Sunday, August 27, 2023

21st Sunday - Tomato soup, overnight family, farm kids at the State Fair/Ruth-David/THE CHURCH - Eucharistic prayer #4! - +JMJ+

Fr Shawn after mass this morning.  He is just back from an 8 day silent retreat in LA at a Carmelite convent with 150 nuns!  Knowing the need for prayer for that part of our world - it seems so appropriate!  

Father Shawn shared that when he turned his phone on after those 8 days - "many were asking if I was OKay.  I found out that there was an earthquake and a hurricane while I was there, and the sisters decided not to tell me, but to trust."  Talk about the story of Elijah coming to life - Our Lord came to him in the tiny whispering sound of silence and there was nothing to fear!  

Father Shawn is a friend from our years working TEC - Together Encounter Christ retreats over the last 23 years!  He is such a humble and holy young priest!  This morning the words of Eucharistic Prayer #4 were especially powerful as they speak of God in such glorious and beautiful terms!  A glimpse of the glory that we will see in heaven forever and how we are given the Body and Blood of Christ to nourish us and assist us on our journey!  

It is right to glorify you
and to give you thanks, our holy and living God;
you dwell in light inaccessible
from before time and for ever.

Fountain of life and source of all goodness,
you made all things and fill them with your blessing;
you created them to rejoice
in the splendor of your radiance.

Now we praise you with the faithful of every time and place,
and give voice to every creature,
as we join in the eternal hymn:  Eucharistic Prayer #4

In the heat earlier in the week - David and Mary showing David's cow-calf pair!  They are on the road returning home - tired after a good time at the Fair!  
David can sleep anywhere.  
Mary with her calf beat out a couple calves under her.  
In the ring- she was interviewed on Fox News one morning and did a wonderful job speaking about her life on a cow-calf farm.  "My calf will go back into the herd and bring other calves into the operation."  
In the midst we did 60 quarts of tomato soup on Thursday - I was so distracted with help here and there...  This was the only picture that I took all day!  That speaks of fatigue and stress for me to not take one picture.  It was mostly Ruth and I with some help from the kids still at home and not at college and the State Fair.  So much going on!  
All lined up on my counter for me to keep an eye on them for some days.
Out military family and our Community of the Lamb - Hallel's family love our tomato soup!  It gives us much JOY to be able to share with our nun and her family of the Lamb.  She only gets to come home once every 3 years, but this way we can share with her our home cooking.
With the awful heat and humidity this last week - Pat and I decided to give our bedroom to his sister and husband as they headed through on their way to a wedding.   It was great to deep clean and this was a result of it!  A calendar Bobbi made a year ago and the engagement pictures of the 4 couples, plus Hallel with her Most Sacred Heart of her Spouse, Jesus Christ.... in the background - my parents on their wedding day which their 74th Anniversary is coming up on August 30th!  LOVE - literally!!  

The 4 are all taken with a grain bin in the background, and Yes I took them all!  Photos are my obsession, so to have to few of this last week is very unnerving for me!  

We were so grateful that the weather improved so that we could enjoy supper and visiting on our porch!  Pat's sister, Ida, husband, Craig and daughter, Julia!  
Two pictures was all!  I missed getting Corey and their daughter, Maeve.  
A day with Tom and Joy yesterday... in my clean and organized bedroom.
Grandma's bed is good for climbing and jumping.
My buddy gives grandma so many smiles and love!  

Our 25 free range chickens are coming up on the porch now...
Joy was trying to chase them off the porch, and grandma was snapping the cuteness.
Tom thinks they are naughty trying to eat the cat food.
Now the other direction.
Tom is a bit afraid of the chickens and they are very tame and come right up to your toes.  
Tom was not happy that he was eating the table scraps that Tom had put out there for the cats.
A standoff.
They have been in my flower beds too... sigh!
Tom playing so peacefully and contentedly on the floor at grandma's house.

It has been hard to be reading the readings each day and to realize that we were having the Book of Ruth for our first reading this last week!  I love that beautiful sweet story, and obviously the name as we named our first daughter, Ruth Ida.  One special first time noticing the fact that Ruth has her son, David.  And that Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David!  It was special for me to realize this very cool fact!  
Joy and Tom coming back from picking eggs together yesterday.  I know that Tom gets scared with how tame they are and come all around you.  It was cute to see Joy holding his hand.  
Joy said "no" to the swing.  When Maeve was here a day ago - she loved the swing too!  
Joy's watercolor self portrait yesterday.  Her great Aunt Ida called her "Pippi" which Joy did not really appreciate, but this made us smile as it says a lot...
Water coloring and time in the tub are two things that usually happen at grandma's house. Tom even painted with the help of grandma.

So wonderful to see all the balconies done on the Apartments Ruth and Paul are working on be The Catholic Church!  The pressure is on to get some ready for some college students that are waiting to move in! 
Wonderful outside space brand new and built to last a long time!  It will be so great to get this job done!  

A few years ago of my mother in her home with her Stain glass Alpha and Omega she found second hand.
12 years ago - Pat's mother with her 5 beautiful daughters!  Mom died at age 97 - 6 years ago now.  
4 year old Hector - #6 of our military family looking quite something!  
3 years ago Therese with baby, Birdie Barbara on applesauce canning day!  
Hector with 13 pails of apples - 110 quarts of applesauce - this year no apples to can!  
Family job - Pat with little George, who is one of the 3 four year old boys in 6 weeks!  
Picking apple crew.
My dad living with me 3 years ago ... He spent the last 6 months of his life on hospice living in my farm monastery - my great JOY sharing in the Religious LIFE of my father, a Deacon in the Catholic Church for 44 years!  

My father brought our family of 13 into The Catholic Church 52 years ago!  How I LOVE, love, love all that the Catholic Church gives to us!  

Pat and I spent some time listening to the conversion story of George Farmer, who married Candace Owen.  We then listened to a debate he had with a leading Protestant woman...


The debate - it shines through how much George has studied and understands of The Church which comes to us today from Jesus in Matthew 16 today in the Gospel ...

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."   Matthew 16

Wonderful young priest, Fr Shawn Polman!  Took time to visit with the children.
 
 My heart is steadfast, O God ... - Psalm 108, 1a
 
 

St Augustine has left us this praise of his mother, St Monica:
 
"She did not let a day pass
without being present
at the Divine Sacrifice
before Your altar, O Lord."
____________________
 
The Lord's day is the lord of days...
but also remembering today... 
St Monica
North Africa ~ 333-387
Mother of St Augustine
Patroness of Married women and Mothers
Feast Day - August 27

 
"Nothing is far from God." - St Monica
________________________________
 
As recounted by Augustine...
before his mother died she told him...
 
"There was indeed one thing for which I wished
to tarry a little in this life, and that was
that I might see you a Catholic before I died.
My God hath answered this more than
abundantly, so that I see you are now made
His servant and spurning all earthly happiness.
What more am I to do here?"

 
Prayer for St Monica's intercession
 
Exemplary mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly
pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with
prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so
that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them
how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal
sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.
 
St Monica, pray for us!
This feast today is reminding me that Nancy and Bill will be having their 13th wedding Anniversary tomorrow - The Feast of the great Saint Augustine!  Exciting times!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many Little Brothers and Little Sisters!  











Danielle Rose


Salve Regina - Hail Holy Queen - Hallel and her Dominican order sing this each night to Our Lady before bed!  LOVE!


 

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