Hidden Jesus/One more milestone for Simon/The Lord uses our suffering in His Plan/Joseph sold into slavery

Baby George awakening to LIFE at 5 weeks old this week... He is thriving and growing before our eyes, and seems to be pondering the gift of life he has been given with loving parents and siblings... #5, who has brought us more LOVE!

How we cherish all life in our domestic Church/family, and long to shine the LIGHT of Truth upon how we are called to protect and cherish all life from conception to natural death!  In this world where human life is not protected at all in the womb... how can this be?

From Washington... 2 week old Hector with his older brother, Romeo who is 4.  Hector is #6 and cherished by his family so much!

The two youngest getting acquainted... I miss my little 2 year old Evie!  She was a good companion to her old grandma, and kept me smiling for the two weeks I was with them.  It looks like she is getting her baby brother to smile peacefully in her arms too!

Me and my shadow..

Now this is my soon to be 2 year old companion each day when I watch her while Ruth helps her dad outside.  She picked out this dress today and likes to be pretty, and knows that grandma has to capture her beauty!

I am just back from my praying for Seven Sisters in front of the tabernacle.  I felt a hunger to see Jesus in the gleaming gold tabernacle.. there was a purple curtain over it, and it was hard to resist the desire to go up and pull it back a bit so that I could see the tabernacle!  I felt hungry to gaze upon His glory and beauty... why the curtain to cover the brilliance of shining gold reflecting the sunlight?  Lent is a time of penance and prayer... it truly was hard to have this curtain between us, and I pray that after Lent it will be removed and I will be closer to Him once again!

Simon was a waiter last evening for the 8th grade play.. another milestone for him in his last year at HRS!

He is doing an exciting thing... writing a research paper about Autism.  Simon is in the spectrum, so it is a learning and growing experience all in one for him.  Grandpa and Grandma pray for Simon daily as we know that it has added a dimension of suffering to Simon's life.  It is true that all of us have our share of that hardship in one way or another.

Today is the story of Joseph sold into slavery by his hateful brothers, jealous of him being loved more than them.  What strikes me about this is how their treatment of him and taking away his freedom and casting him into deplorable circumstances was in fact the plan of the Lord for him all along.  How he raised up Joseph through his dreams and how Joseph was instrumental in saving many, including his family, from horrible famine!  How often do we see that our life is not our own, and if we can accept that dying to self we can begin to see the Lord at work in us... allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us!  From our sufferings we gain a closer walk with Jesus and keep heaven in our sights!!

Yes, the Cross brings us LOVE!

This says it all!!!  If we embrace our Most Cherished Cross.. we will find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

 Simon shows us to our table... another classmate helped him tie his tie!

Even though He is hidden behind the curtain... He is always there for us and we need to pray for those in the priesthood and that those called with answer "Yes"  so that LIFE will continue to dwell in our churches!

It is such a privilege to pray for Fr Denny each week!  He brings Jesus to us in His Body and Blood!

"The Mass is that which makes the cross visible to every eye;

it placards the Cross at all the crossroads of civilization; 

it brings Calvary so close that even tired feet 

can make the journey to its sweet embrace; 

every hand may now reach out to touch its Sacred Burden, 

every ear may hear its sweet appeal, 

for the Mass and the Cross are the same.

In both there is the same offering 

of a perfectly surrendered will of the beloved Son, 

same Body broken, the same Blood flowed forth, 

the same Divine Forgiveness.

All that has been said and done and acted

during Holy Mass is to be taken away with us, 

lived, practiced, and woven into all the 

circumstances and conditions of our daily lives."

Venerable Fulton J Sheen

Calvary and the Mass: The Ite, Missa Est

July 2011 in Saint Pierre, France for Hallel's first vows with relatives from Northern France and Pat's mom, who came with us to France at 90+ years old.  This is her cousin, Cecile, who died on Sunday after a long life.  May her soul, rest in peace!

Jesus, how we love you and know that you love us and will never leave us.  May this Lent be a time to come ever closer to you.  May our suffering of embracing our Cross do the hard work of allow ing us to die to our selfishness so that you may live and move and speak and heal and care for and die for all those in our lives... most especially those the closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

I always look around to look at the 10th station of the Cross/Jesus is stripped of his garments/the humility station.  I recall how Hallel sat by that station for her Holy Hour in the empty dark church each morning before mass and then mass to follow. "Why do you sit there?  Because you are called to humility?"  "No, because it is the last kneeler, and I don't want people to see my crying."

Why crying?  Because she came home after discerning a call to be a sister in the Cities, and The Community of the Lamb had not come to the U.S. yet.  A few months later they came to KC and she could say an enthusiastic YES!!!  Bless-bless, Barb and family

Danielle Rose - True LOVE/The Cross!

Danielle Rose - the Litany of Humility