Thursday, June 30, 2022

Picking up bales on Hwy 59 - Prayers for safety/Red for martyrs at mass/The paralytic from Matthew

Sitting at an inner section I watched as Paul loaded Simon pulling a wagon with the tractor down the side of Hwy 59 at a busy time of evening - 6p.  Cars go by from both directions at 65 miles an hour, and my anxiety goes up.  I was called upon to help pick up bales for the first time, and many prayers for safety!
Our bean field looking good and Ed's farm across the road.  Paul picking up the bales to put on Simon's wagon as traffic flies by.  Paul is wonderful to work with and talks to us on the phone as he works with us step by step to get the bales safely picked up.
Repeating Hail Marys, and did I mention that there are many trucks coming from Marshall and going to Marshall.  When they fly by in both directions - you can feel that you are jolted.
And then there was the hot dusty wind!  The wind of the prairie stirred up dust indeed.
Loading a bale on the big rack that holds 13 bales.
The grain bins on the left in the distance is where Pat and I lived with our first 4 girls on Highway 59!  Many fond memories of our nest years there.
I enjoyed having this perspective of picking up bales along Hwy 59 at the end of June 2022.
Pat taking 2 bales off the rack at a time to put in our bale pyramid at the farm.
Official selfie of dusty hot and windblown Barb after being very nervous picking up bales on Hwy 59.
Jumping in the pool was inviting, but I just washed off my arms and face with the cool water instead.  I think bales make a pretty backdrop for this old worried farm wife.  I am so much of a city girl at heart, that I do worry more than my daughter and her kids, who have grown up on the farm and are inherently used to living and working on the farm.  Still prayers for safety for ALL!
When I got out of the pickup - I was right by the 4th Station of the Cross - Jesus meets his Mother. Obviously it was made in 2204 - so is 18 years old and has been on the tree through all types of weather including winters!

 Maria made these stations of the Cross when she came home after discerning a call to be a Poor Clare nun.  The Lord's answer was "not for you, Maria."  Now she is married to Major Joseph and they have 7 children in the military.

Another day of red vestments for the First Martyrs of the Roman Catholic Church.  They speak of shedding of blood for our Lord, and "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.  Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb."  The Lamb that shed it's blood for us! 

The Gospel today is a very special one to me each time it comes up.  It recalls the way John was lowered into the presence of Jesus for healing by our prayer warriors 13 years ago!  Jesus found his Faith through brain cancer, and is now the New John!  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: John's cancer stories

His Spirit Juice video made in Chicago some years ago - his story continues now with wife and children!  

Those that attack our Church - the True Church instituted by Jesus to St Peter, the first pope and certainly not perfect.  It hurts to have those close to us attack The True Church that I love with my ALL, and I know with Pope Benedict - that Jesus will not abandon His Church!  

My mother has this folded in her daily meditations by Pope Benny and how she loved to have this reminder when she was under attack also.
6 years ago memory of the girls minus Hallel in Rome and John at Catholic Heart work camp.  We were expecting our 14th grandchild here.  Now we are expecting our 23rd!  LOVE our family motto of being open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!  Thank you, honey for allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our domestic Church/family in line with the teachings of The Catholic Church - each marital act needs to be open to LIFE!  

God’s love for us is free, total, faithful and fruitful (life-giving), and the couple’s love for each other should be all these things as well. In fact, these four aspects of love – free, total, faithful, and fruitful – are mirrored in the vows & promises that a husband and wife exchange during their wedding.
Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Our marriage stories - "The world needs LIGHTS!" 
This is right outside our bedroom window and a sweet singing bird has built a nest there... too cute and I knew that the lovely singing was close and special.
Sitting on her nest and singing so joyfully!  There are mulberry trees all around her that give her so much food - no wonder she is happily singing for happiness and sweetness.  
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.  Psalm 19 has some sweetness in the Lord's judgments even in our lives.
My brother, Dan and his wife, Angela, share back and forth the blessings I am given every day from our parents in the prayer books they left behind.  I shared this with Dan today as it was a prayer that dad had memorized and that we said together each evening after we had shared evening prayer of The Church after supper.  Oh, dad, I love you and miss you, but I am so happy to continue to have you guide and direct me as I sit at your feet! 
Now dad's man, Brother Victor, finds God all around him - out in the fields with God.  So true of our farming way of LIFE - not just a job but a LIFE!  
The martyrs died for Jesus and The Church!
The Michigan memories are coming as this is the weeks that our family would spend at the Lake!  7 years ago at Hereford and Hopps 
Luke and Dominic 7 years ago.
Mary and Therese with a bouquet of wild flowers for the table.
8 years ago - Luke and Patrick.  I am thinking that baby Luke looks a lot like his baby brother, Thomas Robert.
Sweet boy Tom!  

Jesus, hold us close to your heart burning with love for us.  May we die to self so that you may use us as your hands and feet and voice of Truth.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 51 - 34 with us and 17 in heaven.
Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts. - Psalm 33:1
 
 WeekofPrayer2017.jpg (620×410)
 
"Jesus, for You I live.
Jesus, for You I die. 
 Jesus, I am Yours in life and death."
 
 From Reflections and Prayers
for Visits with our Eucharistic Lord,
John J. Cardinal Carberry

 
 
FEAST of the First Roman Martyrs ~ JUNE 30
 
 The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome were Christians martyred
in Rome during Nero's persecution in the year 64.
“This dreadful conflagration continued nine days; when Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe odium cast upon him, determined to lay the whole upon the Christians, at once to excuse himself and have an opportunity of glutting his sight with new cruelties. This was the occasion of the first persecution ...
Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for them that the most infernal imagination could design.  In particular, he had some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs till they expired; and others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axle-trees, and set on fire in his gardens in order to illuminate them.  This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity."
 
A. Wright
A History of the Principal
and Most Distinguished Martyrs

 
Torches of Nero ~ Henryk Siemiradzki
 
Holy Martyrs of Rome, pray for us!













Danielle Rose



Zach Williams













 

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022

St Peter and St Paul - "right religion"/Cinderella with the farm family

Rose and Joy in the pumpkin coach from Cinderella last evening.  We all enjoyed our time watching Uncle John on the stage and all the special effects they pulled off so wonderfully. The coach with 4 white horses and Cinderella changing from rags to her beautiful white flowy dress in front of our eyes!  There was a big applause for that!  
The young girls in the audience were given "princess crowns" to let them know that they are special!  We think our sweet happy loving Joy is exactly that!  Special in every way!

Lined up on the stage before the show.
It was so fun to sit beside Joy for the show - she sat right on the edge of her seat and laughed with glee and Joy at all that was happening!  A true test of how great the show was even with some missing due to covid.
The orchestra seated at the back of the stage was very good and the music by Rogers and Hammerstein was so great!  

Impossible from Cinderella - Emily Rose did a wonderful job as the Good Fairy.

John was happy to see Ruth's family there to support him, and we sure did enjoy it!  Tom is there but got cut off in my picture... he was such a good boy!  
And Tom - we filled up the place with JOY and laughter.  We love to support John and his love of the stage - behind is his Oliver shirt from when he had the lead at 11 in Oliver.  That was 22 years ago and he has been in the majority of them since.  
Have to take 3 - Ruth was getting late for her hour of adoration.  The best hour of her week!  
A beautiful peaceful cool morning with a gentle breeze unfurling the flag - the cows and calves were eating the grass in  front of the barn, licking or nursing their calves.  Reminds me of the 23rd Psalm... the Lord is my shepherd...
Bales with green growing fields behind them also captured my attention as I stopped in the middle of the road to capture the early morning light with the waist high corn - in a week it will be shoulder high?
Ruth was surprised that in her 3 days gone on her retreat that the "corn grew and filled in the rows."  
Now a bale with the bean field behind - love the morning light on my way to mass - today is the amazing feast of St Peter and St Paul!  

My attention was captured as Father Denny read the Collect/Prayer before mass this morning.  Dad would always say that the collect was so good to take to heart as it encapsulated what the mass was centered on each day - "O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul give us the noble and holy joy of this day, grant, we pray, that your Church may in all things follow the teaching of those through whom we received the beginning of right religion..."

Jesus in His Body and Blood - LOVE "the right religion" we have been given from Christ to St Paul and St Peter, and down through the ages from Pope after Pope!  
Today is definitely a day for our Popes!  One active and one retired!  So many prayers for The Church!

LOVE this and Our Mother of God given to us at the foot of the Cross to bring into our homes!
So true - their main agenda and focus is on abortion of the life in the wombs of struggling women!  
There are no gray areas - it is black and white Truth!  
Dad today in the Office of Reading for me!  
The truth of my parents!  They kept the faith in the face of some that came and attacked The Church.  I am forever grateful to mom and dad for bringing all 13 into The Catholic Church 50 years ago.  Each day since has been a total gift and Blessing upon blessing!  One of my greatest joys was sharing my Faith with no reservations with my parents and now with my entire domestic Church/family!  All 34 of us!  Faith/Family/Farm!!! 
Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: The amazing story of the 13 becoming Catholic! 
Dad's man, Brother Victor, and dad pointing out to us - "A Gospel lifestyle" we can look at St Peter and St Paul to see how that can be lived out! My parents also!  
A year ago with Pat and Trump hat.  
An inch of rain and a rainbow a year ago!  Then we went into a drought.  We are now looking for rain as the lawns are lookind dry and more importantly the thousands of acres of our fields and the water for cows and calves out on pastures.
Pat with his cows a year ago...  Today he is baling along Hwy 59 - lots of prayers as they work along that busy road.  
John with Birdie Barbara a year ago - her daddy cares for his kids while Bobbi works.  
I guess we can see this Truth when we look at the examples of St Peter and St Paul!  
LOVE the Word!  Benedict is a great Jesus man!  

The eye of God at the Boundary waters!  Wow!
LOVE the Beattles but especially St JPII!  
Funny family photo from 1993 Easter - John falling down Easter hat picture in Taylors Falls visiting my parents.
What a great man of God!  St Paul pray for us.  Happy Feast day to son-in-law, Paul, and grandson, Simon!  
Wise and holy man, Pope Benedict XVI
8 years ago in Michigan - my week was usually over the 4th of July for the first few weeks of July.  I am feeling sad that no longer do I have this wonderful place to spend time on the inland Lake Michigan sea!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 51 - 34 here with us and 17 in heaven!  
Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul
June 29
______________________
 
"This day has been made holy by the
passion of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
... These martyrs realized what they taught: 
they pursued justice, they confessed the truth, they died for it."
- St Augustine, Sermon 295
__________________________

 We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. - 2 Cor 4:5

 
Entrance Antiphon (Today’s Liturgy)
 
These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became friends of God.
 
Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)
 
May the prayer of the Apostles, O Lord, accompany the sacrificial gift that we present to your name for consecration, and may their intercession make us devoted to you in celebration of the sacrifice. Through Christ our Lord.
 
Prayer After Communion (Today’s Liturgy)
 
Grant us, O Lord, who have been renewed by this Sacrament, so to live in the Church, that, persevering in the breaking of the Bread and in the teaching of the Apostles, we may be one heart and one soul, made steadfast in your love. Through Christ our Lord.
 
Sts Peter and Paul, pray for us!
 
St Peter was chosen by Christ to be his first Vicar on earth; he was endowed with powers of the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:13-19) and charged with the role of Shepherd of Christ's flock (Jn 21:15-17). In St. Peter and his successors, we have a visible sign of unity and communion in faith and charity. Divine grace led St. Peter to profess Christ's divinity.  St. Peter suffered martyrdom by crucifixion under Nero, in about the year 64 AD. He was buried at the hill of the Vatican; recent excavations have revealed his tomb on the very site of St. Peter's Basilica.
St Paul was chosen to form part of the apostolic college by Christ himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). Selected to bring Christ's name to all peoples (Acts 9:15), he is the greatest missionary of all time, the advocate of pagans, the Apostle of the Gentiles. St. Paul was beheaded in the Tre Fontane along the Via Ostiense and buried nearby, on the site where the basilica bearing his name now stands. Source: Daily Roman Missal, Edited by Rev. James Socías, Midwest Theological Forum, Chicago, Illinois ©2003
 








Danielle Rose




 

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