Friday, January 5, 2024

Ruth Ida Rose is 44! - a great light has come upon the earth./Joy and Henry here for the night - +JMJ+

This was gifted to me today from the mother of Abbey, the postulant in the very back.  Fr Matthias had come to Kansas from Michigan where he is the parish priest in Abbey's church in Brighton, MI.  He has a Holy Spirit Ministry Called Encounter Ministries.  The Community has connections with a group in Kansas.  He was staying with Maria's family on base at Fort Leavenworth, and I spy Evangeline in some very big blue habit and cross.

Maria just left on a silent retreat, so I will have to wait to get all the details.  Fr Matthias is also the God father to Therese along with Godmother - her Aunt Little Sister Hallel.  A nun and a priest for her Godparents - I am sure she will consider a call to religious life with those wonderful influences.  I do know that this was Saturday evening at Lumen Christi/LIGHT of Christ Monastery.  

Our oldest Ruth celebrated her 44th birthday yesterday.  Ruth is so much a part of our lives as they are our big wonderful farm family that live just 3 miles away.  I hosted a party for her whole family and John's too!  She has 7 children from 19 year old Simon to 2 year old Thomas.  How Pat and I appreciate all that they do for our big busy farm!  Ruth is a farmer right along with her dad and husband, Paul!  
Ruth seems to be blessed with a little one on her lap.  Now that their huge undertakings with The Parsonage and 8 unit apartments next store are completed.  She should have more time to spend with her family - especially little Tom.  

11 years ago we celebrated Ruth's #33 at grandma Ann's Verly - she is holding 8 month old Rose Again.  There have  been 3 more babies on her lap over those 11 years - Luke, Joy and now Tom!  Ruth has been blessed in all the ways I had hoped and prayed for myself and my family.  Each pregnancy has brought the gift of a baby to her and Paul.  

My nest years were full of losses, and Ruth has not had any.  I do pray for a possible twin to Mary that she lost early in that pregnancy - I call her Martha.  Ruth celebrated her first anniversary with a 2 month old - honeymoon baby as did all of our 4 married children!  I wept with every period after our marriage and after learning to detect my cycle with NFP - Pat and I were 5 months pregnant on our first Anniversary and with great JOY welcomed our beautiful Ruth on January 4th, 1980!  


Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Now the stories of John's 4 sisters...Ruth, Nancy, Maria, and Susan/Little Sister Hallel!
Praying for Ruth at mass on the Feast of Elizabeth Ann Seaton, who is known for her work founding Catholic Schools.  How we love them in our family!  All our kids and their dad and his siblings attended Holy Redeemer.  Now we have Ruth and John's attending.  We also have Nancy's at St Max in Delano.  LOVE our Catholic Schools!  Maria Catholic Homeschools her 7 military kids!  
Ruth's favorite color is blue - so had to light a candle for her yesterday morning after mass.  I was feeling pretty emotional to have my oldest and the first daughter that blessed me with a giving birth day - now 44 with so very much she does to bring LIGHT into this world!  
Mary the Mother of God - brings us to her Son!  She blesses me every day with all the fruits of the Spirit!  Peace, Joy and love to name a few!  
I am humbled by so much love from my children here and the 7 in heaven!  
how we all love the gentle love and acceptance of Mr. Rogers!  My kids grew up on his sweet way of loving us just the way we are! 
Farm dinner is our favorite!  Pat saying a beautiful prayer over our Ruth with her family all gathered around her and our other family in town - John, Bobbi, and their 3 littles!  
"Bless us O Lord..."
A table full of siblings and cousins.  
19 years to 11 months - 
Lucy meaning light will be 1 year old in a week!  She loved all that grandpa fed her as long as it was drowning in our farm applesauce!   Stuffing was all gone with applesauce! 
"This girl likes to eat!"  Yes, she loves our homemade applesauce!  
Mary making fun of all the candles she lit for her mom to blow out after we sing "Happy Birthday!"  
She even lit it on fire!  
Simon joins in the making fun of their mom being 44.  There were only 24 candles, but still impressive.
Here comes Tom to fill her lap with a loving little guy!  You are so lucky Ruth!  

From the Alleluia today before the Gospel from John 
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A holy day has dawned upon us.
Come, you nations, and adore the Lord.
Today a great light has come upon the earth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Truly I see how much LIGHT that has come to the world through our Ruth Ida - nurse, mother, farmer, remodeler exceptional, who has the vision and does the work, forgiving and loving wife, appreciating her Faith and actively growing in it.  Thank you, Lord, for Ruth and all she does to make this world better and bring light into the darkness of the world.  

Mary's burning marshmallow!  
Happy Birthday!  
Family fun will continue to next week when we will sing Happy Birthday to little Lucy for the first time!  Her first Birthday on the 11th!  

The olders on the phone together by our beautiful fireplace in the basement!  We have lived here 7 years and since New Years we have lit our fireplace for the first times now for the last 4 nights!  No TV on Exodus 90 means we have the fire to watch instead!  LOVE this!  
Joy and Jude running away from Tom the dinosaur - up and down the stairs laughing and running!  
He growls and snaps his jaws!!!  
The Birthday girl by the fireplace.  
Looking at Delany cattle for sale in a few weeks.
Praying with hubby - we are saying The Rosary each night together now.  A great gift where the peace fills us as we pray together for our family - Mary taking us to her Son, Jesus Christ.  
A pendent banner from CCC overhead and so true - PEACE.
My new photo screen in my kitchen with a picture taken of Ruth coming home from the hospital 44 years ago - my little Rosebud!  
A family trip to DC last summer...
Home from taking their picture for the parish directory - Ruth had them take some around the farm in their matching blue.
Picking up Tom to stay with grandma while mom flips the 2 Airbnb - the Parsonage, and the first floor apartment in their new building next store.  Too cute! 

An amazing ice tree in Iceland - a frozen waterfall.
A new Christmas tree that I am enjoying for the last week fo Christmas - advent wreath was too beautiful to put away yet...
A new tradition - fire in our beautiful stone fireplace after supper each night.
Our rosaries ready for each night praying for our family together.  "Holy Mary, the Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death."  
A prayer that my dad had memorized and we would say together each night after sharing Evening Prayer after supper.  He lived with me the last 6 months of his life in my farm monastery while on hospice.  So blest! 

Pope Benedict yesterday - my mother left this for me to pray with daily.

Tom found a picture of mom and dad kissing on my tree - taken in Rome on their honeymoon 20 years ago!  
Birdie and Tom playing in the front room.
6 year old Joy on the photo screen next to her mom.  At the County Fair with the small goat she was given for showing goats as a Cloverbud.  Tonight Joy is coming for an overnight with a Siamese kitten now cat that will maybe become my next house cat.  His name is Dickens, but Joy knows that I name my cats after the saint of the day.  Today she can choose between Henry or Newmann. The Saint for today is John Henry Neumann.
Joy and Dickens now Henry just got here.  She got off the bus in her church clothes and grandpa brought her over for the night.  Grandma had to take advantage of her pretty dress with my new kitty...
He was meowing and scared and now he is following Joy around and getting love.
I will have to try a lot to get some good pictures I guess - sigh!  
The best so far - a grandma's work is never done!  
Joy went in the  bathroom and Henry is meowing outside the door.  Good thing she is here for the night!  

A warm sweet sharing from Dad's man, Brother Victor, today.  
"Every creature made by YOU offers You thanks."  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many Little Sisters and Little Brothers.  
  ...you will fill me with joy in your presence...
 Psalm 16:11b
 
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"In 1853 Neumann began the Forty Hours Devotion* on the feast of Corpus Christi in the Church of St Philip Neri.  The Forty Hours Devotion was known three centuries before Neumann's  time.  ...
 
What Neumann did was to inaugurate it on a diocesan level.  A schedule was made calling for the devotion to be held in designated churches so as to cover the entire year.  Neumann gave great edification by the way he joined in these devotions whenever possible.  To Neumann the Forty Hours was not merely the pious practice of making visits.  To him it was the way of seeing that Catholic life in Philadelphia was rooted in the Eucharist."
 
Alfred C. Rush, CSSR
The Autobiography of St John Neumann, CSSR
___________________________________
 
*Forty Hours Devotion is a devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. It commonly occurs in a succession of churches, with one finishing prayers at the same time as the next takes it up. The number forty has always signified a sacred period of time: the rains during the time of Noah lasted 40 days and nights; the Jews wandered through the desert for 40 years, our Lord fasted and prayed for 40 days before beginning His public ministry. The 40 Hours Devotion remembers that traditional "forty-hour period" from our Lord's burial until the resurrection.
 
St John Neumann
Bohemian - 1811-1860
Redemptorist missionary - Bishop of Philadelphia
Bishop motto:  “Passion of Christ strengthen me”
Multi-lingual; Promoter of Forty Hours Devotion
Opened over 100 schools, built over 80 churches,
wrote 2 catechisms, and a Bible History +++
Patron of sick children and immigrants
Feast Day - January 5

 “Lord, teach me how to live.”
St John Neumann
 
St John Neumann, pray for us!
______________________
 
Twelfth Day of Christmas
 
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Dominican Salve Regina - Hail Holy Queen


 

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