Knocking on doors of the poor/ from blooming trees to fallen trees/Recognizing "it is the Lord!"

A parting picture with our wonderful Little Sisters of the Lamb as we were about to drive through rain to get back home.  We had an amazing 24 hours with them including mass twice and time with Jesus in Adoration, we shared ourselves at wonderful meals including one prepared by a dear friend, Marielena and her grandmother - beans and rice we love!

Highlight is always our time shared with them and their Spouse, Jesus Christ!  The humble prayerful chapel was filled with the stunning burst of Easter JOY!  The Little Brothers with time on their hands due to covid - have been adding to the decor with crosses that light up under the altar.

Pat by St Agnes - He is now a week on the mend since his surgery to repair 4 tendons in his shoulder after an accident.  The rain and the need to heal led to our sudden unexpected trip to KC/Lumen Christi - Light of Christ in the heart of the poor and of our country.  So very needed to fill the heart of our country with prayer and modeling the values of living your Faith and sharing Jesus in Word with the poor!  

My most favorite flower is the lilac!  To find this one by the monastery on our way to see the baby chicks that made the 7 hour trip with us from Runnings in Marshall, MN to the coop behind the Little Sisters in Kansas City... was my total JOY!

Lilacs abloom and the chicken coop!

Our 5 chicks sang to us all the way... healthy and happy to be home at The Monastery and to get a drink!

We arrived right at Communion and the great silence where they ponder the beauty of Jesus coming to them in His Body and Blood... Easter JOY with the branches that they gather around the area and flowers that they beg for from the florists in the area! 

I love this from Fulton Sheen today!

"By a beautiful paradox of Divine love,

God makes His Cross the very means

of our salvation and our life.

We have slain Him;

we have nailed Him there and crucified Him;

but the Love in His eternal heart

could not be extinguished.

He willed to give us the very life we slew;

to give us the very Food we destroyed;

to nourish us with the very Bread we buried,

and the very Blood we poured forth.

He made our very crime into a happy fault;

He turned a Crucifixion into a Redemption;

a Consecration into a Communion;

a death into Life Everlasting."

Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

 

After mass the Community meet their baby chicks with so much joy that I just had to take too many pictures and will share them as I write about our time there.  I always tell myself that I should have a notebook and keep notes to record their amazing stories of sharing Jesus with those that are dying or lonely or hungry.

ls Joyce with her new soft sweet baby chick.

After we had placed the 5 babies under their mother hen, we shared a meal and they were so excited to share with us that they had gone knocking on doors of the poor to beg for their food for the first time in over a year! 

Pauline is the lover of chickens and so yearned to have baby chicks hatch out!  On Holy Thursday to their great JOY they had a baby chick hatch under the mother, who was sitting on many eggs!  So we brought 5 more baby chicks to add to her brood!  She was beaming and so grateful for our trip with her sweet babies!

The babies got very sleepy in their warm hands and loving as they had a long day on the road of constant chirping for 7 hours straight.  

As we gathered for supper each group of the 3 that had gone in different directions begging shared with us their stories of knocking to no one answering to dogs scaring them and then of those that opened the door and welcomed them and made them food to share.  How they then shared the Gospel with them and that day it was the Road to Emmaus!  I was especially struck by the sharing of a young girl, who had been living with them for the last 2 months and this was her first time experiencing going on mission..."I shared with Paula, who had prepared us some food, that today Jesus stopped and went into their home to eat and stay with them."  Wow!  How powerful and how the Gospel comes to life for that woman and her son!

Little Brother Francis Xavior will be ordained a priest this summer in August!  How we love to share in the journey and joy of our wonderful Community of the Lamb and are so blessed to have them just half a day travel from our door to theirs in KC!

Amaya with a new sweet chick - that new life along with lilacs and a chapel alight with flowers and greenery truly is heavenly and speaks of The Resurrection - Death conquered death!  

Marie John has a beautiful voice as do they all and the singing is transporting us to a very heavenly place when we join them for their prayer and mass!  To come during Easter Week - the "Hallelujahs" fill us with so much peace and happiness - JOY indeed!

Francis Xavior soon to be a priest!  Baby chick so tired after such a big day, and now in safe and loving hands!

I couldn't stop!  

As we ate with them they shared each one their powerful experience of knocking on the doors of the poor and the lonely.  "We encountered peace.  We ate in peace, but it was good and spoke to us of her contentment to have us there eating at her table."

The parade of Little Brothers and Sisters bringing the 5 new baby chicks to their new home!  

This one chick was almost a week older and willingly shared her mother with the new 5.  They are warm under the protection of her wings!  Talk about the Psalms coming to life!

My cup overflowed with a lilac tree in full bloom to greet me!

The welcoming committee for the new arrivals from Minnesota!  So appropriate during Easter week!  New life that were taken under the wing of their mother hen!  They will send me updates of how they grow and develope!

Of course, lilacs and Hallel joined us for our supper of sharing! 

I shared with them my time in Pennsylvania and hospice for Amy a month ago.  They shared with me about a special friend of The Community, who recently died on hospice close by.  When they were told that he was near to death - The Brothers and Sisters went and filled his home with prayer and a vigil at his death bed.  "There was a hospice nurse there, and she said that in all her years she had never seen anything like it!" LOVE to envision all of is and the spiritual realm that opened up to their prayers!

Hallel and lilacs and sharing with each other from the heart!  I love hospice so much and the honor and privilege I was given once again to assist and witness the peaceful passing of a person walking into the sunset of their lives surrounded in the comfort of their home and surrounded by loving family there to say their "goodbyes!"

We were able to see Hallel on Zoom and she got to see her old dad healing now with his arm in a sling.  

Out to check on the baby chicks on the following day... they love their new mom, and all is well, right Hallel?

Blooming lilacs a symbol of Easter!

Hallel is now showing a sign of her being given kisses by Birdie at Easter!  

A dear friend with Hallel - made us a Puerto Rican lunch with her grandmother.  We shared at lunch some of our adventures in France sharing a trip to Lourdes when we were there for Hallel's final vows in July of 2018!  Lots of laughter and giggles and smiles all around at the unexpected gift of sharing the gift we share in our Community of the Lamb!

Mass for Easter Thursday!  The Gospel from Luke 24 - "Peace be with you"  Surrounded by Easter Joy and Peace!

Nurturing ‘Catholic Sprouts’: Nancy Bandzuch’s mission to empower Catholic parents - TheCatholicSpirit.com : TheCatholicSpirit.com

An amazing article about Nancy's ministry from The Catholic Spirit!  Take the time to read it!  

I need to end this today... too much to share - my cup runneth over!  Bless-bless, Barbara