I just ran into someone I knew while shopping and she asked pointed questions about how often we get to see our daughter, and she seemed dismayed by how we have been called to give her up in many ways... Stationed in Europe for 9 years and only coming to stay in the U.S, in Kansas City for last year and now this.  Also that during Lent and Advent we are not allowed to visit them, and her home visits have only been twice 4 years apart.  I found myself saying that "It is truly a sacrifice, but we are richly rewarded with her "yes" filling our lives with hundredfold family and deep spiritual times shared with them... whether Susan is in KC or not, they are family and we spend time with them throughout the year!

Sacrifice/embracing the cross/supporting our daughter as she says "yes" to Jesus has brought to us so many blessings and graces... LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

Sharing a meal in the trees in the Holy Family gathering place where we had numerous meals during our week there.

The readings today pertaining to the Exultation of the Cross feast day today each is so amazing!  I expected to find the church dark as I went to pray at 5:45a when Pat and John are attending This Man is you, but the Light was on and allowed me to sit close to Jesus in the tabernacle in the empty church!

I love the Lamb under Jesus in the tabernacle!!!  The perfect Lamb sacrificed for us!

I hate snakes so the first reading gives me the creeps!  And how I would have longed for them to be taken away when they pleaded for mercy, but no they continued to be there biting them, but not killing them if they would look upon the one lifted up on the pole.  They still had to suffer, as we are still informed that if we follow after Jesus we too will experience the Cross in our lives and have to suffer yet we are saved from death and brought to LIFE eternal!

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:6-11
The best!!!!!

This is a close second or equally wonderful!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

This was over my head and filled my prayer time with Jesus and His Cross!!!

Mass led by my priest I pray for each Friday in front of the tabernacle... Fr Denny celebrated mass with these amazing words from the Preface :
"... For you placed the salvation of the human race on the wood of the Cross, so that, where death arose, life might again spring forth and the evil one, who conquered by a tree, might likewise on a tree be conquered, through Christ our Lord..."

Father Denny robed in red for this feast day of Jesus' sacrifice for us!  So powerful to have just spent an hour doing the office and readings of The Exultation of the Cross in prayer for him!  Knowing that Fr Denny, too, will be doing morning prayer along with all priests and deacons in The Church!

In the office of readings today St Andrew of Crete wrote these beautiful truthful words:
We are celebrating the feast of the cross, which drove away darkness and brought in the light.  As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above.  So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure.  Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Time with Joy and Luke while mom helps grandpa with the calves. Joy loves the applesauce we made!  That is why we do the work... to see those smiles at the yumminess!

Jesus, we love you and long to forever follow you carrying our most Cherished Cross!   Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb





The cross of Jesus Christ is the means by which we are saved, by which we become partakers in the divine nature. And the Sign of the Cross is the most profound gesture we make. It is the mystery of the Gospel in a moment. It is the Christian faith summarized in a single gesture. With one hand, we proclaim our redemption by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Have a blessed Feast of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Danielle Rose- True love/the Cross