"The everlasting way"...not my way..." If I go up to the heavens, you are there" Psalm 139

Baby Bernadette kissing the cross on Good Friday when she was just a year and a half old!  Looking through my pictures to speak to..."the everlasting way" not my way.  Isn't this it?

Just back from praying in the dark church while Pat was at him men's group.  My phone lit up and allowed me to read the office for today.  It seems like a special connection to Father Denny for whom I am praying my hour each Friday, as he came into the Adoration chapel and did the office on his phone when I was in there a month or so ago.  

After about half an hour the lights come on and Father Denny is on the altar preparing for mass while we say the rosary before mass.  His homily on the readings made me nod and smile, especially when he spoke about how we want to follow the everlasting way from the Psalm today, and not my way.

Bernadette now has 3 siblings to meet in heaven... Peter, Maximilian, and Catherine.  Nancy lost 2 little ones in the last year, and now is expecting her 8th child including them. 

 Just as I discovered the Lord's ways are not my ways, and his everlasting way is not my way!  I wanted a large family - 12 - not realizing that 7 would be in heaven keeping my eyes focused on meeting them someday, and 5 here with me.  It makes you cherish those you are given to share your life on earth with!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Maria also is expecting her 8th child which includes 2 losses.  I was with her both times she lost them and also with her for a traumatic birth of #3 Patrick while Joseph was in Afghanistan!  Our faith gets us through and asks us to be open to life and raise LIGHTS for this world! 

The words; "Jesus, we trust in you."  certainly are not just lip service for our domestic Church/family!  We trust because we know of his love and "everlasting way"/the narrow path we follow HIM down carrying/dragging our Most Cherished Cross!

With St Therese and Mary our Mother looking on... these two show their joy and delight to be united in Holy Matrimony!

 Now they too will welcome their first child with Nancy #5,  and Maria #6 in March.  Life will change dramatically as they become a family trusting in Jesus and embracing their cross and finding LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  Love will grow more and more with each new member not spread more thin! 

John encountered LOVE/healing from brain cancer, and now longs to share that love with all!!!
When he half-heartedly asked for faith... Jesus showed him the everlasting way... not John's way!

3 more in March! 

Reading Psalm 139 today... we cannot escape His love for us no matter where we go!  He knows us inside and out, so why hold anything back in the confessional but rather leave there washed clean!

"Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; 
wonderful are your works.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way."
Psalm 139

Watching the vote for Judge Kavanaugh just now and how he might not get confirmed tomorrow because he is pro life!  I am sick to my stomach at the fact that the evil forces are so much at work to destroy this good man for the sake of having the right to take the lives of those lives in the womb!  How did it ever come to this?  So many prayers for the vote tomorrow!

our 5 with their girls a year and a half ago while Hallel was home for her home visit!  It had been 4 years since her last visit during a snow storm in April!  Sacrificing our time with her is hard, but we know that it is the everlasting way for her and for us.  

We have been blessed with her living with the foundation here in KC last year and this year!  Nancy sees her weekly when she has he hour or adoration in Lumen Christi Monastery on Wednesdays.  Her little ones pray with her and are "magnets" for getting Hallel to come and find them after their hour!  LOVE!

The family only missing Hallel at John and Bobbi's wedding at the beginning of the summer!

Just as baby Bernadette kissed the cross... we say "Yes" to the everlasting way the Lord has for each of us.  We know that "My way" is selfish and does not allow us to love as we should... giving without counting the cost.  The motto of The Community of the Lamb; "Wounded, I will not cease to love."  Look to Jesus on the Cross to realize the Truth lived out for us to see and follow.  Jesus, give us the strength.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Pat with oldest daughter, Ruth, in 1980, eating apples under the apple tree.  He loves those little ones!  My champion for LIFE and family!

Today in This Man is You... Pat was very excited to put a truth on his "wasting time with my family."  "I knew that I felt guilty when I would spend extra time with my family when I had work to do, but I do see that we are close thanks to that time spent holding them on my lap while I ate lunch and 'wasting time with my family.'  The guilt is now gone!  It was a good thing!" 

This was announced at mass before we left for France!  Pat wanted to let all know of this beautiful option to be considered in the life of all young people!  May the seeds be planted and no longer look at what I want but what the Lord wants for me as I walk down the everlasting way!  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

The 3 girls a year and a half ago... now 2 will be big sisters in March!  Getting the 3 March babies together will be a fake plan for me!  LOVE those fake plans!

Her little way... the everlasting way!

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face kneeling beneath the Crucified Lord,collecting all the Lord's sufferings that are falling upon her habit as Rose Petals.

PRAYERS TO ST. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND OF THE HOLY FACE:

O Little Therese, so little you were but your sufferings were greater than I can ever imagine. You knew that only through sufferings and weakness that you will be able to become a Saint. Therefore, you encouraged everyone around you to be a Saint and you knew that it was the greatest vocation that Jesus wants us to choose.You taught us that it is a must for us to live holy even in weakness for it is our call to be Saints.

Help us, O Little Therese to trust Jesus in our weakness and littleness. Give us the grace to trust that even if we cannot do great things but by loving Jesus; we can be transformed into Saints that Jesus' wills for us to be. Amen.

Saint Little Therese,Patron of All Saints, pray for us!

Little Therese,you know that many people have neglected the devotion to the Most Holy Face of Jesus.
Millions have rejected or find it difficult to trust in this holy image of Jesus. Some never casting their eyes upon the Face of Jesus and you desired deeply to make this devotion well known by venerating the Lord's Most Holy Face. You shared as much suffering as you could with the Lord and so became an imprint of His Divine Countenance.
Help us poor sinners to draw closer to the Holy Face of Jesus, which you knew was the most powerful devotion in your life.Help us to make reparation to His Most Holy Face which is disfigured by our sins.Encourage us to console and spend time with the Lord's Most Holy Face, and enlighten our souls to know that by contemplating the Holy Face of Jesus, we may be able to have a clear vision of Him in heaven and be able achieve all the glory that Jesus has promised to those who venerated His most Holy Face, Amen.

Saint Therese, Apostle of the Most Holy Face of Jesus, pray for us!






October is the month when we are reminded about the value of praying the Rosary throughout the year.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.”

#HolyRosary #Catholic

Danielle Rose - True love

Danielle Rose- the Saint that is just me