Sunday, December 28, 2025

Holy Family - 4th day of Christmas comes with a blizzard/Christmas with little sisters in Kansas/'bearing with one another and forgiving" - +JMJ+

My kids and grandkids know the only gift I want for Christmas is to see them together dressed up for Christmas Mass smiling and sending love to me!  Maria missing Major Joseph, who is living in Poland for 10 months.  They now live in their forever home just outside of Taylors Falls, MN.  They attend daily mass at St Joseph's Catholic Church in TF.  A beautiful and familiar church where my parents attended towards the end of their lives.
Fr John Drees with Maria's 3 boys that serve daily mass so beautifully and reverently!  
Tom and Joy with the blizzard white out behind them - they came over to visit grandpa and grandma after Mass and celebratory brunch on the farm.
The farm family after Mass with the storm outside.  Simon is home from his work at ADM and Mary is home on break from college at the U of M.  Together!  
With the 7 little sisters and Postulant, Mary Grace, who spent Christmas with Pat and I living just down the hall in the room set aside for family.  My shirt says "Pray like a girl" with many amazing Saints!  These girls pray as their charism - so they are prefect examples of praying like these girls!  
Such a blessed Christmas that began with midnight Mass from 11p-1a.  Then Hot chocolate and cookies.  Pat then stayed up till 4a with them including Adoration.  The Community really doesn't sleep much, but we got to bed early Christmas night and slept in a bit on Friday morning. Pat made them sisters his yummy pancakes!  
Nancy's family in Delano looking festive and giving me my most cherished Christmas present!  They attend St Maximilian Kolbe Church and school!  
John's family with smiles and JOY!  John and I hugged as we won't see each other tonight as they are having a holiday from Adoration.  

Our family nativity about 11 years ago.  We will have one at our family Christmas at the end of the week at Lake Shetek Lutheran Camp.  Romeo was the baby Jesus and he is now 11.
How we love LIFE!  Open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS is our motto we live by!  
And still December 28th also - the 4th day of the Octave of Christmas!  
Baby George is now 6, so this was about that long ago now... 
The sisters 2024!
Maria traveled to Poland to have a wonderful week with Major Joseph !  Such a blessing for them after they were apart for close to 6 months with another 4 to go until he returns to the U.S.
Out into the storm after Mass.
The two Patricks a few years back.
Therese with her little brother, Hector, while they were living in Fort Leavenworth 2 years ago.  They have discovered that they will be living in Fort Leonard wood when Joe gets back.  It is about 2 hours from the little sisters, and we are happy to know we can see two of our girls when we head down there.   
Pat's mom with Romeo and Dominic, who are both 11 years old now.  Mom died on Gaudette Sunday 9 years ago.  She loved little ones and had 10 children.  Her youngest, Ida, is know to say - "Thanks mom for having 10 kids!"  
Farmer Pat is now a breakfast cook.  Every time we go to visit one of our kids including our nun... he makes his wonderful pancakes, bacon and eggs!  He looks good in his  blue apron!  
Precious -  LIGHT came into the world!  
I know my sharing here is small, but it is how I share my Faith/Family/FArm!  

Beautiful healthy home cooking for her wonderful husband in Poland!  Joe took this picture showing his devotion!  Much in the readings today about how we are to love and care for our famillies!

Reading II Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another, 
if one has a grievance against another; 
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love, 
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, 
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, 
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, 
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God the Father through him.  

Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, 
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives, 
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything, 
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children, 
so they may not become discouraged.

Yes, when I pray with Pat I pray that we may love and forgive as Jesus loves and forgives us!  The Holy Family shows us how to live this in our domestic Church/family!  Hear our prayer, O Lord!  

Lighting the oil lamps by the Nativity.
Blind little brother, David going up to say goodnight to Mary the mother of God.
Supper at the brothers sharing what we found deeply moving about the amazing Christmas services through the night!  I loved that I was blessed to share it with the Archbishop that brought the Community of the Lamb to the heart of our country!  
3 week old baby Christoph held by Francis Xavior.
Christmas Carrols after Christmas Day Mass!  
Percious baby Christoph laying in the hay while we honored the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!  
Archbishop Joseph now has retired and lives in a new home close to the little brothers!  He shared midnight Mass and breakfast with us,.  He also said the 11a Mass on Christmas Day!  I am in awe!!!  

He was the Archbishop that stood up for LIFE!  
So blessed to have this man now close by and sharing - it was wonderful to share with him here and there!  
Reminding us of how God came to the earth as a tiny newborn infant!  So helpless and truly new LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  
The Body and Blood of Jesus still is alive and well thanks to priests that say "yes" to his call!  
Bringing forth the cup.
Sharing his wisdom!  So grateful that he invited The Community of the Lamb to come to start this foundation in the heart of our country!  It is so important for them to be here!  
Hallel reading the first reading from Christmas Mass.
CCC 2024 - we now have 2025 in the books and it was lovely in every way!  So wonderful to share it with my grandkids and 3 of my kids with their families!

This has been a long project attempting to share my great JOY found in The Holy Family leading us into Jesus, Mary, the Saints and The True Church!  The wind continues to roar outside, and Pat has now gone over to the farm with Tom and Joy to help get the cattle bedded nice and dry after the blowing snow.  We have on the horizon our family Christmas beginning on Friday.  It looks like there can be snow for sledding at Garvin.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus 13 in heaven.  
Pray like these girls!  
Hallel describes their lives as "prayer and dishes".
CCC 2024
Another cute one of these two reuniting after 6 months apart!  
Every morning for the week I stayed with Maria's 7 - this gave me so much JOY and happiness!  a foretaste of heaven!  Bless-bless

  +JMJ+
Feast* of the HOLY FAMILY of 
Jesus, Mary and Joseph

*The Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day.
If both are Sundays, the feast is celebrated on December 30.

May the example of the Holy Family,
with the aid of the Holy Spirit,
guide all families, especially those most troubled,
to be homes of communion and prayer
and to always seek your truth and live in your love.
Through Christ our Lord.  Amen
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us!
World Meeting of Families - Philadelphia 2015


“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph 
had only one life, one purpose: 
To glorify the Heavenly Father. 
That is what we also must want. 
To achieve it, we have to enter 
into union with Mary and Joseph,
share their life - family life, 
the intimate interior life
of which God alone is secret.
What happiness to be called to this life.  
Our love will consist 
in living with Mary and Joseph
on the love of Jesus Eucharistic.”
St. Peter Julian Eymard

3970.jpg (200×200)

 "The family has the mission to 
guard, reveal and communicate love, and 
this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in 
God’s love for humanity and the love of 
Christ the Lord for the Church, His bride. 
Every particular task of the family 
is an expression and concrete actuation 
of that fundamental mission.” -
St John Paul II
________________________

Home life is the God-appointed training 
ground of human character...  
Archbishop Fulton J Sheen
______________

533 The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life:
The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us. . . A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character... A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work. . . To conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern their brother who is God. (Pope Paul VI at Nazareth, January 5, 1964)
534 The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus (Lk 2: 41-52). Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from His divine Sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?" (Lk 2:49) Mary and Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in faith. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus remained hidden in the silence of an ordinary life.
_______________________

Holy Family of Nazareth, help us to willingly 
enter the hidden life of Nazareth, the school of Nazareth, 
that allows us to enter into  fellowship with Jesus 
by the most ordinary events of daily life. 
Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us. Amen.

__________________

CONSIDER THIS:   
Perhaps a 2026 resolution might include resuming or beginning
the practice of writing/typing JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) atop
or at the close of your papers (emails) of correspondence.  
It symbolically illustrates a worldview,
a mindset that reminds that we follow an example, 
a way that is sanctified and greater than ourselves.

CONSIDER THIS TOO:
Ask the Lord to guide you to an icon, painting, print,
stained glass or statue of the Holy Family...
Or simply frame a Holy Card or 
Christmas card of the Holy Family.
Give it a place of honor in your home!

Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us! 
_______________________

Fourth Day of Christmas


Hail Holy Queen/Salve Regina as our Community sings it like angels 
Goodness of God
Good Tree - Hillbilly Thomists
Danielle Rose - the Saint that is just me






 

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