The Joy of a child 17 years later!/The Lamb on the Mountain... give our ALL!!!

Joy displaying her mom's shawl from her wedding... "I don't think I ever wore it." with a ice storm on her wedding day 17 years ago.. a white fur coat over her strapless dress was more needed!

Ruth's 6th child is aptly named Joy!  She is a happy and loving little girl, and grandma got to spend some one on one time with her over the weekend, while Ruth and Paul had a 24 hour get away for their 17th Anniversary!  

To my delight Ruth came over and discovered boxes of momentos from her wedding... she shared with me her delight, and this mom was very touched to have this fun time with Ruth and her Joy!  She carefully stored her things on some shelves in the basement and with the big move 4 years ago on Good Friday she left them there rather than move them to a smaller house with less storage - now it was a treasure hunt!

Their wedding mass liturgy of the Word which included the homily by my father!  LOVE!

Many momentos from their wedding trip to Rome thanks to our foreign exchange student, Matteo, that year!  Chewing gum and Euros!  

Their gift for those attending their wedding so close to Thanksgiving and Advent!  A Holy card blessed by St JPII, and including a prayer for their marriage and all marriages!

Yes, this really happened just a few days after their wedding here in Marshall!!!  They flew to Rome and St JPII blessed their marriage!  Paul is asking; "Please bless us with a happy healthy family."  Now 17 years later we see the beautiful answer to those prayers!

A picture is worth a thousand words!  Their marriage is based on being LIFE-giving to each other!  I learn at their feet about saying and doing what is life-giving rather than negative and without love!  

While looking for Ruth and Paul in Rome - I found these gems!  My brother, Dan on his wedding day with dad, who married him and preached at his wedding mass also!  Dad and Dan share the same birth day, and share LOVE for Jesus, Mary and The Church!

After this recent time with my father here on hospice... Pat has spoken about the time we had with his mother on hospice in her home for close to 2 years!  

Really from the day his father died in 1996 we have had our Sunday mornings with his mother.  First we would go there after mass, when she would drive herself, just to spend some special time with her, then we would drive her to mass with us when she was unable to go alone, and then while on hospice we would go and bring Eucharist with us and share Jesus and the readings with her... Our Sundays have been filled with Faith and Family for many years now!  It was a JOY to share our Faith/Family/Farm Sundays now with  my father for the last 6 months!  

Then I found these from my father's 90th birthday five years ago at my sister's home!

Both look so wonderful!  How I cherish my wonderful years with my parents... our weeks in Michigan with them, but foremost the last 10 years that they lived close enough for me to visit them for days at a time!  Those visits are my JOY!  Yes, they make me really miss them now that they are both gone so quickly, but still... I am overjoyed to have those glorious memories and they are a gift to me!

Too good not to share 3!

The other side of Ruth and Paul's holy card gift!  LOVE!

A gift from Matteo's family with the love birds from their wedding invite, cake topper, and Ruth's delight at her boxes of wedding treasures now to share with her kids!

Unity candle and her MHS class ring - she now has 2 high school students at MHS!  Crazy how the years have flown by!

The plan was to light this while they had a family celebration supper after mass together.  Before that we brought the 150+ cows home ahead of the rain predicted tonight!

Ruth and Paul back from their anniversary get away to Iowa... the family gathered to get the cows home and between Pat and Paul - they worked the field before the coming rain!

Quite the sight - all home for the winter!  In February they all will start to have their calves, and the real work and prayers begin!

Rose giving her grandpa a hand!  She also drove the 4 wheeler along while Pat pulled out the fence posts and Paul wound up the fence wire till next summer/fall!

It seems like it takes 3 to do this view justice... I was just called out on my photo obsession!  Very true indeed!   It keeps me humble to know of my definite faults, which I am not really doing anything about correcting other than to shrug and continue to take 3 of the same thing... that is the magic number for some reason!

Pat brushing Joy's hair before bed.  I didn't know that my big strong farmer husband liked to brush girl's hair - even though we had 4 girls!  Very special!

A sunny breakfast with our little family here in town - John and Bobbi with Jude's big smile for grandma!  I thought to myself..."Another one trained!"

Birdie with any kind of strings - purse handle and pearls and thumb...

Much in the readings for today both close to home and convicting!  LOVE the Lamb from Revelations standing on the Mountain of God!  The Psalm today asks the question - Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?

or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.

R.        Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

Psalm 24

The Lamb is very close to our hearts as we have our nun, Little Sister Hallel, now a professed nun in The Community of the Lamb!  We are still basking in the glow of how miraculous it was for 21 of us to travel to be with her in France for her final vows - "I promise unto death."  2 years ago!  There were also 3 in the womb there!  The parable of faith of a mustard seed to move a mountain had so much Truth and meaning at that time and since!  

Joy calls Birdie "my new baby."

16 year old Simon with 1 1/2 year old Jude - only one younger and that is Birdie, but we are expecting our #20th this spring - Maria's7th!  Surrounding all new life in the womb with love and prayers without ceasing!  End the horror of abortion, Lord!

Water color time at grandma's - something that will be included in the plans for our family Christmas in January.  How we are praying that it can happen in this crazy year!  Lord, hear our prayers!

In the desk chair my dad used and came from their home... gone too quickly!

Out to see the ducks... Pat says; "I never thought I would be a duck farmer."  LIFE is full of surprises!

Jesus, may we give our ALL to you as the poor widow did today in the Gospel!  May we die to self so that you may live in us and we can give without counting the cost!  We are yours and we give all the control over to you.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Lovely memorial from my sister's family!  A special wreath for my sister, Mary, in New Richmond cemetery.  

Now for mom and dad buried side by side in Franconia, MN!  Dad predicted that he would soon follow mother.  I guess you could say that 7 months apart that he was right!  I am forever blessed that most of that time was spent with me on the farm!  He turned my home into a "farm monastery" and allowed me to share his "religious life" as a permanent deacon in The Church for 6 months! Bless-bless, Barbara

Today from dad in morning prayer book... speaking of his love of The Name of the Lord!  Dad certainly did bear His Name and proclaimed it loudly to us!

Words – certain words – have gained great significance for me. Reading the scriptures, these words have leapt from the page; I have even taken to underlining every time I find them. They center my life. The first is NAME.

How many times the scriptures tell us to honor the Name. In the Old Testament when God reveals His Name to Moses, the very ground where it occurs is declared holy, and God’s holy name is so sacred that the Old Testament substitutes “Lord” for every occurrence of the NAME – YAHWEH. He is Our Father, ABBA.

In the New Covenant, the Name is JESUS. “There of Jesus taken in vain.

I desire GLORY be given to the NAME. Glory is the way we praise GOD in the Highest. This is to enter the radiance, the magnificence, the awesome presence of the NAME. GLORY BE TO YOU, O LORD!

We are not to be shy or timid about our praise of the GLORY, we are to SHOUT WITH JOY TO THE LORD! If within our spirits we feel this exuberant shout when we contemplate the Holy Name, our spirits are lifted up and we are filled with joy, and the temptations that beset us fall apart like the walls of Jericho which came down at the SHOUT of the people of God. These words – when placed in the context of the Catholic Church of Jesus – become radiant with life and, in this context, I bequeath them to the next generation of this family and to those many others that I have loved in this life. is no other Name under heaven by which we are to be saved.” JESUS! When God’s name is treated lightly, when used coarsely as in the exclamation, “O God!” it’s painful, as it is when I hear the Name

A message of HOPE today is needed by many of us!  As we seek his "healing calm of your forgiveness."  

Honoring my parents with great beauty in this peaceful holy place!  Soon there will be mountains of snow to add to the beauty and difficulty of visiting them here.  They dwell in our hearts, and I am blessed to have mother and father teaching me each day in those books left behind bearing their lessons of Faith and Family with the help of Jesus, Mary and The Church!  

"On this Sunday which closes the liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe . . . He, the obedient Servant, is King because he has 'the keys of death and Hades' (Rv 1:18). And, because he is the conqueror of death, hell and Satan, he is 'the ruler of kings on earth' (Rv 1:5). In fact, everything on earth is subject to death. Instead, he who has power over death opens the prospect of immortal life to all humanity. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the fulfilment of all creation (cf. Rv 1:8), so that every generation can repeat: Blessed is his kingdom that is coming (cf. Mk 11:10) . . . The Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, invites us to repeat with faith the prayer of the Our Father, which Jesus himself taught us: 'Thy kingdom come'."

—Pope St. John Paul II, Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King, 23 November 1997 

Next Sunday Advent begins!!!

So many prayers for Son-in-law, Bill's sister, Amy!  

Danielle Rose - Wonderful ALL!!

Lauren Daigle