Divine Mercy and Annunciation - so much Easter JOY!!/Trying to read more - He Leadeth me/“The Holy Spirit will come upon you..." - +JMJ+

Tom yesterday after 8a mass visiting the image of the Divine Mercy of Jesus for the whole world!  The Gospel was doubting Thomas from John 20.  

Hallel had called from Rome the day before and reminded us that Ruth newly pregnant with Tom 3 years ago had heard this Gospel on Divine Mercy Sunday and commented that she liked the name Thomas, and the rest is history.  Hallel said that this would then be a special feast day for our sweet wonderful farmboy, Thomas Robert Lanoue!  

With big sister Joy and all the Beautiful Easter flowers on the altar - it has been a week since Easter Sunday and the end of the Octave of Easter!  The lillys were spectacular with all blossoms open!

Birdie comes to join the joy!  

Birdie is a month away from turning 3, and is a true Verly girl in many ways including her name.

How we love to share our Faith as a family!  My prayers every day for each in our family that they may hold onto their Faith in Jesus, Mary, The saints, and The True Catholic Church!  More than that to make it their own with all their heart, mind and soul!  

Rose and Bernadette in the dresses 9 years ago - I bought them for the little girls and I love to see it now on Birdie!  Probably on Regina and Lucy after her!  

With Hallel in KCK at Lumen Christi 9 years ago.  I love how Ruth has special color themes for her growing family!  

6 years ago - Easter on the farm.... John and Bobbi were just 2 months from their marriage.  Now 6 years later...

Easter Sunday - married with 3 children!  Jude will start kindergarten next year and Birdie is one year behind him going into Preschool!  So blessed!  

Praying with John in the middle of the night - he is there from 11p-12a, and I have from midnight to 1a.  We share and pray and end with a Hail Holy Queen, and "Jesus, I trust in you."  3 times.  So appropriate as when we were sharing at first it was Divine Mercy Sunday and then we entered the Feast of the Annunciation today!  

I love this in the Magnificat today about The Annunciation can be thought of as a precursor to Pentecost: "The Holy Spirit comes upon" Mary and imparts to her the gift of all gifts , a divine Son.  Now through the Spirit's work in The Church, every Christian likewise has an experience of The Annunciation: we become "Christophers" - that is, Christ Bearers.  By the "power of the Most High" the Word comes to us that we might bear him at all times.  "A consuming Fire, Spirit of LOVE," come upon me, "and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for him in which he can renew his whole Mystery." (St Elizabeth of the Trinity)

Granddaughter, Josephine Francis, is preparing to receive her First Holy Communion in a few weeks!  Wearing her big sister's dress, and now she needs a veil!  Her cousin, Evangeline Mary, will be receiving hers also in May!  LOVE sharing with JOY the Sacraments of our beloved Catholic Church!  

9 years ago in KCK at Lumen Christi - the Cross has become the Tree of LIFE!  So true!  When we embrace our Most Cherished Cross we find  - LIFE, LOVE, LIGHT!  

Divine Mercy Sunday - when Pat's mother was dying she shared the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with her children - her daughters had all left The Church.  They were curious about this prayer as it only had one Hail Mary in it.  I prayed it with Pat's mom while she lay on her death bed!

The Divine Mercy chaplet in song...

The great Forty Days of Easter!  What JOY!  

There are 2 baskets of kittens now at the farm.  They found 5 older ones with their mother and there are two of them with Ruth and Tom.

These have their eyes open...

We also got baby chicks on Wednesday of Easter Octave.  Farmer Pat says that 10 of them are for Hallel in Kansas when she gets back in June.

A mother cat with 5 kittens were found when they moved a round bale in the shed.  They are a bit older and have their eyes open.

Joy with her birthday Easter kitten MandM a week later.  They will be 10 days on Wednesday and should be starting to peek and open their eyes.

She wanted kittens on her birthday and Sweetie, the momma cat, came in on Easter morning and had 3 kittens in the basket just for Joy on her 7th birthday!  

Tom and Birdie Barbara matching as they look at Tom's payloader.

Pat and Tom in front of our barn less than a week ago - the warm winds have melted most of it now, and yesterday we got some rain too.  Pat  thinks they could be in the field in a week or so...

Joy with 2 of her Easter birthday kittens.

Baby Patrick 10 years ago...

Now the 7 a few days ago.

Tom took hiss nap at grandma's in her bed today.

I am reading more since my special visit with granddaughter, Therese a few days ago.  I am reading He Leadeth Me by Fr Cizek.  

Some pictures I just took of 10 year old Luke with a soft gray kitten - it made him have a soft sweet look on his face.

Now facing me...

Joy with a white female - should name her Sugar or Powdered Sugar.

Just like her mom, Ruth, who always loved to have kittens in the house, and broke her dad down.  We even have a house cat now from the farm.

Jesus, Mary and All the Saints and Angels in our glorious Church... how I am filled with so much JOY and happiness with all that I am given with each new day. May I die to self so that I may serve without counting the cost.  Jesus, I trust in you.  Hallelujah!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many little sisters and Little brothers.

  The ANNUNCIATION of the LORD

Solemnity

 

 "The Virgin Mary uttered that generous word, "Be it done"

... Immediately the Heart of Jesus, ever to be adored,

has begun to pulsate with love, divine and human."

Pius XII, On Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 63

 

 

"The Wisdom of God creates poets. How evidently this is so can be seen by considering Mary of Nazareth. When she had given to the Lord of Hosts the Flesh that would become our Bread, Wisdom caused her to break into a poem of praise, a song repeated by more people than probably any other ever composed.

The Presence within stirred her to exult and proclaim the One 'who has filled the hungry with good things'. And the praise owed to the Presence of embodied Wisdom among us has never ceased in the Church from that day until this."

 James T. O'Connor, The Hidden Manna

 

 

“When the Divine Child was conceived, Mary’s humanity gave Him hands and feet, eyes and ears, and a body with which to suffer. Just as the petals of a rose after a dew close on the dew as if to absorb its energies, so too Mary as the Mystical Rose closed upon Him Whom the Old Testament had described as a dew descending upon the earth. When finally she did give Him birth, it was as if a great ciborium had opened, and she was holding in her fingers the Guest Who was also the Host of the world, as if to say, ‘Look, this is the Lamb of God; look, this is He Who takes away the sins of the world.’”- Ven Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ

Top Image: The Annunciation,  Harald Slott-Moller
Bottom Image: Mystical Rose - Sr Marie Pierre Semlar, M.M.

 

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,

that we may be made worthy of the promises of  Christ!

Danielle Rose