Monday, March 25, 2024

Easter tree buds and snowed in/"... the house was filled with the fragrance ..."/Palm Sunday shared with 13 grands - +JMJ+

John and Lucy with their palm branches for the procession into the sanctuary on Palm Sunday.  "Hosanna in the highest!" 

The Gospel at mass was the Passion of Jesus - from glory and praise to his suffering and death on the Cross.   

After Church we found a white world and the boys digging out the steps and walk up to the Parsonage and The Apartments.
We still gathered at the farm for our brunch as the snow fell outside.  

The night before Pat and Rose drove up to Delano to pick up Nancy's 3 oldest kids to come and have a few days on the farm with the cousins.  That is a total of 5 hours on the road and dealing with snow and slippery roads for the last hour or so.  My husband will sacrifice all to allow the grandkids to have time together.  We had 13 of our 23 grandkids with us for a snowy Palm Sunday celebration and entering Holy Week beginning today!  

Delano has the week off, and today here we had a snow day, so all the grandkids are having a day of work on the farm to keep the cows and calves dry and safe in the storm.  

It was fun to see Birdie Barbara in a dress that I bought 10 years ago for Rose and Bernadette.  
Both Birdie and Joy in hand me downs from the girls older than them.  We get a lot of use out of our boy and girl clothes as they are passed back and forth.
On Saturday Rose, Joy and Tom helped me get my lilac tree cut for the Easter tree in my house - by Easter the buds will open into leaves!  
Each year of the last 20 years I have made a cross and a butterfly for the Easter Tree.  This year I used our family picture taken at VCC - Verly Christmas Camp for the first year at Lake Shetek Lutheran Camp!  Every time Pat walks by this picture he just raves about how wonderful it is and how it is a picture of being Open to LIFE!  
The butterfly is centered around the wonderful gift we have had with our 2 daughters both in Kansas and just 40 minutes apart!  We can stay on base with Maria and Major Joseph and then spend time with Hallel and her Community of the Lamb too!  

Clearing the steps at the Parsonage after mass - the snow continues today with a snow day off of school. 
Dominic loves doughnuts and that is how I have gotten hugs from him in the past.  He was in doughnut heaven at our brunch after Palm Sunday mass yesterday morning. We had to send this to him mom and dad and 3 younger siblings just because...
Lucy and grandpa sharing breakfast as they watched cow TV.
Cow with the feet out of her calf - in a few minutes she had a healthy calf - we are approaching 90+ calves now with that many to go yet.  This snow is challenging for our guys to keep them warm and dry.  
Here we go!!! Holy Week has begun!  Today the Gospel is John 12 with Lazarus raised from the dead sharing a dinner in his home with Jesus.  Mary anoints his feet with costly perfumed oil and wipes them with her hair!  A true sign of total LOVE and devotion to her Lord Jesus!  
Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.  John 12

How I pray that my house may be filled with the fragrance of my total LOVE and devotion for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 

A Easter butterfly made some years ago of our farm family.  It was made before Thomas was born 2 years ago, so I added him in the arms of Ruth!  Outside the snow keeps softly falling and there is wind to come up later today.  As Pat reminded us - "March came in like an lamb, and going out like a lion."  
Easter 3 years ago - all together for VCC!  My Easter tree is just about ready for the leaves to open here in the house while the snow is piling up outside for the first time this winter.  

For my butterfly this year - Archbishop Joseph Naumann with David on his Confirmation a week ago in Kansas.  We are eternally grateful that Archbishop invited The Community of the Lamb to come to KCK in 2008 just as Hallel was entering their Community in Saint Pierre, France.  I know that it was huge in her decision to know that there would be a foundation in the U.S. just half a day from our farm in Southwest MN!  
The back of my Cross for this year - All the big events over the year from last Easter until this Easter.  Ruth and Paul - the Apartments and much time for Tom and I, Nancy put in a in ground pool and work with her ministry - Catholic Sprouts, Maria moved to Fort Leavenworth, KS, Hallel has now left for France for 3 months to elect a new Prioress, John and Bobbi with Lucy at 1 and walking! 
White world outside with inches of snow falling all day, and buds about to open on my Easter Tree in the house - a sign of new LIFE! 
Out with Rose and Joy to see the new kids -  4 of them and they are bouncy like they have springs on their feet.  
Joy with her arms full of a healthy kid.
Joy with her Star of the week poster that dad helped her get ready for school - she is a first grader at HRS.
My Easter Tree with Neumann playing with all the fun stuff on it!  
Lucy with her brother's boots at our brunch after Palm Sunday mass.
Snow!!!  Tom is now sharing the day with his 6 siblings and 3 cousins on the snowy farm!  
My Cross from 4 years ago - my mom had just died a few weeks before.  A week later my dad came to live with me as they would not take him back into his Assisted living after a procedure at Veteran's hospital.  He spent 6 months here in my "farm monastery."  

Lord and Lady I long to love and serve with out counting the cost.  May I die to self and follow you down the narrow path with heaven forever as my goal.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen
Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many little sisters and Little brothers.
Monday of Holy Week
"There is only one anointing that is strong enough to meet death
and that is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the love of God. 
There is, then, something that is both exemplary and lasting
in Mary's anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  It was above all a concern
to keep Christ alive in this world and to oppose the powers
that aimed to silence and kill him.  It was an act of faith and love. 
Every such act can have the same effect." - Pope Benedict XVI
(Today's Gospel: John 12:1-11)  

jesus+feet.bmp (400×331)

"Nothing is held back, no drop is kept in reserve.
The house is filled with the fragrance,
because the perfume is no longer hers;
it has ceased any longer to belong to her as a
personal possession. The excess of this gesture,
 its extravagance, expresses
the essential truth about love.
Neither love nor the perfume, in this case,
can remain enclosed in a container, protected
and saved.  Instead, it must be all thrown away
in the hour of love, wasted imprudently
without a thought for tomorrow, poured out
in its entirety." - Fr Donald Haggerty
_______________
 
Painting above:  Forgiven ~ Daniel Gerhartz
Hat tip: Both quotes noted in Magnificat Magazine: Holy Week 2018, Vol. 20, No.1
 
 
This Holy Week let us together 
pour out our love before our 
Eucharistic Lord, Jesu Hostia...
 











Danielle Rose 

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