Flurries, school mass, and praying with Tom/"they did not stop proclaiming the Christ, Jesus"/ John 6 begins with a miracle! - +JMJ+

Getting Tom dressed this morning I chose a shirt that I bought for his older brother Luke along with the 2 cousins that were his age...

Grandpa with his arms full of little boys at CCC 2014.  

He's got the whole wide world in his huge farmer's hands!  Dominic is now 8 as is Romeo, and Luike is 9. 

Tom getting some holy water in the School this morning.  We stayed for mass with his 2 sisters and brother.  Mom and dad are taking Simon to South East Technical University in Sioux Falls today.  Exciting times lie ahead for Simon, who graduates in a little over a month.  

My favorite statue of Mary - Immaculate Conception at the Catholic School where all our children went to school and now Ruth's kids and soon John's too.  

Waiting for the kids to file in for mass.  He was such a good boy for grandma.  

Once Tom gets through Holy Redeemer School Ruth and Paul will have kids in Catholic School for 22 years!  This year they have 3 graduating - Simon from High School, David from Catholic School and Joy from Kindergarten in the Catholic School, which is celebrated by an 8th grader, her brother David, giving her a graduation hat and walking down the aisle in the chapel together. 

Praying while grandma is praying with 7 Sisters for Fr Denny.  He is playing with the bells that are rung when Jesus is lifted up - Body and Blood.  

I was thrilled to find that we are reading John 6 at mass starting at the beginning of the first part where Jesus feeds the 5,000!  This chapter of John is overlooked by many churches other than The Catholic Church where we have The Eucharist!  Today Jesus speaks these words to us...So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.  John 6

Future altar boy and ringer of the bells when Jesus is lifted up so that we recognize the miracle that is taking place!  "My Lord and My God."  I was withdrawn to the mountain alone with my Lord...

When we had the chapel all to ourselves to pray - it was fine for him to investigate and ring the bells.  

Ruth's Easter decor in the chapel with the snow flakes coming down outside - yes, it is April 21st and it is cold with snow flurries.  Some are saying that 2023 has such a short summer of only 3 days!  

This school will be your school too, Tom.  How we love our Catholic School and how it has helped us raise our children and now grandchildren in The Catholic Church!  Such a blessing!  

He crawled up in grandma's lap and soon was asleep so that  I could lay him on the pew next to me.  He amazes me at how wonderful he is for grandma to share my prayer time with.  

The first reading today from Acts 5 was so powerful and reminding us that we are called to go forth filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaim the Christ, Jesus!  

After recalling the Apostles, they had them flogged,
ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus,
and dismissed them.
So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy
to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.
And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes,
they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus.  Acts 5

They rejoice that they could suffer for the sake of the name... and all day they continued to teach and proclaim the Christ, Jesus!  I continue to be blessed with this grace of Jesus coming to me in Word, Body and Blood every day and then taking that forth into my home and sharing it here with all!  

The prayers of children peacefully sleeping for an old grandma praying for with 7 sisters for her priest.

I am one spoiled grandma with this sweet boy.

Ruth decor in the chapel.

Easter Vigil 10 years ago... Rose will be 11 on May 1st and Augustine will be 12 on May 25th.

The 4th sorrowful decade of the rosary today.  I walk the Stations of the Cross as dad and I would do when we prayed on Tuesday and Friday the Sorrowful Mysteries.  Doing it in the school was a gift to me - how I love when Jesus meets his Mother on the way.  

Another special one is Jesus is stripped #10.  Why?  Because it is the humility station and it was where Susan/Hallel would sit and pray for the Lord to show her his plan for her.  Answer:  Go to France 15 years ago and join The Community of the Lamb.  

Ruth and Paul 10 years ago with the baby Luke and baby animals.  They shared them in the chapel as the weather must have been cold and wet like it is this year.  

Hallel's prayers answered!  She is now a fully professed Little Sister in The Community of the Lamb.  5 years ago 24 of us went to France to witness her final vows - "I promise unto Death." 

Witnessing her JOY brings tears to my eyes!  "I found him whom my heart loves.  And I would not let him go."  Song of Songs

9 years ago on Good Friday... baby Bernadette adoring the Cross, which is our Tree of LIFE!  

Tom's napping allowed me to read this amazing second reading from The Office of Readings today - I know that Fr Denny reads this and morning prayer so this is how I join him in prayer!

From a sermon by Saint Theodore the Studite
(Oratio in adorationem crucis: PG 99, 691-694. 695. 698-699)

The precious and life-giving cross of Christ

How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in his hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom’s pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness.

The wonders accomplished through this tree were foreshadowed clearly even by the mere types and figures that existed in the past. Meditate on these, if you are eager to learn. Was it not the wood of a tree that enabled Noah, at God’s command, to escape the destruction of the flood together with his sons, his wife, his sons’ wives and every kind of animal? And surely the rod of Moses prefigured the cross when it changed water into blood, swallowed up the false serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians, divided the sea at one stroke and then restored the waters to their normal course, drowning the enemy and saving God’s own people? Aaron’s rod, which blossomed in one day in proof of his true priesthood, was another figure of the cross, and did not Abraham foreshadow the cross when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on the pile of wood?

By the cross death was slain and Adam was restored to life. The cross is the glory of all the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the sanctification of the saints. By the cross we put on Christ and cast aside our former self. By the cross we, the sheep of Christ, have been gathered into one flock, destined for the sheepfolds of heaven.

Such a sweet wonderful boy he is for his old grandma.  He woke up just as I was ending my hour and walked to the car for me, too!  So perfect!  

I am gearing up to have Naney's 2 youngest for this next week while she attends a conference in Alabama.  Bill will have the 4 older kids at home for school days, and grandma will have George who is 4 and Regina Maria - Queen Mary who is now 16 months and newly walking slowly by the hand.  For that I am grateful.  

Tom with a picture of Simon at his age that I have on the wall of my office.  

That boy looks like me...  

Lord, how we love and adore you- your Cross, your Body and Blood and your Word!  We are showered with so many graces and blessings along with those snow flakes.  May we die so self so that you may use us to share your Good News far and wide.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Hallel's home visit in 2020 when my dad was living his last 6 months in our farm monastery.  It was July with lots to green, and Birdie was about 2 months old.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 34 plus hundreds of Little Brothers and Little Sisters.

"No one will have any other desire in heaven

than what God wills;

and the desire of one will be the desire of all;
and the desire of all and of each one
will also be the desire of God."

St. Anselm, Letter 112

"I adore and venerate You 
as much as ever I can,

though my love is so cold, 
my devotion so poor.

 

Thank You for the good gift

of this Your holy Body and Blood,

which I desire to receive...that which 
You promised through Your truth,

that my joy may be full…"

 

St Anselm

nee Italy ~ 1033-1109

Archbishop of Canterbury

Benedictine monk, theologian, philosopher

"Father of Scholasticism"

Doctor of the Church

Feast Day - April 21

 

 

"O God our God, grant us grace

to desire you with a whole heart,

so that desiring you we may seek and find you;

and so finding you, may love you;

and loving you may hate those sins

which separate us from you,

for the sake of Jesus Christ."- St Anselm

 

"From the moment of her fiat, Mary began

 to carry all of us in her womb." - St Anselm

Hail Holy Queen - Salve Regina 

Danielle Rose