A year ago in their assisted living! I am in such a state of loss these days. Here just a year ago I had their wonderful new home to visit and spend wonderful days with them, and now they are both gone! My wonderful times with my father living here for 6 months with me are no more. Together we shouldered the Cross called "natural death and living it all for Jesus."
A year ago when I would visit them, dad would share from this book he was reading during Advent. So when I now have it here with his other books of great beauty and sharing with his marking them and sharing with me... I am moved and touched and reunited with his deep pure spirituality and LOVE that we share for Jesus, Mary and The Church! The Church which dad brought all 13 into 49 years ago on Midnight Christmas Eve mass - we all took our First Communion!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.htmlLove this description of the season we are in now both entering winter and Advent as we look for the Lord to come into our waiting/watching world! Truly "the year is worn out." This is very powerful for me as dad and I shared an entire growing season as he arrived here on the farm on April 13th and we watched the bare trees put on leaves, the land tilled and planted and all around us the crop grow with each new day, ripen, and then harvested.
I totally was convinced that father would continue to be here for Advent and Christmas with plans that we would be here with him for prayer and worship in our home. Christmas 2020 with my father, but instead he left me a month before Advent began... he left behind for me his amazing prayer books with many markings to guide me and show me the LIGHT in the midst of the darkness of this end of the year - worn out indeed and the loss I am suffering with both of my wonderful soul-mate parents now gone!
Some more of his teaching and sharing with me with St John Henry Newman.
The readings today are also amazing all of them!
Isaiah 26
”Trust in the LORD forever!
For the LORD is an eternal Rock..."
First Week of Advent with my parents! Having them both gone now is what they both wanted, and that is comforting and having the month of November when we are called upon to pray for our dead was very personal for me this year. Eternal life is real and yet a mystery as we know that it is a journey - I am confident that my parents are on their way there, and that keeps me on my knees in prayer in my inner chapel!
The star and the advent wreath... it is a holy time and one that was set aside for more serious family prayer times during the years with our family around us and now Pat and I are praying together by the Advent wreath in the evenings. We also are trying to make it to mass together daily.
"Come Lord Jesus!"
Mom and dad a year ago... little did they know that they would were on their final journeys in this world and on to the next!
They would get dressed nicely and come out with their canes to the dining room right across the hall from their room. I asked them to stand by the tree and allow me to get some pictures of the two of them dressed for Sunday mass. I took them out to Sacred Heart in Robbinsdale.
Can't get enough of this final Christmas!
Praying morning prayer with them... mom called the tree "pathetic" but it was the right thin size for their little place.
The Gospel today always reminds me of the cabin mom and dad built in Michigan on the sand - a vacation home for us and a retirement home for them.
Matthew 7
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
No, the cabin did not collapse, and we loved it so much there. Still we need to have a firm foundation for our lives/domestic church/family... Jesus!
Pictures of my stay with mom and dad last December... Our Lady of Guadalupe now is in my bedroom, which was dad's apartment up until October 23rd.
Mom smiling at her friend, Dr Pol!
Mom's beautiful ornaments
So many memories that give me sadness yet happiness at the same time. Bless-bless, Barbara
Love this description of the season we are in now both entering winter and Advent as we look for the Lord to come into our waiting/watching world! Truly "the year is worn out." This is very powerful for me as dad and I shared an entire growing season as he arrived here on the farm on April 13th and we watched the bare trees put on leaves, the land tilled and planted and all around us the crop grow with each new day, ripen, and then harvested. 
Some more of his teaching and sharing with me with St John Henry Newman.
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