Faith like no others!/Clouds and prayers and trip with hubby

 Dad and I on the porch at 3p each day to share a rosary and chaplet and look out over the panorama of our prairie landscape.  The sky is what gives us much to ponder as we prayed the sorrowful mysteries yesterday.

Dad observed clouds like "the Trinity" yesterday - 3 clouds united in one.  We share our quiet time of prayer.  Our job and our JOY to pray for many that are ill or recently died on our chaplet.  A young man named, Robert, is still prayed for on our 4th decade, and it brings me to pray for my father also, who is slowly walking into the sunset of his life with the help of prayer and hospice and my humble stumbling help.

 The view before us as we pray... the corn fields around us seem to grow with each new day!  This heat and humidity after a wonderful gentle rain will truly make it grow like crazy!

 I am blessed with some pictures from my farm family, who are on their way home after a wonderful week away all the way to Washington and now coming back through Montana!

Mary and her father, Paul, made it to the Pacific!

 So humbling to witness the grandeur and power of God's creation! 

Reading the Gospel today which includes the scripture we repeat just before we go to receive Jesus in the Eucharist and after the Consecration of the priest...  “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; only say the word and my soul shall be healed” (based on Matthew 8:8). which is the Gospel today!  

 Feet in the Pacific - looks cold!

The words of Jesus to the centurion today really struck me as to why these words are repeated before we receive Jesus!  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.  Matthew 8

May we also have that kind of amazing Faith and realize that the creator of Heaven and earth is coming to us so personally in His Body and Blood, and he heals all our ills!

"...When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons,
and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,
to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:

He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases."

 A rain forest in Washington?  Yes!

 On the road with a statue that has escaped the destruction we see everywhere on the news!  Looks like George Washington? 

 Able to go for a short trip with hubby for a part last evening... under the clouds!  The sun low on the horizon cast our shadow as we sailed along on the road and on the ditch beside us.

 Cows and calves on grass as the evening was coming on. 

 Stopped by Paul's corn field at sunset.  Elbow height, but too muddy to go into the field.  Almost out standing in Paul's field.

Lord, may we have the faith to embrace you as you come to us!  May we go forth sharing your LIGHT/LOVE/LIFE with all we encounter - most especially those in our domestic Church/family.  Give our farm family safety in their travels as they return to the farm in these next few days.  Our prayers are surrounding them as we trust in you.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

A year ago - Pat with the group of girls - They are all the same age for a few months - at this point Joy and Evie are 3 and Josephine has now turned 4.  Pat loves his girls and boys!  He is my champion for LIFE and family! "The world needs lights!"  Open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

 Our prayer partner getting some toe rubs - my father puts Ruth's afghan over him while we pray.  Ruth crocheted this for my parents and was on their couch at Lake Michigan.  It looks like the waves on the lake and is so special to see my father use it when we sit on the porch now!

 A phone call from Maria and Therese asking me about adopting my 4 siblings back when I was in high school.  Therese was wondering about how it all happened, so it was good to share how the Holy Spirit directed my father to add to our 7 with 4 new siblings - 11 kids!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

Shortly after they came into our family and we introduced them to Michigan!  Carol still has the cast on her leg from the injuries she received being in the front seat with her parents, who were both killed.  Horrific for them.

 Clouds, flag, 3 eggs from my 3 chickens, asparagus, and mulberries. 

LIFE is good on the farm, and we pray for all our loved ones and our world which is in such turmoil and confusion!  We share the Truth here and whenever we can!  Bless-bless, Barbara

A friend, who also shares beauty and Truth - wrote this yesterday.. This stunning crucifix is along the highway in a field we pass on our way to the Cities... LOVE

In my lifetime, I remember tipping 3 hayracks over.
One was unhooked in front of my house, and it rolled down the driveway, and into the ditch.
The other 2 were on the curve of 19 east of us.
Yesterday, we baled on the curve......I wasn't worried about dumping a rack, and we didn't....
We had Someone watching over us.  Mike 

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fill my soul when I pronounce thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank God for having given thee, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely pronouncing thy name: let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.

💦💙A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOLISM IN THE ICON OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP - Feast Day - June 27th

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Pope Pius IX, associated with a celebrated Byzantine icon of the same name dating from the 15th century.

This icon has been in Rome since 1499, and is currently in the church of Sant’Alfonso di Liguori all’Esquilino. The image has become very popular among Roman Catholics in particular, and has been very much copied and reproduced.

▪️(1) This Greek initial stands for Mother of God.
▪️(2) Greek initial for St. Michael, the archangel.
▪️(3) Greek initial for St. Gabriel, the archangel.
▪️(4) Mary’s mouth is small for silent recollection. She speaks little.
▪️(5) Mary’s eyes are larger, for in all our troubles, they are turned towards us always.
▪️(6) Star on our Lady’s veil means she is the star of the sea who brought the light Jesus into this world.
▪️(7) Red tunic is the color worn by virgins at the time of Christ (AD33).
▪️(8) Christ’s hands turned palms down into His mother’s indicate that the grace of redemption is in her keeping.
▪️(9) Mary’s left hand supports Christ possessively. That means she is His Mother. It’s a comforting hand for everyone who calls on her.
▪️(10) Dark blue mantle – the color worn by mothers in Palestine. means Mary is both virgin and mother of Christ.
▪️(11) The entire background is gold representing the Heaven
▪️(12) Golden crown placed on the original picture as a token of many miracles wrought by Our Lady invoked under the title of perpetual help.
▪️(13) Greek initials for Jesus Christ.
▪️(14) Foot with falling sandal represents Christ’s divine nature, barely clinging to earth. The human nature is symbolized in the other foot to which the sandal is more firmly bound. This simply means that Christ has two natures, Human and Divine.

O God beyond all praising