I find myself totally preoccupied in my inner temple with great PRAYERS for my daughter, and her little LIFE in the womb! She called yesterday after getting up for her nap, and having sudden unexpected blood. Memories come rushing upon me, and fear comes into my heart. So many losses for myself...7, and both times before Maria lost by miscarriage she was with me!
How I prayed as my daughters married and all 3 had a honeymoon baby, and began quickly and eagerly their families with the openness to LIFE and raising LIGHTS which has been the rock upon which our family has always been built... How I pleaded with the Lord that my girls would not have to experience the loss which I did!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/now-stories-of-johns-4-sistersruth.html
Yes, it hurts almost worse to have my daughters face this pain!!! I do admit that losing my last 3 pregnancies - 2 at 20 weeks and both boys that would have been close in age to John and added to our farming operation, and one at 14 weeks to end my life-giving years with a total of 12 - 5 here with me and 7 keeping my eyes on heaven!
Keeping this new little life in our hopes and prayers for staying in this world to join this family that already loves it! Maria allowed me to share here, as she values all prayers at this scary time.
All my children experienced the loss right along with Pat and I! I would share as soon as I knew of the new life and together we would surround it in prayer, rejoice in the birth of suffer the deep pain of the loss! Why would I subject my children to this suffering? It is a life no matter how small, and all the prayers are so important, also I see now with the eyes of my heart that all 7 in our family have such a deep abiding LOVE for ALL LIFE from conception to natural death!
Each day on the 3rd decade of the rosary I pray for my 3rd child, Maria Theresa, and her family including her new life and the two losses! I pray for Maria and , Therese, David, Patrick, Romeo, Evangeline, Hector, Robert/Roberta, Elijah and Mary. One foot over into heaven is where I try to stay! How I look forward to meeting all my children and grand-children in heaven someday!
With the little miracle, Patrick on his First Communion day this past year in the midst of Covid. 3 of our grandchildren are now receiving Jesus as they have embraced His Body in frequent Eucharist!
shared this heartwarming picture of mother Maria reading and all coming to hear! Therese is off with one of her projects of reading on her own. I know that Therese does much for her siblings and reads to them also.
Dad underlined these words for me today in Morning prayer in his prayer book! I am assured that as I pray for the souls of mother and father on their journey to heaven along with my 7 children and 6 grandchildren in heaven....
The Battle prayer from my father today!!!! I must trust in Jesus being in control in the midst of the storms of LIFE! Rushing back comes the day we heard that John had brain cancer and we called France to tell Susan/Hallel... "Mom, do you remember the Gospel today?" "Yes, it was Jesus calming the storm." "Well, this is the storm and Jesus is in control."The journey continues with wife and 2 beautiful babies, and difficulty with jobs and looking at disabilty and issues that come up due to his treatments... Talk about continued need to TRUST!!!
Grandpa with the 4 youngest girls and licorice! It is no secret that the Holy Spirit led this amazing man to pray for his wife to be Catholic - hence our 13 came into the Church a few years before we met! Also he was the voice of Truth when I asked him if we were being selfish to want a large family - 12 - when all the other couples in our Engagement Encounter said that the world was too terrible to bring any, one or at most 2 children into it! Pat's amazing answer filled with the Holy Spirit! "The world needs LIGHTS!" YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bless-bless, Barbara
Danielle Rose
Casting Crowns - Praise you in the stormPeter Mayer - Holy Now
It is hard for me to find peace as I am constantly praying for "Maria and the baby." Maria knows that I am right there with her today as she was describing that due to Covid that she must go 45 minutes to get a handwritten prescription from her doctor for Progesterone, and then sit in her car in line for hours to get her medication! So hard to hear of this crazy mess we are in the midst of!
At the same time we have been told that our Catholic School will be going to distance home learning again. John will lose his job after school at the Catholic school and Ruth will have to do her best helping her 5 school age kids with learning on line!
So many ways today this Psalm 37 from mass is reminding me!!!
Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart’s requests.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart’s requests.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
"your heart's requests" are not always what you think is the right outcome... but for our salvation and being forever with Jesus, we must trust that HE is in control and has our best interest in His Plan!
After the Battle Prayer - Isaiah 55:1 with dad's markings - the verse he read as the Holy Spirit brought us into The Church 49 years ago! Each day has been a gift!!!
A little further down in Isaiah today in the Office of Readings... so many powerful feelings of dad and I sharing an entire growing season in the farm! How we prayed for rain during the drought of August, and yes, we even shared the first snowfall of 8 inches just a few days before he died! He looked out at our leaf filled rain spouts and took a responsible attitude about the overflowing water we would deal with. 
All except and Little Sister Hallel ... So cherished by me, and I envision the missing ones added, which I have done to the one hanging on my family wall, but the heavenly ones added - my Christopher, Thomas, , Paul, William, Robert and Mary... as well as the grandchildren Nancy's Peter, Maximilian, and Catherine, and Maria's Elijah and Mary! A row of sweetness floating above and keeping the eyes of our hearts on heaven!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
Also very true of my Deacon Father's love for Jesus in The Word! I have his well worn Bible with many markings there calling me to delve in and continue to sit at the feet of my father and learn from him even though he is no longer here with me in person. I am still adjusting to that fact... I speak to both my parents throughout the day.
Lord, suffering the pain of loss has instilled in all of us the LOVE for ALL LIFE! May we die to self so that we may carry forth this important message and Truth to the whole world... LIFE is to be protected and cherished from conception to NATURAL death! Please protect the new life in Maria. May we fearlessly be open to LIFE, and willing to do the work of raising LIGHTS in our domestic Church/family! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Danielle Rose
We offer prayers for the Holy Father as he continues on life's journey with Christ, whom he loves and has served with so much love and delivery, and with whom he wishes to meet face to face to continue serving.
Let's pray for Pope Benedict XVI.
Happy Feast Day
Saint Leo the Great
Doctor of the Church
400-461
Feast day: November 10 (New), April 11 (Trad)
Patronage: Protector of Rome
Saint Leo was born in Italy. He was the pope from 440-461. As pope, he clarified the teaching of the incarnation: that Jesus has two natures, fully divine, fully human. He's best known as the pope that stopped Attila the Hun at the gates of Rome. St. Leo is a Doctor of the church; one of two in the first millennium considered "Great". He promoted orthodoxy through his prolific writings and sermons.
When Pope Leo met Attila the Hun –
"Pope Leo the Great mounted the throne of Saint Peter at a time of terrible danger, both for the Church and the Empire. The fierce barbarian tribes, one after the other, had been on the march for the whole of the century, plundering, ravaging and threatening the entire Empire. The dreaded Attila the self-designated "Scourge of God," who left in the wake of his savage burned churches, murdered priests, devastated countrysides, people ravished and maimed, impoverished and homeless, was on his way into Italy.
In the year 452, Attila the Hun, having with remorseless cruelty sieged, burned, sacked and destroyed Aquileia - the city in northeastern Italy at the head of the Adriatic Sea - was as close as Mantua, on his march to Rome. He was boasting, as he advanced, that the total conquest of Italy was to be his crowning work of destruction. Rome was the dowry which he planned to present to his bride, Honoria, the granddaughter of the great Theodosius!
All Rome awaited the coming of the Mongol King in hopeless terror. They had no defense left against him. And then, in the darkest hour - as would often be the case through the centuries ahead - the Eternal City was saved, not by its legions, its tribunes, its senators, or its suffering citizens. Rome was saved by its Bishop, the Holy Roman Pontiff.
Practically alone, Pope Leo went out to meet the wanton murderer who was the terror of the world. He climbed steadily northward, this holy and august Vicar of Christ, and over the mountains, an arduous journey indeed in those days. He found the Mongolian chief below Mantua, at the point where theMincio River, flowing down from its Alpine source - the beautiful Lago Garda - emptied itself in the Po. Attila's troops, hardened veterans seasoned in plunder and sack and rape, were ready and waiting to cross the Po when Saint Leo, in his papal robes, entered the disordered camp and stood before the King of the Huns.
The glorious Pope threatened Attila with the power which was his from Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, if he did not turn back and leave Italy unmolested. And it is one of the most dramatic, of all the dramatic facts with which the story of the Church is so enchantingly full, that Attila, the Hun, yielded before Leo, the Pope. The "Scourge of God" agreed to turn back. He gave up Rome. And Leo, absorbed in thanksgiving, returned to his See.
Attila's servants, so the story is told, asked him why he had reversed his custom and capitulated so easily to the Bishop of Rome. The brigand chief answered that all the while the Pope was speaking, he, Attila, the generator of terror in others, was himself consumed in fear, for there had appeared in the air above the Pope's head a figure in the dress of a priest, holding in his hand a drawn sword with which he made as if to kill him unless he consented to do as Leo asked. The figure was that of Peter!"
When one visits the Vatican today one will see this scene depicted in art hanging over the casket of St Leo in St Peters. One will see the terror, fear and dread on Attila's face and the fearless Leo confronting him with total trust in God.
The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila ~ Raphael
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