New wine in new wineskins making some sense to me/learning from the new!

 Love this sweet picture from yesterday morning of Nancy with her family after sharing an hour of adoration followed by Sunday mass!  Her words...
Happy Sunday friends! We are celebrating with donuts because we braved not only Mass, but also a Holy Hour our parish offered before Mass. Beautiful, and so worth it, but a lot to ask of our 3 year old and little George. But we did it, and Jesus was there, and there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.
#happysunday #catholic #catholicfamily #jesusweadoreyou @ Saint Peter Catholic Church

I love her sentiment of Truth and Beauty - "Jesus was there, and there's nowhere else we would rather be."  I love that they are united as a family including a 8, 7, 5, 3 and 11 month old... hard to get that all together and spend an hour of adoration with all that involves with little ones, but sharing our love for Jesus, Mary and His Bride, The Church as a family with JOY is the greatest gift we can give our domestic Church/Family!

Celebrating with doughnuts makes our Faith that much sweeter and more memorable for the little ones!  George is right there in the mix, with doughnut in hands!  I know that that smile on 5 year old Dominic's face is hard to capture!

When I was there for the 2 1/2 weeks when George made his arrival close to a year ago... Dominic was not too keen on grandma being in charge , but that all changed when I spoiled him by taking him to Walmart to pick out doughnuts to his liking... frosted and filled with cream!

The day I left for home I got a lot of hugs from my Domo, and I know that they were directly related to doughnuts!  I have his ticket!!!

In the midst of prayers this day for someone in their last hours of life.  The "Hail Marys" are constant and without ceasing.

I had just made the comment last night after reading the Gospel for today that the new wine in new wineskins really did not register with me as being understandable.  Reading it again this morning with Pat, and he attempted to give me insight, as I was sharing with him what Nancy is doing to promote Jesus, Mary and The True Church.  Suddenly it all became clear to me that I am so blessed by those in my life - my children, grandchildren that are filled with new wine in the new wineskins and how they fill my life with so much.  I learn at their feet as they take me ever deeper and deeper in my Faith and there is nothing better than to learn from the new!

 Joy with her baby Jude doll and her real baby Jude.... Ruth and Paul's youngest of 6 and John and Bobbi's first are best buddies and giggle when they see each other and get to spend time together!

I love to watch these new little ones sharing love and family ties.  Each Sunday they see each other at mass and that makes their weeks starting with Jesus!  How we love to share our Faith as a family!  The new wine is poured into the new wineskins at Baptism and fills them with the Holy Spirit, revealing to them the Way, the Truth and the LIFE!

 The old wine in old wineskins are blessed by the new!  How my parents are filled with gladness to know that their bringing all 13 of us into The Church 48 years ago now has spilled over to this sweet new life - baby Jude!  He warmed their hearts with his sweetness and smiles!

How my parents agonize over those that have not baptized their children!  So hard to feel old and helpless in the face of those lost and misled.  So many prayers for them to be filled with the new wine and transformed into New LIFE!

 The Community of the Lamb is an answer to the Holy Spirit's call to Little Sister Marie when at the request of Vatican 2... she looked back into the background of The Dominican order.  The Holy Spirit led her to feel that they should return to begging for their food as St Dominic had, and to beg for their food from the poor!

How can this be, Lord, she asked?  He led her to I Kings 17... Elijah and the widow...

1 Kings 17:7-24 New International Version (NIV)

Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath

⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

¹² “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah...

Yes, they go into poor neighborhoods and knock on the door of the poor to beg for their food!  Sometimes they can only give them a drink of water, sometimes they give from their little, always The Little Sisters and Brothers share Jesus in Word, and ask for their prayer requests... so powerful and just as the widow was blessed in giving Elijah some of her tiny food - so there are many blessings that are witnessed pouring out on the poor!

 Sweet Kayla is a postulant with The Community this year!  She is so joyful and her new wine is bubbly and wonderful to share in!  She is in my prayers and there is some talk of getting down there this next weekend for some hugs and sharing with our Family of the Lamb!

Jed is a postulant with the men/Little Brothers!  He is blind and has an amazing story of conversion and seeking the Lord's plan for him!

The new wine is intoxicating to hear him sing the psalms with his amazing voice using his brail reader, going up and down the hill from the Little Sisters to the Little Brothers with his cane, sharing his love and his story at Open Table, speaking with his parents about how his discernment is affecting his many siblings and parents!  The new wine in new wineskins is at work and powerful and rich!

Our last morning with Hallel when we had some days over Thanksgiving with her, then we had to fast over Advent - no calls or visits - but now it is Ordinary time and we are yearning to get down there to share with them and share in their new wine!

No, they do not touch alcohol truly in The Community!  There is too much alcoholism and drugs all around them with all the damage they cause, so they just say none!  I am speaking about the Spirit at work in their lives and how they take us deeper in our faith journey!
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day...
no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Mark 2

Therese with her baby sister, Evangeline, 3 years ago!  Therese has been such an amazing LIGHT from her early days.  She has a heart for the poor and for ALL LIFE!  She is humble and giving and the best oldest of the family that Maria could have hoped for.  Yes, she is not perfect, but that is left for Jesus and Mary, and we all need to have those things to work on/our crosses!

 LOVE LIFE is the tie that binds us!  Open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS that in turn share the new wine with us!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Jesus, how we are blessed by the new wine in new wineskins in our lives!  How we are filled with that richness of your Holy Spirit at work in us and taking us ever deeper as we follow you down the narrow path carrying/dragging our Most Cherished Cross to come to dwell with you forever in heaven.  Holy Spirit comes to us at Baptism and brings us ever closer to you if only we die to self so that you may live in us!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Blessed with so much new wine!  How we long to get all 30 of our family together this summer when our nun gets her home visit!  She needs to have mass and Adoration each day she is home and how we love to share that JOY with her!  So excited with so many fake plans for sharing in so much new wine with kids and kids in law, and grandkids!  Bless-bless, Barb

 Today is Martin Luther King Day and the day we need to be reminded that each LIFE is a gift to protected and cherished from Conception to natural death!

A man of honor!

 Sharing Sunday mass is the beauty of our week ahead!

 My brother and I plan to attend!

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Jesus is alive and well in The Church!

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Danielle Rose - The Saint that is just me

Lauren Daigle - Rescue