Friday, November 1, 2024

Kansas trip seeing two of our girls and families/All Saints birthdays and Feast!/"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven." +JMJ+

This happened - we took 4 of Maria's children 2 hours to see our Community of the Lamb - our daughter, little sister Hallel and the 5 little sisters in Kansas City!  Today is Evangeline Mary's 8th birthday, and she had fun wearing the frames of glasses and sharing them with ls Marie Jean!  

We bought lunch for the 13 of us at a local chicken place, and it was much appreciated after a very busy weekend with a group of 30+ young adults.  

Patrick in his pork chop shirt and a smile for grandma..."He is such a nice boy." Grandpa Pat
Church's Chicken for 13.   It was nice to give the sisters some time off from cooking - Hallel describes her life as "Prayer and dishes."  They do not have hot water... they have to heat their water on the stove for cleaning and for their own 'sister showers' to clean themselves.  True poverty!  

The Beatitudes from the Gospel today - "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven."  Matthew 5

I love to envision the rejoicing that is happening in Heaven and I love to think that mom and dad are a part of that!  

We arrived on base at Fort Riley on Sunday night - the first thing the next morning we were hard at making apple pie filling - 40 quarts, and applesauce over 100 quarts!  
3 year old Maggie with ice cream and apple pie filling on top  - why we do the work.  "Grandma your apple pie filling is the best!"  
A new way of doing applesauce with no sugar and the peelings - better for you!  
2 on the corer peelers made the pie filling go fast.
At the same time Therese was making some Saint creations with Maggie and Hector - St Cecilia loved music!  Today is all Saints day and the birthday for 2 of our grandchildren - Evie is 8 in Fort Riley and Farm boy Luke is 11 today.  

It is also the special Feast day of our nun, as her name is the first part of Hallelujah and every time you say her name you are giving God all the praise as the Saints are doing today in heaven!  

The first reading today from Revelations 7 - After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb."

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

"Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

We took time away from our canning day to go to mass on base - we had 3 priest military chaplains - a Nigerian priest, a Polish Priest, and an American!  So powerful and special to have the 3 together on the altar! 
Today Evangline is 8, and she had the job of putting the lids and rings on the jars.

The farm family stopped over for trick or treating last evening.  Princess, biker - birthday boy Luke, who is 11 today, Rose is a chicken taco, and Tom is a dragon.
John's 3 were our other trick or treaters!  
All Saints mass this morning... tomorrow All Souls and we will remember our sweet farm wife, Rita, who died on Mother's Day.  How we miss her!  May she be on the path to heaven forever! 
Beautiful in every way and so missed!  St Rita hear our prayers.
Nancy's 6 love the Saints and today they dressed up for their wonderful Catholic School - St Maximilian in Delano.  13 year old Gus is Servant of God Fr Kapaun.  They visited his memorial when they were down in Kansas over MEA with Maria and the military family.  Father Emil J. Kapaun | Official Home Page (frkapaun.org)  
The 6 - how we love our Saints.  Sharing the lives of the Saints was huge in our family when the kids were little!  We had a saint book and the kids had their favorites.  The Saints show us how we can be followers of Christ no matter what we face in our lives!  

Soon to be 12 year old Bernadette was St Gianna Molle.
2 year old Gina - Joan of Arc!  
George is his namesake - St George!  
Out by the chickens with our nun - she really enjoys seeing the nieces and nephews!  They military family live 2 hours away now, so not seeing her quite as often as when they lived just in Leavenworth half an hour away.
LOVE to see 2 of our daughters and their families!  
Prolife breakfast on Sunday before we hit the road for Kansas.  
Mary home from the U of M for the weekend, so I had to get the 9 together in front of their wonderful Apartment building!  It as so great to see how happy her siblings were to see her!  
Choices Pregnancy had fetal models there for the little ones to touch and "see" that LIFE is beautiful and the greatest gift!  
Oh, Tommy always LOVE LIFE!  
Rose and David serving on the altar!  LOVE to see their reverence...

Jesus - the Word!  
Pat and I did the last 2 pails of apples for the season!  Applesauce the new way with the peels on and put through the blender.  Cinnamon and zero calorie artificial sugar...
We filled the jars that we got from the sisters and some that Ruth had emptied already with her family of 9.
Tom so cute from behind too!  

The final canning of the year!  What a year it was for apples - the cows got many pails too!  Nothing went to waste either!  
Newmann happy to have us home - finds the booster seat just right for him to be close to us while we are canning.
St JP II my hero for LIFE and for family!  
Dominic is St Paul one of the super Apostles!  
Magdalene is St Lucy for All Saints Day today.
8 year old Josephine is St Kateri.
Pat and his applesauce!  Canning Season is done!!!  What a year - we filled every one of our jars and that is hundreds!  We also began a new traveling canning supplies to take the work to our other kids and not leave it all on Ruth's shoulders!  
The Truth about Halloween.  
Today all Saints and tomorrow All Souls!   
Keep our families together!!!  
Maggie loves the Applesauce we made and that makes us so happy!  Why we do the work.
Farmer Pat with his Maggie just before we left Kansas for home on Wednesday morning - we drove through rain much of the way, and then we got a wonderful half inch of rain here on Thursday!  So grateful for some rain!  
LOVE!!!  
Her pantry is full so she is now putting them on top of her cupboards - how we love our new way of sharing the work with our other families!  She is cutting some of the 6 pails we left behind for her to dehydrate for crunchy healthy snacks for her husband and 7 kids!  
LOVE our family meals sharing around their big table - a lot like the Waltons!  
Princess Maggie ready for Trunk or Treat at dad's law office.  Such special times with our military family now just 8 hours from our door to their door.  We are already talking about our next trip down there in 3 weeks.  Therese is going on a college visit to University of Mary in Bismarck and I will be with the other 6 kids!  We love U of Mary!  Both of our 2 oldest daughters, Ruth and Nancy went there for college.  Ruth is now an RN and Nancy has been an teacher... she uses her abilities in her ministry - Catholic Sprouts | Cultivating Vibrant Catholic Homes  
Dehydrating apples takes almost 20 hours and Maria keeps it going!

Finishing up the final applesauce - we made over 100 quarts and then we took a couple dozen to the little sisters.  Who knows maybe we will can with the little sisters and little brothers?  I can see it happening.  

Lord and Lady, I love you and all the Saints in heaven!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb and the 33 here.  We have 7 children in heaven and 6 grandchildren plus our dear dead - mom and dad, my sister, Mary and brother Lincoln.  That is a lot of reasons to get to heaven and a lot of prayers for our help to stagger down the narrow path with heaven forever as our goal.  
 


 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom
and will possess it forever - yes, for ever and ever. 
 Daniel 7:18 
____________________
 
Solemnity of All Saints*
November 1
We are called to remember all of the saints, known and unknown,
whose lives have served as holy examples for us.
 
"To become saints means to fulfill completely what we already are, raised to the dignity of God's adopted children in Christ Jesus...” … “This, then, is the meaning of today’s Solemnity:  looking at the shining example of the Saints to reawaken within us the great longing to be like them:  happy to live near God, in His light, in the great family of God’s friends.  Being a Saint means living close to God, to live in His family…” Pope Benedict XVI

 
 
"Saints of God, perfected in love 
and victorious over sin, who now enjoy 
the reward of adoring Our Lord face to face 
in everlasting JOY and GLORY:
Be gracious to remember us, flawed and failing, who 
still struggle on earth, who kneel here adoring Our Lord 
hidden in the tabernacle, who long for the day when we 
too will be made like Him and will see Him as He is.  
Gather around us here in His Eucharistic
Presence to strengthen us with your prayers
and to enrich our feeble worship 
with the mighty chorus of your praise.  
Teach us by your example to love Him above all things, 
so that we too may become the pure in heart to see God, 
who enjoy with you the eternal blessed fellowship 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."
 
Paul Thigpen
From Jesus, We Adore You,
Prayers Before the Blessed Sacrament
 
Image above: Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven, Fra Angelico - 1428-30
 
crown-of-life.jpg (263×192)
 
"Make up your mind to become a saint."
St. Maria Mazarello 
__________________________________

"Never say, 'What great things the saints do,' but,
'What great things God does in His saints.'"
 St. Philip Neri
__________________________
 
"The saints did not all begin well,
but they all ended well."
 St John Vianney
____________________________

"The saints were as weak as we are;
grace sustained them. 
Why should we doubt that we, too,
will be sustained by grace?"
 Bl Clelia Merloni
Danielle Rose - the Saint that is just me
Lauren Daigle - Trust in you


 

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