Presentation -"Simeon held him one moment - we have him always with us!"/LIGHT and playing music on the canning jars! - +JMJ+

This sweet happy boy climbed up on a chair by our table and then onto the table and found a box of empty canning jars we had just brought back from our nun in Kansas City.  He delighted in being in the sunlight and playing music on the jars by giving them a rattle and a bump so that they would chime together in sweet music! 

Mom, Ruth, said that as they got near to our place Tom reached out with his hands and motioned with excited voice that he wanted to come to grandpa and grandma's house.  I am so humbled by thie love that I see in his eyes for this old woman.  I tend to be the less beloved of our grandchildren and grandpa always is more loved, but Tom loves us both so much and I feel very special as a result of his smiles and laughter at every little thing grandma does - is sooooo funny!!!!  

My parents and Our Lady of Perpetual help looking on - Tom was born a year after my dad died here in our farm monastery on hospice.  They gave him Robert as his middle name in honor of my father, Deacon Robert Cross!  Such a gift, and I know that dad is praying for him from heaven as he did here on earth every Monday - each of his 34 grandchildren first and middle names, and now his 68 great- grandchildren first and middle names including now new Lucy Marie Verly, who is now 3 weeks old.  

A future percussionist - playing the bells/Marimba!  We gifted a marimba to the Catholic School some years back, and it would be so special to see Tom playing it in the future!  

So much today as I say I am given too much with each new day in The Church! Today is the huge Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 40 days after his birth as required by the law of the Jewish faith - Joseph and Mary followed this in their lives!  

I love the Truth that Simeon, who had waited into his old age to "see" the Christ - only held him for a moment of great JOY, yet we are always able to have him with us on our journey of Faith/Family/Farm!  

He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

    “Now, Master, you may let your servant go 
        in peace, according to your word,
    for my eyes have seen your salvation,
        which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
    a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
        and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
-and you yourself a sword will pierce-
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  Luke 2 

Bells of JOY!

Father Denny at mass this morning in white for this beautiful Feast of Family!  He shared in the homily that we were all brought to The Church at Baptism and that "God showered new life onto that baby."

The candles today are very special in this feast of Candlemas

The meditation from the Magnificat today was so beautiful in regards to Mary in all this.

I love how he speaks of the peace that comes with the rosary!  How true that is!!!  

Thank you, Father Stinissen for this powerful beautiful sharing - we truly do come to Jesus through Mary!  

Now dad's man - Brother Victor a monk in New York, who truly is in keeping with our nun and her Community of the Lamb.  I see more clearly why their Christmas tree was still up and the nativity under the altar!  

He speaks of the candles - the theme of LIGHT - "a light to enlighten the nations" Simeon!  

I love how he speaks of the candles and the oil lamps in front of the icons!  This is very much used with Hallel and her Community of the Lamb, too!  I see how similar they are to Brother Victors' order of monks.  

Father lifts up Jesus for us each day!

My Lord and my God and MY LIGHT of Truth and LIFE!

Tom is so sweet in his excitement and JOY to come to grandma's house and see the toys he likes... his little combine.

Brumm Brumm...

Happy to see grandma and for the most part he is now walking more and more.  

Following the cat under grandma and grandpa's bed!  

"Come out kitty!  I want to pet you and rub your tummy."

Thomas Rober putting Deacon Robert's lift chair up and down with the light up bottons.

Busy active and happy boy when he comes to visit grandma and grandpa's just 3 miles from where he lives on the farm with his big wonderful farm family - Tom is child #7 and his oldest brother, Simon is 18 and graduating high school this year!  He is also Tom's Godfather along with his oldest sister, Mary, who is his Godmother!  So special!  

Leaving with his beloved grandpa, Farmer Pat, as he goes to feed the cows and calves and do all the chore necessary to care for their livestock in this cold weather - bedding is big!  

Until next time Tom!  Tomorrow we have fake plans to go over to visit his cousins down the street from the Catholic School.  It is son, John's 34th birthday tomorrow and I will pick up Tom about 9a from the school where his mom is helping out.  We will go half a block down Central Ave to John's house and have a birthday breakfast with them.  Tom will get some cousin time with Jude, Birdie and Lucy!  So fun!  Grandma will be in photo heaven!  

That's a pile of snow!  To the top of the swing set and almost to the top of the barn.  It is what they would call a "white winter" this year!

Pat's youngest sister, Ida, with her granddaughter Maeve on her first birthday this week. 

I was having fun updating my family wall with this great picture of John and Bobbi taken on Sunday.

All updated on my family wall other than the one with dad and Hallel taken summer 2020... that will be there for a while yet.  LOVE!  

Our 23rd grandchild is here, and so sweet and beautiful!  

The Lamb icon from Hallel's Community of the Lamb - "Wounded, I will never cease to LOVE."  So hard yet so important to follow in our marriages and families!  

Our family picture taken at CCC 2022 is already outdated... I guess we need to take another one sometime in this next year.  My passion!  

The calendar page for February on the calendar that Bobbi makes for each of our families!  My JOY - sharing our Faith as a family also as the Church asks of us - "open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS for this world!"  Jesus, we trust in you.   Bless-bless, Barbara and the 34 plus hundreds of Little Sisters and Littel Brothers that are our Family of the Lamb!  

Wow!  St Mother Teresa of Calcutta is TRUTH!  

Now mom and Pope Benedict XVI, who is on the road to Sainthood!  Pat and I are also listening to The Catechism in a year knowing that Pope Benedict was very big in writing that amazing book of Truth and Wisdom!  

 Feast of the Presentation of the Lord*

February  2

Today the Church celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
at Jerusalem.  In that same spirit, we present ourselves today to the Lord, 
especially in the Mass. Present yourself to Jesus today. 
Receive His life-giving light and love.

 

“Simeon gave back Jesus to His Mother,

he was only suffered to keep

Him for one moment.

 

But we are far happier than Simeon.

We may keep Him always if we will.

 

In Communion

He comes not only into our arms

but into our hearts.”

 

St John Vianney

 

This Feast is also known as Candlemas Day,

since the blessing and procession of candles

is included in today's liturgy. 

 

The symbolism of the candles is described

by Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, in his "Liturgical Year":

The mystery of today's ceremony has frequently been explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century. According to Ivo of Chartres, the wax, which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, always considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by His conception or His birth, the spotless purity of His Blessed Mother. The same holy bishop would have us see, in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus who came to enlighten our darkness. St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blessed Candle: the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on top, is His divinity.

 

 

The candles kept by the faithful in their homes

should be seen as a sign of Christ "the light of the world"

and an expression of faith.
_____________________

 

From the Pieta prayer book:

to pray while burning a blessed candle

in one's home during a storm:

Jesus Christ a King of Glory has come in Peace.+ God became man, + and the Word was made flesh.+ Christ was born of a Virgin.+ Christ suffered.+ Christ was crucified.+ Christ died.+ Christ rose from the dead.+ Christ ascended into Heaven.+ Christ conquers.+ Christ reigns.+ Christ commands.+ 

May Christ protect us from all storms and lightning. + Christ went through their midst in Peace, + and the Word was made Flesh.+ Christ is with us with Mary.+ Flee you enemy spirits because the Lion of the Generation of Judah, the Root David, has won.+ Holy God+ Holy Powerful God! + Holy Immortal God! + Have mercy on us. Amen.

__________________________________________

“Christ Himself says, ‘I am the light of the world.’ And we are the light, we ourselves, if we receive it from Him.... But how do we receive it, how do we make it shine? ...The candle tells us: by burning, and being consumed in the burning. A spark of fire, a ray of love, an inevitable immolation are celebrated over that pure, straight candle, as, pouring forth its gift of light, it exhausts itself in silent sacrifice." - Pope St Paul VI

___________________________________________

More on the Feast of the Presentation:

 

*The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord marks the time when Mary and Joseph first brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. According to Mosaic Law, after a time (40 days) of waiting, Mary was to bring an offering to the priest as purification after her having given birth (Leviticus 12:2-8). Hence, this feast is also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It was also within the context of this event that the Holy Family meets Simeon and Anna, encounters which are recorded in Luke 2:22ff.
                The encounter with Simeon has given us one of the most beautiful and haunting canticles (songs) the Church has today. The words that Simeon spoke upon encountering the infant Jesus have been recited and sung through all the ages of the Church. The prayer is called the Nunc Dimittis, Latin words which comprise the first words of the prayer. Here is the complete text in English, taken from the Liturgy of the Hours:

    Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;

Your word has been fulfilled.

My eyes have seen the salvation
 You have prepared in the sight of every people, 
A light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your  people, Israel.   

To add to the haunting beauty of these words, the Nunc Dimittis is typically said at the office of Night Prayer, just before going to bed, when, as we lay ourselves down to rest, we also look ahead to our eternal rest. It’s a wonderful grown-up bedtime prayer! (Hat tip:  Patrick Conley)

Danielle Rose - Simeon's JOY - the Presentation!  

She wrote a song for every decade of the Rosary!  Amazing!

Danielle Rose

Tauren Wells