"The Good Shepherd is really GOOD!"/"How do we learn to pray? By praying" St Mother Teresa/Sunday dinner - starting our week with prayer!

Nancy and her 4 youngest gave me a special gift!  Sharing a wonderful Sunday dinner with me on the farm!  

It was not technically a "Farm Dinner" as Maria coined the phrase 30 years ago meaning a meat and potatoes dinner with more than one vegetable on the side, but with lots of broccoli with melted cheese it came close!  It reminded me of most Sundays in the past that I would have a wonderful family meal and we would gather around the table to enjoy our wonderful bounty of family and food that we grow!

A tender sirloin tip roast from one of our steers raised from a calf, meat juice and our homemade applesauce!  Dominic ate every bite and thanked grandma for our wonderful meal, after we sang "Dominic is a clean plate club!" and then he topped it off by asking me to make "this exact same meal the next time I come."  Oh, Domo, you made your grandmother's day!  

It was tender!  Thanks to our wonderful farmers, who feed the world starting with calving out the cows, putting the pairs on grass soon, and in the fall putting the calves in the barn and feed them to full maturity for your wonderful beef on the grill!

A big part of Sunday dinner with family is lots of fun conversations!  My heart is full!  

I do realize that now with our Sunday brunch it has replaced our gathering for a nice Sunday dinner.  It is equally wonderful and has become a beloved family tradition.  To have then a special Sunday dinner later with Nancy's family was a wonderful gift to me!

Morning and evening is a big job of feeding our 8 bottle calves.  Joy has a special one that she likes to help feed and with so many each helper is really appreciated!  

8 year old Bernadette and 6 year old Dominic both helped out side by side and grandma had to snap a few pictures of the willing cousin helpers!

I am still over the moon about how Hallel called and talked to us for quite a long conversation - probably about 45 minutes total!  I was so happy about this miracle on Vocations Sunday that I had to share the news with Retired Bishop LeVoir!  He has been so supportive of Little Sister Hallel/formerly Susan's journey in religious life, John through his cancer, as well as his year in seminary.  And since Christmas when I sent him a Christmas card and he sent me a note of thanks with his email... we time to time share news and for me great support for my blog and the ongoing story of John and Hallel!

Always need more than one!  Those are big baby bottles!

It was such a blessing to have Hallel call on Vocations Sunday and catch up on our family including surgery to correct John's double vision this week in Rochester... that I reflected on The Good Shepherd and how he loves His sheep!  "I just wanted to share this special blessing we were given on this Vocations Sunday - The Good Shepherd was caring for the sheep that he loves so much! " I wrote to Bishop.  Such a tender perfect timing for Hallel to have heart to heart conversations with 3 of her 4 siblings and their kids!  6 year old Dominic, who had lived in KC and visited the Little Sisters weekly shared with Hallel that "I miss the Little Sisters and you.  Are you coming back soon?"  

So sweet - while Joy feeds her tiny healthy calf - she pets her on the head.  She is soft and curly and very sweet and small enough for Joy to have a calf for a pet.

I was overjoyed to hear back from Bishop with these words which both of us understand in a most true way..."The Good Shepherd is really GOOD!"  Yes!  "I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me... I will lay down my life for the sheep." John 10 from the Gospel yesterday.  

Yes, giving Hallel our support and blessing to become a nun/Bride of Christ in The Community of The Lamb was a sacrifice, yet the Lord has blessed us richly as a result of that pain we suffer at not having her in our day to day life.  Her prayers are so powerful and important to us and we share our needs with her, and hers with us!  Yesterday was totally a gift of His Holy Spirit in the timing and the time she spent with us all!  It was almost like having her seated at our huge 4th Sunday of Easter Brunch on the farm.  Even better in the ability of Ruth, Nancy, and John to have some private conversations with her on the phone away from the craziness!

Snow outside made for a quiet Sunday inside until the men had to get dry bedding down for the cows and calves before night fall.

Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep....I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture....

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  John 10 continues today with the Shepherd and what he means for us is so true!  We experience this abundant life in our family with new life always welcome and making our LOVE bigger and more - not stretched more thin!  And such special times like we were given yesterday as a family only add to our knowledge of that wonderful way he cares for us, his sheep!  

Trying to capture the joy we share in wonderful family sharing food after receiving the Bread of LIFE in the Eucharist in mass!  

This woman amazes me in the clarity of her seeing The Truth and sharing it with us!  "How do we learn to pray?  By praying."  Yes!!!

More words of wisdom yesterday from her...Such an amazing reminder of how Jesus is in control and as our Good Shepherd we can trust in him for leading us to holiness and helping us to become "saints!"

Danielle Rose - the saint that is just me

from dad yesterday in the office of Readings on the 4th Sunday of Easter - our church father, St Gregory the Great!

See how dad leads me with his help on this narrow path I am on with so much help!

Love that last paragraph as does dad!  Dad and mom kept their eyes on the prize and are on the journey to heaven together now!  Praying more perfectly from heaven for their huge family of 130+ and I am now praying for 3 new lives in the womb!  Mom and dad are joining me!

John and I begin the first moments of our week sharing prayer with Jesus in the monstrance!  Just as we were praying I heard from my youngest sister that she was sad and lonely and I could promise her that I was praying for her right there and then!  Once again the timing of the Holy Spirit at work.  She responded that she wished that I could hold her in my arms, and I pictured Our Lady doing that for my sister as spiritually that it the Truth!

Saint Mother Teresa's truth rings like a bell as John and I are led deeper and deeper into prayer for our family, country and world as we lift up our voices in prayer together with Jesus and His Mother, Queen of Heaven and earth, and filled with The Holy Spirit that dwells in "the sanctuary of our inmost heart.  In reality there is only one substantial prayer, Christ himself.  One voice which unites in itself all the voices raised in prayer."  St Teresa

Doing the family litany of both of our families... lifting up 3 new lives in the womb and a new marriage a few days ago.  LIFE grows and blesses our domestic Church/family!  Bless-bless, Barbara

Good Shepherd Sunday
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. PS 23

Danielle Rose

Zach Williams

"Our life must reach out toward the Infinite,

and from that source we must draw whatever

we can expect of merit and dignity." - Bl Contardo Ferrini

 

"Then the sacred moment arrives when we receive our Lord

and are united with Him.  The moment itself is fleeting;

it takes just a quick swallow, a short turn, and we walk back to our seats.

To transform this ordinary routine... At the moment

of communion, we could use some mental or vocal aspiration

such as that of St Francis de Sales:

Who am I, Lord, and who are you?

 

 or perhaps that of St Elizabeth:

Where does this blessing come from -

that my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43)

 

or that of St John the Evangelist:

Yes, come, Lord Jesus. (Rev 22:20)

 

...the actual thought or saying can be anything that helps us

to focus on the moment immediately before us."

 

Fr Thomas F Dailey, O.S.F.S.

Excerpt from book: Live Today Well,

St Francis de Sales's Simple Approach to Holiness (2015)