Blue door and mums/Holy charming downtown living/The Exultation of the Cross Feast - "This is how one loves"

When Ruth stopped to pick up Tommy last evening she mentioned that she had painted the front door blue.  Yes, indeed!  But her touch with the huge mum plants were not expected, but not totally a surprise knowing Ruth and her flare for beauty - flowers everywhere in all kinds of pots on her beautiful porch and in front of the shop on the farm.  Not to mention her perennial bed gardens.

This place is announcing that it is loved and cared for!  The Parsonage.  

We had a wake last evening and then we stopped in our outside dining just a small distance from the new place.  How I am loving the downtown living we are having now - much like a European - Roman living.  The steeple overhead reminds us of the holy spaces so close by - Jesus in the Tabernacle!

Outside cafe... I walked down to check out the new blue door and found so much more!  

Speaking of love and care for this 90 year old cute house - soon to be a special place to stay for weddings and funerals and hockey players, etc.  All kinds of reasons to come to stay in Marshall for some time.

A light on in the kitchen as they were staining and varnishing the kitchen floor.

Fall colors welcome you.

Bursting sunshine!

Fr Denny under the Cross on this Feast of The Exultation of The Cross!  There is no better verse from Scripture than the second reading from Philippians today!

Reading II Phil 2:6-11

Brothers and sisters:
    Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
        did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
    Rather, he emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    coming in human likeness;
    and found human in appearance,
    he humbled himself,
    becoming obedient to death,
        even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
    and bestowed on him the name
    that is above every name,
    that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    and every tongue confess that
    Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Fr Denny lifting up The Body and Blood of Jesus - "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."  

Receiving Jesus each day is such a wonderful blessing and it is my greatest JOY to stop in and pray anytime with Jesus in the Tabernacle in our beautiful church!  And now to have a special place right across the street in the midst of downtown... I am overjoyed with a feeling of "holy charming downtown living."  That is the best I can explain the warm embrace.

Visiting Mary today as she holds out God - Jesus as she truly is the Mother of God!  There is the Cross at their feet!  

The Gospel today is from John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.   John 3:16-17

Jacki Valasquez - John 3:16 - God so loved the world

Leaving church after mass this morning - our little gem!  I should really say - Ruth and Paul's little gem.

Stepped in to see the floor - not on the floor as it has been varnished and stained.

The view from the front window - new windows are ordered and then....

In Rome you walk out one church and look down the street to another.  It just feels very special to have 2 beautiful old churches right across the street!

So close - as one of the authors I read today said - "Cross yourself when you pass by a church."  You would be constantly crossing yourself!  

Blue door and mums one way...

The Church of our marriage and family the other way!  Pat has always gone here from birth/Baptism to today!  Tomorrow it will be 68 years!  So important to our domestic Church/family!  

Tom was such a good boy for his old grandma, but today he is with his mommy - "There isn't that much to do at the house today, so I will stay home and clean and keep Tommy with me."  Ruth this morning.

It was a special time to sit so close to Main street with all the comings and goings - even big trucks come right down the center of town, people out walking and motor bikes and cars as we enjoyed a lovely evening and had some great food.  

"The old Rugged Cross" as they used to call my father as our last name was "Cross!"  This is a special Crucifix that hung in a maple tree in our grove when our 3rd daughter discerned out of the convent after discerning for 5 months - she made a Stations of the Cross and put it throughout the grove at the farm.  

When she left to join the Convent of the Poor Clares in Sauk Rapids - she left this powerful sign by the crucifix in her brother's room - "This is how one loves."  Yes!  

Truly this is how we know LOVE!  Also Lourdes water and John with Fr Craig just coming out of the Miraculous waters of Lourdes in 2009 in the midst of his battle against brain cancer!  He is now the new John and 13 years cancer free along with finding his Faith through brain cancer.

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

John's Spirit Juice Video - he now has wife and children!  His story continues to this day!  

Today in dad's prayer book!  

The NAME!  Dad you make me smile - thanks for all you left for me!  

Yes, Dad, we love The Cross - our Salvation!  

Glory!!!

SECOND READING

From a discourse by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop
(Oratio 10 in Exaltatione sanctae crucis: PG 97, 1018-1019, 1022-1023)

The cross is Christ’s glory and triumph

We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be canceled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation—very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his triumph. We recognize it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake. As to the cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once. And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven: I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the cross. And if you would understand that the cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said: When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

The whole text from iBreviary 

Dad's man, Brother Victor!  Today 

When we cross ourselves daily - "We glorify the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation , life, and resurrection, by whom we have been saved and freed."

Mom left me daily meditations by Pope Benedict XVI - I am overwhelmed to have mom and dad with me each day taking me so deep!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 54 - 34 with us and 20 in heaven including both my parents, who died after celebrating 70 years of marriage and only 7 months apart!  Each day they join in the LOVE we share for Jesus, Mary and The Church!  50 years ago they brought all 13 of us into The Catholic Church and each day since has been a blessing and the greatest gift to me and my domestic Church/family!  

"Blest is the wood

through which

justice comes about."

 Wisdom 14:7

 

Exquisite mosaic ~ Tree of Life, Holy Cross (detail) ~ San Clemente - Roma

“The event of the Cross and Resurrection

abides and draws everything toward life.” (CCC 1085)

Feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross

September 14

"How splendid the cross of Christ!

It brings life, not death; light, not darkness;

Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord,

like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side,

but healed thereby our wounds.

A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life."

St Theodorus the Estudite

 

Painting (detail) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Luigi Gregori

Spes Unica: (Our) only Hope

 

"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.

Receive in this bread that which was hanged on the cross; receive in this cup that which was poured from Christ's side. For he will gain death, not life, who thinks Christ is a liar."

St Augustine

"On the Cross human misery and divine mercy meet. ...The Cross is planted in the earth and would seem to extend its roots in human malice, but it reaches up, pointing as it were to the heavens, pointing to the goodness of God.

By means of the Cross of Christ, the Evil One has been defeated, death is overcome, life is given to us, hope is restored, light is imparted. O Crux, ave spes unica!…" - St John Paul II, homily 09.14.03

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross - YouTube (3 mins)

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Roodmas)

Click here: Crucifixes and Crosses
_______________________

"He who runs away from one cross,

will meet a bigger one on his road."- St Philip Neri

__________________________________

O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross 
when I think of yours!"- St Bernadette Soubirous

_______________________

 

Crucifixes on rosaries, worn around one's neck and in one's home
serve as enduring and endearing reminders of the magnitude

of Christ's love and serve as focal points for private prayer.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen summarized the reason
for using a crucifix instead of an empty cross when he said,
“Keep your eyes on the crucifix,
for Jesus without the cross is a man without a mission,
and the cross without Jesus is a burden without a reliever.”

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee

because by Thy holy Cross

Thou hast redeemed the world!

_______________

Danielle Rose - True love - the Cross!  

Danielle Rose