Taming the wild...

We went out on the beautiful afternoon to find Mary's special Snowflake!  First she ran away from one end of the barn to the other.  Then Ruth slowly walked up beside her in a group of calves and gently held her in one spot, and Mary stood on the other side of her.  She seemed to think it was OK and the result made me so happy.  Then Ruth let her go and Mary walked up beside her and held her by herself.  Already with just a 2 day old calf - Mary is starting to develope a relationship with her.  The mothers were on the other side of the fence eating...

Mary had to reach out and touch Snowball's head on the way by... they know each other, and Mary is her friend...

A few more as Mary and Snowflake got to know each other on a beautiful day in the sun... March 6, 2012.  A 5 year old and a 2 day old calf...

Walking around with her hand on her warm back... With a group of friends of many different colors.

Closeness and realizing that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship... More to come... Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless

Lamb- Lion

The kids are excited to see Snowball on cow-TV!  Last night was a wonderful peaceful night out there.  Pat and I got up every 2 hours to watch a barn full of peacefully sleeping and calm cows - no indication of labor pains or calves on the way.  It is nice to have two nights of no calves, and then they come in the light of day.  Pat can catch up on his rest, and it just seems that things are so much easier to handle in the daylight!  But isn't that true for all of us - the things that seem so heavy and hard during the long night of worry... seem so much different and manageable when we come into the day.  Reminding me of the ways we have with our deepest sins - the ones that are woven into our lives to the point that sometimes we don't even see them.  For me my pride and judgemental attitude are there without my even being aware - I catch my thoughts being less than Christian and I think - "Where did that come from?"  Some things are so hard to confess, but if we just realize that Jesus sees all there is and more of our sinful natures in his loving and forgiving sight into us... then what is the point of holding anything back - He knows it already!  I am feeling that for Lent I really want to do a good examination of conscience and write it down and go to reconcilliation and pour it all out... holding nothing back.  It would feel so great, and the slate would be clean! I am reading a book about now Cardinal Timothy Dolan - A People of Hope  by John L. Allen Jr... Cardinal Dolan was sharing that the two areas of loss since the turbulant 70s in the church are calls to Religious life and people going to confession/reconcilliation - the sacrament of penance. So true!  I always have good intentions about going to the sacrament of penance more often, and am always glad when I actually go through with it.  But it is so easy to put off, and not get around to until a holiday comes around or I am struggling with something really big!  A good place to share that song once again - You are more by Tenth Avenue North - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtcwQwgdsA  You need to watch it to get the entire message. Lay all your burdens at his feet in the confessional... Jesus is there in the priest to tell you "Go in peace, your sins are forgiven you!"  He is still here with us to heal us!

Sharing the stations with Nancy - Mother Angelica wrote wonderful reflections...  http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/face.htm

 I have read the autobiography of Mother Angelica, and know of her suffering in life and being brought back from the brink of death, so to read her sharing about suffering... It is something that she knows firsthand, and is now an invalid in bed from all that I have heard.  The Mother Angelica that we see on EWTN is all recorded.  All I am saying - very poorly- is that she certainly can tell us of her experience and insights into suffering, and isn't the way of the Cross all about that - suffering?  There were many places in our doing the stations, the other night, that I just was very touched by her sharing...

  The 7th Station - Jesus Falls the Second Time

"My Jesus, one of the beautiful qualities the people admired in You was Your strength in time of ridicule - Your ability to rise above the occasion. But now, You fall a second time - apparently conquered by the pain of the Cross. People who judged You by appearances made a terrible mistake. What looked like weakness was unparalleled strength!

I often judge by appearances and how wrong I am most of the time. The world judges entirely by this fraudulent method of discerning. It looks down upon those who apparently have given their best and are now in need. It judges the poor as failures, the sick as useless and the aged as a burden. How wrong that kind of judgment is in the light of your second fall! Your greatest moment wasYour weakest one. Your greatest triumph was in failure. Your greatest act of love was in desolation. Your greatest show of power was in that utter lack of strength that threw You to the ground.

Weak and powerful Jesus, give me the grace to see beyond what is visible and be more aware of Your Wisdom in the midst of weakness. Give the aged, sick, handicapped, retarded, deaf and blind the fruit of joy so they may ever be aware of the Father's gift and the vast difference between what the world sees and what the Father sees that they may glory in their weakness so the power of God may be manifest.  Amen"
Wow! How this shows us the Lamb... there is really no further explanation needed - the Lamb led to the slaughter!  Yet, the Lion is very much evident in his strength in weakness.

Lord Jesus, so many blessings and graces are given to us in this very special season of Lent!  May we take the time and put in the energy to take advantage of the sacraments and sacramentals that are so amazing, and take us to that deeper place of communion with you, your Mother and your saints!  We have a virtual spiritual army with us in the battle against sin and death!  May we take on the armor for the battle of our lives -

10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. "
Ephesians 6: 10-18  Yes, Lord, we take on your Truth, and charge into battle with your sword of the Spirit!  And we fall on our knees, and pray without ceasing (I Thes 5: 17)- asking you to use us to your honor and glory.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"I told you and want you to be a lamb, a follower of the true Lamb.  Now I'm telling you that I want you to be a lion, roaring loudly in holy Church, your virtue and your voice so strong that you help bring back to life the children lying dead within her.  Perhaps you are asking; 'Where can I get such a strong roaring voice?'  From the Lamb, who in his humanity remains meek and does not cry out, but whose divinity lends power to the Son's cry with the voice of immeasurable charity.  And so, by the strength and power of divine being and of the love that joined God with humanity, the Lamb becomes a Lion.  From the chair of the cross he roared so loudly over the dead child, the human race, that he freed us from death and gave us life.  It is from him, then, that we will receive strength, for the love we will drink from the gentle Jesus will give us a share in the Father's power."

St Catherine Siena (1380)  Doctor of the Church

Beautiful LIFE!!!!!!!!!

I borrowed this picture from Nancy's blog - http://thegreatgusadventure.blogspot.com/

Such an amazing picture that describes in a beautiful picture the wonder of a child in this most amazing new world!  Augustine is discovering the world around him, with his new God given senses.  His sight is greeted by the colorful fish floating in a huge tank of crystal clear water ... so fascinating and wonderful.  His little hands touch the cool glass, but he can't touch the fish nor the water.  He smiles as he is held in the safe and loving arms of mom, and she discovers the life lesson through the eyes of wonder of her son, Augustine!  Looking at this I am taken back to my nest years and the times that I was gifted with growing and sharing the beauty of this world with my kids on the farm and in our domestic Church! 

The amazing bond of parent and child allows us to discover the world and all of its wonders anew!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ  Another great song that I heard on my way home from my parent's a few days ago... speaking of the blessings we receive in life in the form of suffering - that comes with life also! 

Nancy and I shared wonderful stations in her chapel with reflections written by Mother Angelica - from the second station - Jesus takes up his cross

"My worldly concept is that suffering, like food, should be shared equally. How ridiculous I am, dear Lord. Just as we do not all need the same amount of material food, neither do we need the same amount of spiritual food and that is what the cross is in my life, isn't it - spiritual food proportional to my needs."  Our suffering is just what we need - our Most Cherished Cross!

http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/stat2.htm 

St Therese on my mind...

Therese on Sunday - a small Easter during Lent - is allowing herself to play with her precious baby dolls.  She has given up playing with them all the rest of the week as a sacrifice for Lent, and may pull out a thorn from the crown of thorn for this, and also she is learning that it is not all about her and her love of her dollies.  Jesus, is more important and nothing should come between us!  Her namesake, St Therese, was huge on self sacrifice and putting her Lord and his LOVE first in her life!

I just got off the phone with my daughter, Maria, and little Therese in Texas.  It was great to hear from them as we had been thinking about them this morning.  We commented on how St Therese - the namesake of our granddaughter - would have handled a situation we had just read about in our morning prayer from the Magnificat.  It was a Meditation called Mercy and Our True Measure by Fr Lorenzo Scupoli (1610)... He writes about how we should not "avoid obstacles in the path of virtue", because this is the path to virtue...  We commented on how St Therese would go out of her way to sit with and spend time with the difficult people in her community.  She would do this when she had 3 of her blood sisters in the community with her, and she could have easily sought them out for recreation or times of sharing.  Instead she would share with those that were difficult to be around, and truly made progress in her virtues of patience and humility, and probably many others.  "If you wish always to press forward on the path of virtue without stopping, you should pay great attention to things which may serve as chances for acquiring virtue, and never let them slip out of your hands.  For example, if you wish to gain the habit of patience, you should not avoid the people,things and circumstances which particularly try your patience.  Meet them with a good will and the resolve to submit to their unpleasant effect on you, but at the same time prepare yourself to suffer then with unshakeable calmness of spirit.  If you do not act thus, you will never learn patience."  Fr Scupoli

Pat coming to my rescue as I was stuck in the driveway... he has been so happy with the mild and snowless winter, and now here comes the March snow, and it truly does try his patience!  It is not like he can ignore it... it's right there in his face, and feed bunks, and yards, and driveway... A lot of work! 

Today's Gospel from Luke 6... "Stop judging and you will not be judged.  Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure..."  Wow!  This is a tall order, and I know that I am poor at controlling my thoughts that tend towards the judgemental.  I know that the yardstick that I measure others would show how lacking I am... just as our Lord is telling us so distictly today, and clearly too!  The forgiveness part is the hardest for me with those that I am the closest to on a day to day basis - my spouse.  It seems that I can forgive and forget with my children much more quickly than with my Most Cherished Cross, Pat.  It seems that I would do so much better if I could be loving and kind rather than annoyed and crabby.  Wouldn't we all do better and forgive more quickly if we were treated warmly and lovingly with unconditional love and forgiveness?  That is how I would love to be treated, and I need to take to heart that this is how I should treat Pat!  Giving that smile and doing things without counting the cost would be such a healing thing for us.  Turning out lights that are left on every time they leave a room, cleaning up after him and hanging up his clothes as a joyful gift that is never noticed or spoken of... just doing it as a loving gesture without making that verbal jab..."Who did you leave the light on for in the bathroom, Pat?"  That annoyance would start to fade, and there would be a true smile on my face... as I think that this is an opportunity for me to grow in patience, and to grow in love for my husband.  I have so far to go, but I can see the St Therese effect as a good thing and one that could transform my life and the life of those closest to me! 

Lord, your words to us are so direct and true.. yet so hard for us to truly put into practice in our lives.  We are not alone we have an army of saints, your Mother and St Joseph, and your Holy Spirit dwelling within us - helping us to be good and forgiving to those around us.  Helping us to see how small and weak we are so that we have no reason to judge those we come in contact with... knowing that we have so far to go in our own seeking a virtuous life!  We are yours alone, and need you to make a better life filled with your Truth!  May we always come to you humbly in prayer and supplication for all that we need to serve you this day.  We are on our knees asking your forgiveness as we forgive all those that have hurt us or ignored us or misjudged us.  Mostly I need to ask your forgiveness for my judgemental attitude, Lord.  Humble me in your sight, O Lord!  "Deliver us and pardon our sins for your name's sake.  Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins."  Psalm 79  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"What a comfort it is this way of love! You may stumble on it, you may fail to correspond with grace given, but always love knows how to make the best of everything; whatever offends our Lord is burnt up in its fire, and nothing is left but a humble, absorbing peace deep down in the heart" - (Story of a Soul, Ms. A., Knox translation).

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them."

Quotes from St Therese

Little Therese in Texas a few months ago with her dolly- she gave up her dollies for Lent, and can only see them on Sunday!  It is a huge sacrifice for her, but is teaching her virtue! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtcwQwgdsA  This is an amazing song that you should take the time to watch - Tenth Avenue North singing You are More!  You must watch it to really get the full meaning that he loves us no matter what and you can lay all your burdens at His feet!  He loves us unconditionally and wants to spend every minute of our lives with us!  Too amazing!  "You've been remaid!"

Therese playing in the sugar sand in Texas last week

 

A big giving birth day!!!!!!!!!!

Mary had to rush over when she got the news that..........Snowball had her calf! 

Grandpa told her that it was a girl calf and that it was all black, but when Mary saw her she has some small white bangs on her head - so Mary decided that a good name for her would be Snowflake!  Too cute!

Mary had to watch her from the next pen, because Snowball is just getting used to being a mother for the first time.  It looks like she is going to be a good one, but Mary thought that Snowflake looked cold, so she asked grandpa to put her in the warming box to get her nice and warm and dry.

Carrying Snowflake to the warming box...

In she goes...

Snowball patiently waiting for her calf to get warmed up and come back out...

Grandma still has to get a picture of Mary with her Snowball and now little Snowflake.  I have the feeling that they will get to know each other really well, and Mary has a beef project this summer in mind. 

For now she is letting Snowflake get warmed up and dry, while Mary takes a sled ride with her brothers while mom pulls them with the 4 wheeler... Such a beautiful evening on this giving birth day for her special friend, Snowball! 

Picture perfect day on the farm!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"That we may burn with your love before all the world.."

Little Augustine enjoys some simple playtime on the floor of a coffee shop down the street from the church where we just celebrated first Friday mass together... as we were walking there Nancy explained that she had come here with her sisters and sister in laws on her wedding day, after they had gotten their hair and nails done and before they got into their dresses... a place with very special memories, and now with her special little boy so glowing in the sunlight with a smile of contentment in the sun.  He played with grandma's scarf from Egypt - a gift from Nancy when she visited her friend, Rana, there.  You would think that he would watch us enviously eating our fabulous flakey rolls and drinking our wonderful coffee, but he happily played with my scarf and studied how he could reach out and pull the chair back and forth.  I hope and pray that this prayer from the Magnificat this morning is true.."that we may burn with your love before all the world!"  I certainly felt that feeling when I returned from my TEC retreat 2 weeks ago, and now after the gift of spending some quiet prayerful time with my parents in their home in quiet St Croix Falls... I am so blessed by the recognition of his transfigured face!  "As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord."  Exodus 24: 29

My 3 days away were filled with such special times of family/faith/prayer!  Megawatt and I do feel that feeling that I have come into the presence of the Lord in such deep ways and close ways.  My day with John in Rochester - starting with prayer at 5a as we headed down the dark street from Nancy's house...both admitting that we are a bit worried about the results, and for me the idea that they will be taking a leap of faith and not having us come back to check for 6 months!  As John said that morning - "I feel fine, so I should expect nothing but good news, so I will expect that!"  Then the special trip home... just listening to his talk about classes and professors that are touching him and those that are not and why... super fun to hear about a former band member - rock- who is now teaching John a class on how to teach marketing and promoting... he is so inspiring to him in his enthusiasm and is I am sure in a sense "burning before the world".  Yes, he might be a secular example, but to John he is inspiring although he suffers with only 40% of his heart, and severe disabilities!  Then to see that he is really stretching his boundaries, and asking God to direct him with total trust that there is truly an amazing plan for him.  He descibed how at the big job fair - dressed in his suit and armed with 12 resumes... he saw a man sitting at a small table..."He had on a polo and jeans and no one was talking to him, so I stopped and  talked to him and gave him my resume... It turns out that he has a small marketing business that is growing and I am going in for an interview tomorrow."  John also got a call on the way back offering him a job, but he just told him that he is not ready to commit to one thing yet..."I want to keep my options open, but thank you."  This could be so interesting... last year at this time it seemed that the looming cancer, which is so evident with his loss of hair permanently... that people didn't want to take a chance with him, but now with another year of being cancer free, and John much more confident after selling insurance all summer and realizing that he does have a gift to make people comfotable one on one..."I realized that I am not afraid to make fun of myself and that puts people at ease."  He has learned so much about himself and armed with his close encounter with God through prayer and healing of his brain cancer... the future is very bright and burning with the presence of the Lord!  John has truly been transfigured in the Cross and LOVE of his loving and forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ! 

Jesus, we thank and praise you for the great blessing of your  presence in our lives.  We are glowing from the inside out as we come to know of your LOVE and LIFE!  We trust that we will be YOU and see YOU in all that we do and in all those that we come in contact with especially those in our domestic church - our families!  We long to come into your presence daily in our prayertime, and to feel that the "skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD."  Each day we can come down from the mountain as we find the time and take the time to pray.  How I love to get into my car to travel to work or a trip as I am blessed with the time to pray my rosary - filled with all the meditating on your life and also all those that I pray for beginning with my family!  The 4 hour trip yesterday - returning home from my parents in St Croix Falls was so gloriously rich!  I wept at times as I encountered you and your LOVE and deep concern for so many!  Jesus, I fall before you and trust in your healing and LOVE and forgiveness!  Jesus, hold us close to your heart burning with love for us, and may we come to our world and lives - burning with your love before all the world!  Jesus, we trust in you!  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Lent is a time of transformation.  As we gaze in the dark faith of prayer upon the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, we are transformed into his likeness.  As we leave the work of prayer for the work of charity in our world, we live in his likeness."  see http://www.magnificat.com/

This deserves a grand Hallel psalm - one of tall praise!

Psalm 104

"Bless the Lord, my soul!

Lord God, how great you are,

clothed in majesty and glory,

wrapped in light as in a robe.

May the glory of the Lord last for ever!

May the Lord rejoice in his works! 

He looks on the earth and it trembles;

the mountains send forth smoke at his touch.

I will sing to the Lord all my life,

make music to my God while I live.

May my thoughts be pleasing to Him. 

I find my joy in the Lord.

Let sinners vanish from the earth

and the wicked exist no more.

Bless the Lord, my soul."

I praise you and honor you, my LORD and my GOD!  Halleluia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sharing Mother Angelica's stations of the Cross - so amazing - see http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/face.htm!  Also would suggest taking some time to check out Nancy and Maria's blog -

http://dosmallthingswithlove.blogspot.com/  It is very sweet and deep in Catholic wisdom from a young wife and mother perspective!  Thank you, Lord!