"Go home to your family" - All things Catholic/Our Lady of the skies!!! Jesus making wine for our marriages! +JMJ+

Wearing my blue apron I borrow when I help in the kitchen with my daughter, Hallel, in hers over her blue habit.  I tease her that dressing my 4 girls alike led her to religious life as they dress in matching blue habits the color of the sky and the shape of the Cross.  

One postulant to be on Thursday said that meeting us for the first time - she can see a lot of Hallel's way of speaking and acting in me.  Made me smile because I think she is much more like her dad. 

The 4 girls and I  - I even sewed msyself a skirt from the same red plaid fabric!  

Little Brother David, who is blind, holding his brail machine that allowed him to sing the Psalm with 2 of the other little brothers at mass.  

He played the harp during the Gloria along with flute and trumpet.  Hallel is directing the music which she shares with others!  The music and singing is what we will experience in heaven with the angels praising and adoring God without end!  

Pat really enjoyed visiting with David, who visited our farm the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  He is such an amazing young man.  He shared that he went through a lot of rebellion in his teen years as he realized that he was going blind.  A lot of anger, yet now he glows with such a light of JOY!  The LIGHT comes from within where Jesus and Mary dwell in his inner temple!  

I teased him that it is so appropriate that David plays the harp! 

David and Jesus... We are taken so deep with adoration following mendicating the Word of God and finding echoes throughout the Bible morning and night.  He has never been able to see the chapel with his eyes but certainly with the eyes of his heart.

I have to share these sweet babies that joined us for mass yesterday.  The little girl is Rose and is 4 months and the baby boy is Bruce, and is 6 months.  His Aunt is Little Sister Stella.  Nothing more sweet and beautiful to see them meeting each other and Rose was so excited that she just squealed and squealed with JOY!

She was talking and talking with her sweet high voice and I realized that she had been moved to "sing" after all the heavenly music we had just been immersed in throughout the mass!  It truly is as it will be in heaven with the angels and Rose and Bruce were certainly angel babies!  

Little Sister Stella with her entire family in Lumen Christi chapel yesterday!  First grandchild, Bruce is the greatest gift! 

Sharing mass with hubby and other parents of Little Sisters - there were a total of 4 sets of parents at mass and lunch following sharing the blessings and graces we receive from our daughters and our family of the Lamb!  As Pat shared; "We did not lose our daughter or family as she has taken a vow of chastity.  Instead we have gained hundreds new members to our family!  We are all family!"

Little Brother David, with Little Brother Jean Marie, and Little Brother Louis Marie singing the Psalm during mass - David is using his brail machine to read the Psaalm.

The Gospel is processed in and bowed to with insence - Jesus is The Word, and He is loved, worshiped, and adored from morning to night in The Community of the Lamb!  

"MY Jesus!  I adore you!  You came to earth to be part of a marriage."  Part of my marriage and those of my children!  Those that are broken and hurting.  You make wine for our marriages from the water we offer you! Gladness of heart!  

For The Community it was Cana Sunday as they are still in The Christmas Season until Thursday this week!  I was blown away with how deep we went into how Jesus and Mary minister to us!  

Although blind it was so powerful to watch lb David serving father at the altar.

Talk about heavenly music - LS Marie John and LB Louis Marie!  

Still the nativity of the Grotto...

Wonderful to see an old friend from the beginning of Hallel's journey with the Community 15 years ago.  Hallel went to Chicago to work on her Visa and met up with Dorotha.  She has been in Poland for some years.  She shared that she is using a pot that is from her home growing up!  I know how special it is to see our things used and loved by The Community!  

The hand comparison with Marie John and our soup and spaghetti sauce getting put away.  Talk about feeling like we are indeed parents of these women!  Ruth and I can for 6 families and it is so special to have our nun enjoying her homegrown food from the farm where she grew up and helped with the canning!  

Applesauce canning about 31 years ago - John will be 34 on Friday and he looks about 3 here!  Hallel is in the green shirt next to Nancy in the turquoise shirt.

How I love to be parents that can share from our life and work with our nun and her family of the Lamb.  And in return we are blessed to learn and from their deep contemplative life of prayer and love of Jesus in His Word!  Also that they are the poor in their leaving behind all!  

I delighted in  a conversation  between our 2nd daughter, and our nun -4th daughter about her trip to NYC, as well as the saint book Nancy has written and sent to Hallel!  Pat and I marvel at how we are taken so deep at the feet of our children!  

The talked and shared and I was filled with awe and JOY!  

Nancy's book can be purchased on Catholic Sprouts! 

Yes, we took her shopping at Walmart for some pans they badly need!  There are many that look at us shopping with a nun, and I smile inside and probably outside, too!  

My joy to spend time with my daughter and helping with their needs for day to day life.

Back in Marshall this happened!  Such a prize - it will soon be on my wall - John and his sweet family around new almost 3 week old Lucy Marie!  

The girls - Bobbi, Lucy and Birdie

Happy and Peaceful in a picture!  

John and I met and prayed in the middle of the night!  LOVE!

Verly beef for lunch - Hallel and I made burgers for all!  

It was a great 26 hours from arriving at 12:30P on Saturday after almost 8 hours on the road with a winter storm in Iowa, and then heading back at 2:30p on Sunday to arrive home close to 10p after listening to Patrick Mahomes barely win the game - just across the river from Hallel in KCM - Kansas City, Missouri!  

Burgers are a treat for them, while they are quite often our meal on the farm or some version of beef in some way or another.  I have a sirloin tip roast in the over for tonight!

The official pose of the pile of burgers for 24 people for lunch.

Breakfast feels like home when I get my French bowl of coffee!  I smile big as they bring the coffee and pour it into my bowl.  I have my napkin clothes pin that holds my napkin, the Lamb, always flowers and my daughter in the view to make my heart sing!  

Stella pouring Pat coffee in his bowl 

I had to smile at having pancakes with a new jam- strawberry peach.  It makes me recall when John and I went to France very suddenly during his brain cancer - after his second chemo he was getting better!!!  He could get himself to the bathroom on his own at the airport, so we within 24 hours got tickets and went to France for Hallel to take her habit and change her name from Susan to Hallel!  

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

John in France in August 2009!  He is there with Susan, Nancy, Judith, and Father Craig!  We were amazed that the Lord made a way for us to be there.  And then I would go down the hall and make us pancakes every morning from a huge back of Krusties pancake mix I had sent to Hallel for $50 in the mail!  It is a long story and makes me smile so much!  We had all sorts of different jams to put on it- never syrup!  

Judith and Hallel looking up a scripture verse that has been very special for an engaged couple, who discovered that the house they wanted to live in between the Little Sisters Monastery and the Little Brothers Monastery had a bad foundation.  It spoke of trusting and building up the foundation.  

The desert train that blesses our end of the meal with The Community!  If there are children present it usually includes them, but Bruce will have to get a bit bigger to join them!  The two young women following Hallel are Collete and Abby and on Thursday they will both become Postulants of the Little Sisters!  Collete is one of 8 children from Georgia, and Abby is middle of 3 girls and is from Michigan - her priest is Godfather to Maria's Therese and Hallel is Godmother!  Small world!

An adorable story was shared at our meal of a special chapel in the NYC airport - Our Lady of the Skies Chapel!  Hallel and Marie John will be flying there to return with a Cardinal from France, who is coming to spend time with The Community in the second week of February!  Our Lady of the Skies Chaplaincy at JFK and LGA in New York City (jfkchapel.org)

They contacted the priest in charge, Fr Mark,.and were told that they will provide all the Cardinal needs to say mass when he gets off his plane.  So special!!!   It makes me almost want to fly into JFK someday, but not quite!

The headline - Your Connection Between things up there and down here.

Hallel is very excited to spend a day in NYC!  Thanks to Nancy's Catholic Sprouts network they have a place to stay the night.  "They sleep on the floor so you don't have to have a bed for them."  

The blessing send off after a most wonderful heavenly time with our daughter and our family of the Lamb!    I have been working on this for 2 hours now!  I must end it for today.  Jesus, I am overwhelmed by your LOVE for me and for such a wonderful time with our nun!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 34

"The world's thy ship and

not thy home." - St Thérèse of Lisieux

Hail Holy Queen as sung in night prayer by The Community 

Salve Regina