Maria is well taken care of while her husband is away.

Maria's yard reveals to all that she is centering it on Catholic faith!  For truly it is!  Today we shared with other women, whose husbands have been deployed.  It is quite a huge thing for families, and our faith and forgiveness is HUGE!  Lord, may this happen in all families in all the hardships that we face.   Our domestic Church/family needs to have Christ and his Bride the Church at the center of our heart, mind and soul.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiwtPMDhKI&feature=related  A short part of Brother Sun Sister Moon  - about the life of St Francis  His feast day is tomorrow and this was a late vigil of Hallel and the Community of the Lamb for him.

A quiet home of Faith

Without a TV... a quiet home of continual reminders of our faith in the Truth!  At breakfast we talked about the two books Therese has been gifted with about the lives of St Therese and St Bernadette.  We are reminded of the beautiful difference these two young women made in this world of increasing darkness.   St Therese died at 24 and St Bernadette at 35.  It brought wonderful memories flooding me to look at the watercolor pictures of Lourdes as we have been there twice in the last 3 years - beseeching Our Lady to intercede for us in the healing of John, our 23 year old son.  To think that St Therese died at close to his age!  So young - with so much life ahead for John.  But for Therese... she left us a legacy of how to live life as a child - This morning in morning prayer we are reminded of our culture "which values autonomy and self-reliance, we sometimes imagine that we can call only on our personal strength to shoulder the burdens of those we care for and to face our own difficulties.  The Gospel reminds us again and again that God's love is our true source of strength."  This is so powerfully lived out by Hallel's community in which they rely on others for their food - they are a begging order, following the example of their founder St Dominic.  The first time Susan/Hallel went to beg with the Community of the Lamb in the U.S.... they were given a can of tuna to eat with their lunch.  As they sat down to eat, they realized that they couldn't open it, so they had to go and knock on a door to have someone open the can for them.  To be that dependent on others, is something that goes very much against everything we value as Americans.  We think that we need to have everything we could possibly need so that we do not have to ask others for help.  Yet, our Lord and the saints remind us that we need to be humble.

Thinking of beautiful simple France today.  The meals there are a thing to be leisurely enjoyed with many courses and visiting.  Just as in Maria's home here there are only visual reminders of the beauty of our faith surrounding us.  I am looking at an icon of the Holy Family and the Franciscan Jesus with a small sign which says - This is How One LOVES - here as I sit at the computer.  It is quite powerful to realize that all the food that we enjoyed, while visiting in France a year ago, was given to them.  They get so much given to them, that they do not even have a garden as it would be too much.  They also are deeply committed to relying on others for their food.  Hallel shared in her letter the other day that she had been in charge of getting the food for the large gathering in Saint Pierre this summer, and how generous the Lord had been with them in spite of the economic crisis there!  Such a lesson in Trust and Humility!

Jesus, we love you and thank you for the awesome examples of humility we are blessed with in this world.   A world that is so confused in the darkness and lies of Satan.  We look to the Light  - Our Lady, Your Word, the Sacraments and Truth of YOUR Church, the Saints... we are drawn to be YOURS totally and without reservation.  May we go forth into this day becoming more and more yours and less and less a self-centered man.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halelluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me."  Phil 4: 13

Waiting is part of life

As we wait for the arrival of number 8 grandchild... I am finding the life of a Catholic wife to be one of a quiet existence - no TV - and the sacraments and prayer.  There are many stories read, and time outside or at the table doing art.  We ask Patrick to join us soon, but he seems to be quite content to  wait for a while yet.  The grandkids are very sweet and glad to have grandma here.  

The bigger brother waiting for the arrival of his new brother, and in a couple months the return of his dad from Afghanistan.  We pray for him always... Maria is in a group that we will be attending in the morning with wives that have had husbands deploy and return with the wounds of war within....

From our book of study;

"God protected Jason, but God didn't protect him.  I prayed Psalm 91 for Jason every day, many times a day, believing God would shield him, cover him, even make him bulletproof.  I prayed for him the minute I awakened, as I got the kids ready for school, as I stood in bank lines, as I waited in traffic, as I washed the dinner dishes, then outside looking up into the stars and the rising moon, and finally as I lay in our bed alone - over and over I prayed for his safety.  I never knew to pray for Jason's mind."  from When War Comes Home  Christ-Centered Healing for Wives of Combat Veterans

Lord, we continue to lift up Joseph and ask that he may return with your protection inside and out.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb and family in Ft Bliss, Texas

Great Grandma is 93 today!

There is nothing Great grandma Anna loves more than family- especially the little ones!  Today we are sending our well-wishes to her from Texas.  How Maria wished that her little one could share his birthday with his Great Grandmother on this feast day of the guardian angels.  It could still happen, but with all quiet and no signs of his coming today... we just continue to wait and trust in the Lord's perfect timing.  

Here she is with many of the great grands, and some of the grands.  Shannon sitting on the right of her holding her twin boys is also celebrating her birthday today!  Happy Birthday, Shannon and Grandma Anna!  There are only a few missing from this picture, but there are two coming shortly to continue to the family growth to include more and more to LOVE and share the beauty of LIFE and LIGHT! 

We are so blessed to have Pat's mom still with us.  We will soon leave here to pray a rosary at a young mother's house, who is expecting her 8th child.  It just seems appropriate to be there on this day and to honor the woman, who said "yes" to the life of 10 children!  Lord, we thank and praise you for the gift of LIFE and for the great love and example of serving with a smile we see in Pat's amazing mother!  Give her good health this day and healing from the flu that is making her weak and sick.  May the love we have for her give her strength and great comfort. Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless,Barb

With all of her beautiful daughters!  

"See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.  Be attentive to him and heed his voice... My authority resides in him.  If you heed his voice and carry out all I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes."  Exodus 23: 23

Helping to can with the family!  This is what I love - family days of work on the farm, and it is all because of you, mom...thank you!  Wish we could be there to give you a big hug and kiss!  

St Therese with us as we wait...

Another day of waiting for the arrival of our little one... Some pictures from our beautiful Texas day with St Therese!

Therese wondered if Fr would call her up front on her feast day - no, but it was good to be there to give honor to this special Saint, who is in heaven doing good for the world... especially for those named Therese!

Maria trying to encourage Patrick to come and be with us!   He has his own special timing.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Happy day, sweet girl!!

Dancing in the doorway on her feast day!!!

Therese was up and dressed very special for her big day!!!  So we opened the door and discovered a most beautiful Texas day.  "It has to be beautiful today for St Therese!"  So true little "T"... maybe your little brother will join us today, but it is a wonderful day tomorrow with the feast of the Guardian angels and we just looked ahead and saw that the 4th is St Francis!   As Maria just said; "As long as he comes healthy and with no complications."

A wonderful way to start this blessed day - it will forever be a wonderful day for her, and will always remind her of the special graces of "littleness" and childlikeness that are to be embraced at all times in our lives!  "In a society that idolizes the surface of youth while forcing its children into artificial  adulthood, St Therese might seem foolishly childish, but in fact she teaches the real wisdom of the child: trustful willingness to be led, taught, and raised to true maturity according to God's plan rather than her own."  see www.magnificat.com 

ST Therese from heaven we feel your presence today as we are showered with a beautiful Rose from Heaven - your little namesake little Therese!  There is so much about her that is a very beautiful, as she looks to the Truth here on earth.  She has been given a beautiful gift of having such a wonderful example of coming to Christ small and trusting and loving without judgement as a little child.  Today we ask that you intercede for us and the new little one in the womb, for whom we are waiting to meet and embrace and kiss and love and care for... a truly new and helpless little gift from God!  Jesus, we know that your heart is burning with love for all those celebrating with great JOY the feast of this wonderful woman of Faith!  Be especially with the farmers today that are so busy with getting the crops out.  They are tired and in need of your protection.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"O luminous Beacon of love, I know how to reach you, I know how to reach you, I have found the secret of possessing your flame.  I am only a child, powerless and weak, and yet it is my weakness that gives me the boldness of offering myself as VICTIM of your Love, O Jesus!  In times past, victims, pure and spotless, were the only ones accepted by the Strong and Powerful God.  To satisfy divine justice, perfect victims were necessary, but the law of Love has succeeded to the law of fear, the Love has chosen me as a holocaust me, a weak and imperfect creature.  Is not this choice worthy of Love?  Yes, in order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necessary that it lower itself, and that it lower itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire."  St Therese of the child Jesus (1897)

St Therese, look down upon us from heaven on this beginning of October!  St Therese, pray for us!