St Dominic day- "Family Saint" days we celebrate!/Two days home after surgery...weak/brought life to light through the Gospel.

Such a delight is this sweet girl!  She came for a couple hours with her dad to fill out some paperwork and at 3p we know that it is prayer time around here, so we paused to sit on the porch and say our rosary and chaplet together.  Her little sweet hands folded in prayer and her sweet peacefulness made us smile and filled us with JOY along with the peace that flows all around us thanks to Our Lady, Queen of heaven and earth taking our prayers to her Son, Jesus Christ!

Birdie and daddy praying together is such a sweet and powerful prayer team.  Humble and childlike as Jesus asks of us!Dad was pointing out the feastdays that are "family saints" over these next days - Today is St Dominic and with Hallel's order being Dominican and our Dominic Patrick in Delano - BIG feast day!  Tomorrow is St Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who was one of mom's special ladies as well as one of The Community of the Lambs' Patron Saints, and then it will be St Lawrence on Monday.  As dad said; "David Lawrence.

Deep in prayer - father and 3 month old daughter in his arms.  So wonderful to see John caring for his little girl and her responding to him with such devotion and happiness in her glowing eyes and smiling lips and sweet cooing sounds.  So healing and loving at a difficult time for John and his family as he is between jobs.

John and Birdie Barbara praying on one side of me...  Birdie being the youngest of my huge family.

The oldest and King of our family on the other side... with each decade he prays for his huge family - the first decade is for jobs, so that is big for John right now as we know that The Lord has a plan for him and we trust as we plow through paper work and applies for all that comes his way.

Grandpa and Birdie - all he can keep saying is that she is so healthy and happy and such a good girl.  So much like her aunts before her.  

We have now had a good day at home since our huge day of going to Sioux Falls with my dad for some surgical procedures.  He is very weak, and it is quite alarming to see how much 3 hours in the car and about that many hours in procedures can really set him back.  We agreed that to try to do this the same week as mom's funeral would have been a huge mistake.  Thankful that it was postponed and now taking one day at a time and a lot of precautions... like walking behind him with a hand on his shoulder... we will hopefully climb up out of this hole.

Sister-in-law, Angela, made this at dad's prompting...The verse dad came across before our big trip up for mom's funeral mass 3 weeks ago... it was his promise that he would with "faith" be able to accomplish this huge task!  It would not have been as easily accomplished or even possible if we had done these procedures at the beginning of that week!  

Dad and I that day - he did so well with every part of this monumental day for his wife of 70 years, who had died suddenly after a fall on March 16th.  With the craziness of the world due to covid we only now were able to have her funeral mass!

It was a hot humid day much like today, but mother interceded as we asked her to and sent a small breeze to make it as good a day as we could have hoped for.  

Pat was happy with the heat and humidity for his crops and is happy now that it has returned!

My brother hosted our huge family party just a few miles from the church!  Thank you for this wonderful day for our mother!  

The Alleluia before the Gospel today from 2 Timothy 1 is very powerful for me in my day to day life with dad and hubby and also our domestic Church/family which is now 31 with dad!

Alleluia 2 TM 1:10

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Four generation of my brother, Dan, with dad, son, Sam and grandson, Joseph that next morning after dad had a good night's sleep at their place!  How we all cherish these keepsakes as dad is 95 and on hospice here on the farm in my home.  Each time we pray together I am grateful and thankful in my heart and soul, and that is the work that we do and we take it very seriously!

Each day we share The Gospel and today it is Matthew 17 where Jesus heals the young man, who is a lunatic after his disciples are unable to.  When they ask him... this is what he says to them and to you and I!

He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Dan and Angela only missing one son... so many thanks to them for so much that we don't even see... behind the scenes to make this day special for mom and dad!

The Eulogy dad and I wrote and Dan read to begin the mass...

Nancy Marie Vercoe Cross

Wife for 70 years... married by her Baptist Grandfather August 30,1929. The journey began..."The hand of the Lord was with him" Luke 1 was how father looks at meeting beautiful Nancy Vercoe, The Spirit of Christmas. Closing doors and opening Kalamazoo. "She kissed me on the dance floor on our first date!"- "I have met the man that I am going to marry." was Nancy's sharing with her roommate

Proverbs 31:26-28 is true for dad of our mother "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her... a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates."

Mother of 12 children... open to LIFE, and took seriously raising them with love and faith. Mother's own words - "love of husband and children, love of Jesus in the Eucharist centered my life." "Self-giving with others" is how Robert and Nancy lived their married life.

Developed a deep love for Michigan lakes -as a girl, her family went there for the summers - she was fell deeply in love with God's beauty in nature which fed her inner soul and creativity. How she instilled this love for The Lake in her children! All those summers spending weeks there in Elk Rapids, and then our shared Retirement Home/Vacation home in Manistique

This Tremendous Lover - Boylan made her groan with finding the True Church! Finds herself meeting priests and nuns - the Cenacle - prayer group... she is drawn to Mary and the only place is The Church if you love her! "There is no hope for me to be Catholic. My husband is a Protestant Minister." Ignation retreat - Isaiah 55:1-2 - All 13 become Catholic!

Creator of beautiful homes! How often would she have a vision in her mind that took so much work on her part and dad's? The result after so much work - beautiful homes that are deeply in our hearts with so many fond memories... Fenton Rd, Avon St, Fremont Ave, The Farm, Taylors Falls, Colman, SD, and Manistique/Crosswinds, Hamilton St in St Croix Falls, and finally the Lodge of New Hope. Even those last 6 months we could still have the sense of Faith and family all around us in their two rooms!

Grower of beautiful gardens. She poured over garden catalouges and planned her gardens to bloom all summer long. She did the work of planting and weeding and it was obvious to all those that walked through or by them... this woman knows how to create beauty.

Lover of Jesus in His Word! On their tombstone - "Blessed is he who keeps the words of this book. The time is near! Come Lord Jesus! " Revelations 22 Under these words are listed the 12 - her children for whom she prayed constantly and would sit and share with them from her heart The Truth of Jesus and The Church. Conversations in person and on the phone were filled with depth and wisdom and love! Even dementia could not end those talks, although they were less and less.

Creator in writing and art. Mom did not hold down a job or bring home a paycheck after she gave birth to first child, Barb. She did sell some articles with many disappointments with rejections of articles and books she poured her heart and soul into! Her booklet A woman and the Counselor, was circulated by her with her message of submission of a wife to her husband. She was told by the woman next store in Taylors Falls, after they moved there, that this had saved her marriage! These creations of Nancy, along with dad's alcohol chalk talks,... the preacher and the teacher... can now be found on their website, catholicdiagramteacher.com - developed in the last 5 years for ALL! Mom's voice dictating her study of the entire Bible, allows her to go on teaching the wisdom of The Word of God!

Dad watched those "sweet lips" breath their last gentle peaceful breath on March 16th, the same lips that sealed his love with a kiss 71 years ago. A complete circle of LOVE.

Yesterday was mom's 91st birthday, and the seeds planted in rich soil have born 100 fold indeed! We love you mom, and you are always in our hearts, minds, and souls. There is more LIGHT and beauty in this world thanks to your hard work, vision, and perseverance. As dad reminds us; "Her prayers for us are more prefect now as she sees with resurrection eyes!" His Disciple, Nancy Marie Vercoe Cross!

Dad with tears standing in his eyes! He had Faith that he could do this and so the Lord honored that and gave him the faith of a mustard seed to travel 4 hours to be there and then to get through a huge day of heat and many family wanting to see him and spend some time with him, sleep in another bed other than his own, and then travel the 4 hours back to his home on the farm - stopping for Sunday mass on the way home in Delano with Nancy and Bill and family at St Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church!  Truly he moved a mountain called being 95 and on hospice to accomplish this amazing feat!  He actually came home looking and feeling better than before we left!  "I did it with the help of my Lord and Faith!"

Such an example to his family that he traveled further than all of them for this special day!

The flowers dad wanted for mom - a garden bouquet and her picture taken just 2 weeks before she died!  Some of my grandkids by one of my favorite statues of Mary - how I have admired it and prayed to her all the many times I would attend mass here with my parents over my wonderful visits with them together in their own home!  Thanks to my honey for allowing me to have those wonderful days often with my parents!  How cherished is that now!

The girls and Dominic, whose feast day is today!  WE love you Dominic and we pray that you may be blessed by your patron Saint!  Our Lady gave him the rosary prayer and how that is so much woven through our life - praying without ceasing!

Jesus, your Word is our strength and our guide on this journey of Faith/Family/Farm that we share as we take each day as it comes and give the control over to you!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

So very much has happened in the 3 weeks since mom's mass... our trip to KC and a surprise visit from our nun!  Now we face the uphill climb from surgery, but so grateful that last week we could concentrate on our time with Susan and it was most wonderful!  

Pat just reminded me that 2 weeks from today he flies to Washington to bring back Maria and her 6 kids for 2 weeks on the farm!  Wave after wonderful wave of family time on the farm with my dad here in our midst!  We are overwhelmed by the Lord at work in our lives and The Church giving us so very much with each new day we are blessed with!  Bless-bless, Barbara

 

A memory from 5 years ago... Hallel and Dominic with the Dominic icon in their chapel!

Happy Feast Day little sweet Dominic, and our Family/Community of the Lamb along with our Little Sister Hallel! Lots of celebrating for today! St Dominic, pray for us. Bless-bless

Danielle Rose - True love/the Cross that begins her rosary - a song for each mystery!

Hail Holy Queen

A Mother's song - the Crucifixion

get a kleenex!!!

Mamastery