"It is looking like we are the only life in the universe" Pat this morning - then all the words came to powerful LIFE!/Offer it up!

My gift from Maria with a spot for a photo behind... A phrase that Pat's mother said often when hardships of life came their way.  Therefore I placed both of our pictures there so that we both could be reminded that we need to be loving with each other as Jesus is with us unconditionally!  Offer up those irritations and hardships that are included in our Most Cherished Cross we are asked to drag down the narrow path after Jesus!

Two years ago I had 2 daughters living in Kansas City!  Now I have only my Community of the Lamb which includes many additions to our family!  Nancy now lives in Delano by the Cities and Hallel is living in France this year.  We have fake plans to go to KC for an overnight this next weekend as we watch the storm that is coming over these next few days and ask for direction from Mother Nature and the Holy Spirit!

Maria pointed out that Hallel was already in this picture as she looks on from the tree...

I than shared this one with 3 Hallels - adding the ornament I made for 2018 with Hallel's final vows in France just a couple months after John and Bobbi's wedding!  Maria thought it was a bit much - but I countered with "never too much, however!"

Hallel has been added to this and it is now on my wall!  A friend pointed out that we filled up the church, and that gives me total JOY to know that we are united in our Catholic Faith and the beauty and JOY that we find there sharing Faith/Family/Farm!  Our domestic Church!

Starting on Feb 13 George will be 2, than on March 8th Hector will be 2 and finally on March 26th Jude will be 2 - lots of LOVE to go around and Pat's huge hands are full of little ones!  How he loves to hold them close to his heart!

The extent that love takes you...

Maria's oldest, Therese, and youngest, Hector, until baby girl arrives on June 1st!  Love to see my wonderful husband with his loving grandchildren, who can thank Pat and the Holy Spirit for the motto we live by in our family - Open the LIFE and raising LIGHTS!  The Church teaches us this and it rang like a bell for me when my husband spoke these words to me at our Engagement Encounter 43 years ago!

https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

This morning at breakfast Pat is always wanting to share with me his pearls of wisdom gained here and there... today it was that after looking into space it appears that we are truly the only life out there!  "I believe it and know that God chose us to be His creation and special, don't you?" This left me with quite a profound feeling of being special and LOVED!

Then I went armed with that from my Spirit filled wise husband to find dad pointing out to me these beautiful words from Sirach in the Office of Readings today!

A vision of Glory!  Wow!

Then dad and St Athanasius... I share these with my brother, Dan, and he is really appreciating the old Church Fathers that dad is sharing with us!  

St Athanasius continues - doesn't it just make you feel so loved and special?  There is a plan and Jesus is in control and He loves us unconditionally and wants us to come and live with him forever in Heaven with our loving Mother of heaven and earth, and all the Saints and Angels including my parents on their journey together now!

St Paul to us in the first reading today from Hebrews 3 - calls out to us that we keep to that path and turn away from sin!

The Holy Spirit says:
    Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
        “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
        in the day of testing in the desert,
    where your ancestors tested and tried me
        and saw my works for forty years.
    Because of this I was provoked with that generation
        and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,
        and they do not know my ways.’
    As I swore in my wrath,
        ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”
Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.  Hebrews 3:7-14

More from dad in morning prayer/Psalm 57 today including a prayer that he had memorized and we said together each night after evening prayer!  What JOY to find this gift from dad today!  Many nights I would be cleaning up supper in the kitchen singing over and over - "Happy to be known as Companions of your Son..."

More of how precious we are to the Lord!  LOVE Isaiah as did my father!  Isaiah 55:1-2 the Holy Spirit used to bring all 13 into The Church 49 years ago!

https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

The 13 on "the farm"/a broken down building site we made livable for getting out of the city in the summers and grow food..." shortly after we came into The Church!
I am super missing my parents and still find it shocking that they are both gone!  I was blessed to rush to my mother's side and be with her for her final hours, and to have dad here on the farm for 6 months with me!  Still it is so sad and lonely to have them gone from this world, yet it keeps my eyes focused more and more on heaven!

Dad's man, Brother Victor-Antione, sharing a bit late about the Baptism of Jesus... The Community of the Lamb has icons to help them come into the mysteries we are blessed with in our faith journey.  How I hope and pray that we can join them this weekend for prayer and mass and fellowship!  

Jesus, we long to love and serve you and adore your majesty all around us in this beautiful world we are given to care for and live in.  May we honor you in all that we do - dying to self so that you may live in us and we can be your hands and feet.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

The Sacred heart of Jesus loves us and cares for our needs watching that we stay on our narrow path to come into His Presence!  We are loved and forgiven unconditionally - may we return that to all those around us - most especially those the closest to us in our domestic Church/family!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 30!  

The year of St - pray for us!

Protect ALL LIFE from conception to natural death, O Lord!

"When Catholics are asked,

'Do you have a personal relationship

with Jesus Christ?'

they should answer a resounding YES!

 

 

 

There is no closer union with Jesus than when

you receive Him in the Eucharist.

You too can say with St Paul,

"...and the life I now live is not my own,

CHRIST IS LIVING IN ME." (Galatians 2:20)

 

Rev Msgr Richard L Carroll, V.F.

 

Danielle Rose

More Bach Cantatas - LOVE!