Love this of my dad yesterday at my sister, Paula's wonderful home! Dad had gotten out with the help of my sister and husband to Vets for a blood draw and ultrasound of his kidney. Then treated like the king that he is with Culver's fish on Friday!
Our family gushed about how handsome, healthy and happy he looks. A sight for sore eyes as I dropped him at the door of his Assisted living a week ago today after we had shared mom's burial service with about 50 of us at the graveside. How I agonized when he went in alone so tired and facing the empty apartment with no mother.
Can't get enough of how much he seems to be enjoying his time with family and being spoiled by Bill! They are so generous with taking wonderful care of dad, and it was so great that he could get out to the doctor and for some special treatment before he returned to his home in the Assisted living.
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
The family together for the most part and standing together around my father! Some of it was to keep the cold wind off of him, but we had him bundled and heater, and blankets, and hat and gloves and warm jacket... he reported that he was warm the entire time that he did not leave mother's side!
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
With The Community of the Lamb so much with me on this journey through my nun daughter, Little Sister Hallel... the Lamb is a constant powerful companion to me!
Hallel called me to hear about her grandma and my family and how I am doing. It was a wonderful gift! She shared that they continue to have mass with the brothers and sisters as they are family, but they cannot allow others to join them. "We have the chapel open for people to stop in and pray, but no adoration for now. She shared the many family of their community that are sick from the virus. Many prayers! Even our own Maria and her family have been though it - very close to home!
It will be interesting to see how many will come and keep their proper distance - yet close to Him in this beautiful uplifting space! Jesus is so close to us here!
The Gospel today is one of those with the Pharisees trying to find fault and arrest him as we get close to Good Friday and Easter... I loved to read the parts about how Jesus spoke as no other had before and there were those than convinced - "This is the Christ!" John 7 Yes, we come to Jesus in the Word each new day and find him there! This is The Christ indeed! How we love him and hunger for him!
Another sad thought - Mary graduating from Holy Redeemer School as an 8th grader this year. For years we have had excited thoughts that at Kindergarten graduation that Mary would be giving her brother, Luke, his graduation hat. Not sure if that can happen either. Hard to give up some of those dreams and fake plans/visions of the future.
Jesus, how we love you so much and hunger for you on this Lenten journey of fasting from you in The Eucharist! Jesus,we are fed by you in this desert with your Word and each day Your Mother is there with us comforting us and bringing our needs to you. The Saints also are with us each day! St JPII how I love to think that my mother is now with you! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen
ETERNAL GOD, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.
He walked alone across the empty piazza of St Peter’s, wearing the simple “house cassock” that he favors, through the rain. He did not carry an umbrella. That image alone hit me with the seriousness of the prayer that Pope Francis was about to begin. To pray for the world as he invited the world to pray, on that spot where he says mass and speaks to tens of thousands, alone except for a single aid to help him up the steps. It is an image of these days we share, apart. But Pope Francis was not entirely alone in the rain. To the right, at the foot of one of the great columns of the facade, the icon of “Our Lady, Help of the Roman People,” protected from the rain in a plain plexiglass shrine. It almost never leaves the church of St Mary Major, dedicated in AD 434. Except for the time when Pope St Gregory the Great carried her through the streets of Rome in 593, praying for the end of a great plague, an event that earned the icon the title she has born for almost 1500 years since. To the left, a crucifix at the foot of the other column flanking the entrance. It survived a fire at the church of St Marcello on the Corso in 1519. Three years later, during a great plague it was carried from the rebuilt church through the streets of Rome to St Peter’s. The 600-year-old wooden figure of the crucified stood in the rain, unprotected.
It was between these two ancient images that Francis led the world in a simple prayer. The reading of the account of the Stilling of the Storm in Mark 4:36-41 (read by a lay person), words of reflection from the pope, walking through the rain again to pray before each of the two ancient images, kissing the feet of the crucified Christ.
And then into the portico, the “front porch” of St Peter’s, where the Eucharist was brought to a temporary altar, while the choir inside the church sang Parce, Domine, “Spare Lord, spare your people.” There Francis was joined in silent prayer by just a few of the residents of the Vatican.
And then, while St Peter’s rang every bell it had to let the people of Rome know what was happening, Francis took the monstrance containing the Eucharist in his hands, walked out to the steps, and blessed “Urbi et Orbi.” That blessing, of “The City and The World,” is reserved for two occasions, Christmas Day and Easter Day. It is normally delivered from the pope’s window in the Vatican apartments, using his raised hand. Francis chose this Friday of Lent to bless the world with the True Presence of Christ, from the steps of St Peter’s, in the rain.
There is an ancient tradition of the popes to visit a different church in Rome each day of Lent and the Easter Octave. They are known as Station Churches. Today’s designated church is San Eusebio, the church of the Roman martyr Eusebius. But I noticed on the papal calendar the designation today was changed to “Statio Orbi.” Today, the pope’s church was not San Eusebio, nor even San Pietro where he stood, it was the world.
O God, beyond all praising - St Michaels Stillwater 2015
Danielle Rose - the Saint that is just me
Danielle Rose - True love/The Cross
Danielle Rose - Nothing compares to you
Salve Regina
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