JoJo's feast day! St Josephine Bakhita - "close the door because I am staying" to St Peter./24 hours later aglow with Jesus!

Still basking in the after glow of our huge day filled with Sacraments on Sunday!  Newly confirmed Simon and younger sister, Mary, stand beside their parents for their baby brother, Thomas Robert's Baptism.  They are willing to be his Godparents sharing their Faith with him on his journey.  

Holding the LIGHT of Christ with Our Lady looking upon them.  

The Confirmation mass began at 3p and the late afternoon sun came streaming in so bright as the LIGHT and Fire of The Holy Spirit truly was at work in each new candidate!

Come Holy Spirit dwell in each and guide them in the plan that you have for each one of these 50 young adults - the plan for them alone!  May they always embrace their Catholic Faith and love All that The Church gives to us for the journey.

4 priests and a deacon for the mass!  A huge step for these young people as they said "yes" to Jesus, Mary and the Church!

The LIGHT still streaming in all around Simon and his beautiful mom!  

Under the Cross of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT - Jesus asks us to take up our Cross and follow after Him down the narrow path to Heaven forever!

Double blessings - 5 years ago David's First Communion with Joy's Baptism in the middle of the mass - Father asking the parents - "I Baptized your child, where have you been?  Bring them to receive Jesus in the mass each week, please."

Now Simon is confirmed and then a short time later is his baby brother's Godparent as he is Baptized into The Church.

Deaon Travis then had us gather around the altar speaking these amazing words to us...

The celebrant stands in front of the altar and addresses the parents, godparents, and the whole assembly in these or similar words:

Dearly beloved, this child has been reborn in baptism. He (she) is now called the child of God, for so indeed he (she) is. In confirmation he (she) will receive the fullness of God's Spirit. In holy communion he (she) will share the banquet of Christ's sacrifice, calling God his (her) Father in the midst of the Church. In the name of this child, in the Spirit of our common sonship...

He than said this blessing over Paul

Celebrant: God is the giver of all life, human and divine. May he bless the father of this child. He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith. May they be also the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ruth surrounded by 3 of her sons was blessed by these words...

A. Celebrant: God the Father, through his Son, the Virgin Mary's child, has brought joy to all Christian mothers, as they see the hope of eternal life shine on their children. May he bless the mother of this child. She now thanks God for the gift of her child. May she be one with him (her) in thanking him for ever in heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So amazing and beautiful!  No better prayer or heartfelt wish for her son!  Thomas is truly a sign of New LIFE for their family!  What a gift of LIFE!

Joy and JoJo- Josephine!  They will both be 5 soon for a few weeks together.  They are sweet cousin friends now.  Today is Josephine's Feast day - St Josephine Bakhita!  Such an amazing Saint to be named after!

Last night - 24 hours after being here for the 2 Sacraments for my 2 grandsons... I once again had the late evening sun beaming in over Jesus in the tabernacle for 5:30p mass before I had to work in the Birthright office.

Just 24 hours before we had filled the Church and the Spirit came there.  It felt so special and more clearly a space of encounter with my Jesus.  Fr Denny reminded us that Jesus is there for us to visit and pray with in the tabernacle whenever we need to come to Him - just as touching his clothing was healing and a coming close to him in the Gospel!  

Jesus in the Eucharist!  

"I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."  "My Lord, and my God."

Josephine painting with grandma a few years ago - St Josephine is on the mantel and she is surrounded by her cousins.

Home from Catholic School - St Maximilian in Delano, MN posing with her amazing Saint!  Usually they get a happy meal to celebrate their feast day, but JoJo wants to get a smoothy at the gas station instead.  Fancy!!!  

So true of our Spiritual Mother and when we see the beauty of her love for us - we are filled with so much PEACE and JOY!

This leaves me a puddle of tears!  

 Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere... Psalm 84:10a

 

St. Josephine spent hours in Eucharistic Adoration and,

when one Sister asked if it tired her, she said,

"Not at all!  I have been having

a wonderful time with Him. 
He has waited so long for me."...

"Our Lord has always been so good to me ...

If I were to stay on my knees for my entire life,

I still would not be able to

express my gratitude sufficiently."

 

St Josephine Bakhita

Sudan/Italy ~ 1869-1947

Religious (Canossian Daughters of Charity)

Click here: Canossian Daughters of Charity - Who We Are

Pope Benedict XVI, on 30 November 2007, in the beginning of his

second encyclical letter Spe Salvi (In Hope We Were Saved),

relates her entire life story as an outstanding example of the Christian hope.

Feast Day - Feb 8

Toward the end of her life, Mother Bakhita used to smile and say:

"I travel slowly, one step at a time, because I am carrying

two big suitcases. One of them contains my sins, and in the other,

 which is much heavier, are the infinite merits of Jesus.

When I reach heaven I will open the suitcases and say to God:

'Eternal Father, now you can judge.'

And to St. Peter: 'Close the door, because I'm staying.'"

______________________________

 

Click here: St. Josephine Bakhita - YouTube

_________________________________

 

St Josephine was known for her smile, gentleness and holiness. 
She even went on record saying, “If I were to meet the slave-traders 
who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, 
I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, 
I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

 

St Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!

Time with Tommy today - posing by his gift from his Aunt for his Baptism!  You are so special Tommy even though you are #7!  Ruth had me hold him and rub my nose in the chrism on his head - I am still smelling it as I sit here writing.  LOVE!  

3 years ago - Simon, Mary and David cleaning out the bunks after a big snow. Today was in the mid 40s!

Joy this morning wearing her VCC shirt - I love to see that!  

Hubby took me to Pipestone with some fat cows, and stayed for the hay sale.  No jacket required on this spring like day..  He also worked on his talk on prayer for the Emmaus Weekend coming up this weekend.  Prayers for the prayer talk!  

Nice day to sell hay.  Talking to my sweet sister-in-law about our wonderful family gathering over the weekend on Saturday - only missing 2 of my 8 siblings!  16 of us together sharing food and ourselves one with the other at my brother's restaurant - Phil's Grill in Center City, MN.  He serves breakfast and lunch 7 days a week!  

Already fake plans to get together again this summer!  We all live within 2-4 hours of each other, so we truly should gather more often!  

Oh so true!!!  Pat's talk about prayer - "it was all I could do!  It was out of my control!"

2 years ago - side by side bubble sinks with Jude and George.  Now Maggie has started and soon we will be adding Thomas and Regina.  

Maggie a week ago in Washington!  So cute and how they love to play in the water and eat a few bubbles!

Dad and I prayed together at 3p first the rosary and then the chaplet!  LOVE!

Coming from the suffering she endured in her early lifetime - she so appreciated learning to love Jesus, Mary and The Church!  Such bottomless gratitude is so powerful to see and such a lesson to us!  

Jesus, may we love and adore you with unending appreciation for your unconditional LOVE and forgiveness you pour upon us.  May we die to self so that your Holy Spirit may use us as your hands and feet.  May we give without counting the cost.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Therefore we can totally and completely TRUST in Jesus!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 46 - 33 here and 13 in heaven!

O God beyond all praising

Salve Regina - Gregorian chant 

This is the same version that the Little Sisters sing before going to be each night!  In a little over a week Pat and I are going there for a parents weekend - we get to stay in the Monastery with them!  So many blessings - we are so spoiled!  Thank you, Jesus!!!