Counting our blessings - fingerprint of God!

Our cup overflows!!!  This is the view that gave me much joy while Ruth was here to work on Christmas cards with me!  Just a visable reminder of all the many blessings that we are counting this holiday season - with the 3 new members in our family, and many ways the Lord has touched us in this last year!  Able to spend some days with Hallel/Susan after her being away for 2 1/2 years in France, and John's call to the seminary are high on our list of blessings also! 

Rosie and grandpa sharing some pumpkin bread!  Our day is so bright and happy when we can share it with a little one!  They remind us of our call to be "childlike" as we live our lives.  "What is it about "the childlike" that Jesus prizes?  Jesus himself is the child, the Son who received everything from his Father.  He lives in an attitude of receptivity, taking all that the Father has given him.  His is a life of obedience.  He is not in command of his life, but he recieves it as a gift.  This is what it means to be a little child: to have an attitude of receptivity that allows you to be moved by God and by God's ways... The truly wise are those who are like Christ: little children in relation to God."  Fr Robert Barron

Lord, we thank you for the living reminder of little ones.  They are a testamony to the beauty of LIFE and we know they come from our LOVE!  May we always embrace the call to be like children in our following wherever you lead us.  May we embrace our Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE and LOVE.  We are asking to become less and less so that you may work in and with us.  May our domestic Church/family have YOU in our heart.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"Living together wihtout being married robs you of the glue that keeps you together even when you aren't getting along well.  No two people - married or not - get along all the time.  It takes a lot of determination to honor, cherish, and care for your mate when you don't feel 'in love.'  If you are living together, without being married, it is much easier to give up when problems come along."  From a booklet I found in the Birthright office while working last night called - Making a informed decision about Marriage-

I find it sad that it means nothing to simply say - It is a sin to live together before marriage or to have sex before you marry, and have that make an impression on couples.  It is like that it outdated and doesn't matter to couples anymore, so you have to try to reason with them in this way... so sad!  What happened to the moral fiber of our FAITH? 

Grandpa and his sidekick, Dave.  Dave is now taking a nap on the couch after grandma got to read him Cowardly Clyde!  So blessed!!!!

"The cattle are lowing"

In this beautiful snowfree weather... Pat's cute heifers are out front in the pasture in the morning overcast/sunny warm day.  They are cute and a special Christmas ornament on the tree made for a fun photo shoot.  The Three wise men came to follow the star to the Savior of the world - a tiny helpless baby laid in a manger... a manger used to feed the cow that they milked for the family, or the sheep that gave them cheese and wool, or the pig that gave them meat on the table.  A humble yet close to nature place for the newborn Christ!  Raising our family on the farm... we have experienced the wonder in the barn on a cold winter's day with the birth of a healthy calf.  I remember vividly crying on the neck of one of our pet cows, Winnie.   She had just lost her calf and I too had just lost one of my boys after John - carrying them for 5 months and then losing them mysteriously their unbilical cord fatally kinked.  The emotions are real and powerful when we live with life and death on the farm!

Sunset through the glass cross that hangs in our roundtop window looking out over our world of LIFE and death on the farm.  Death is part of life, and is not feared as we are then able to LIVE with YOU, O Lord, in eternity! 

Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"such faith..." Jesus about the centurion - Matt 8

Yes, even after I had my boy... I still attempted to dress them alike/matching.  I made John a shirt out of the same fabric and a pair of shorts with suspenders in coordination with the girls!  This was for Maria's first communion day, and for the party at our house she got out of her white dresss and into this matchingness!  I think she was on the verge of histeria, as her mom drove her to it!  Yes, I even made the hair accessories, and didn't make John join in that! 

Well, it is the first Monday of Advent, and after sharing morning prayer and reading the readings for today together... it is a day to visualize a world that puts Our Lord first!  There was a booklet offered for Advent by Fr Robert Barron, so I might be mentioning him time to time too.  He is a voice of Truth in our Church!  I attended one of his video workshops about the Church with Nancy, when I was up to help her with the baby, Bernadette.  I recently bought a set of his series, so Pat and I will be taking the time to watch and learn and grow.  Today Fr Barron addresses the first reading about the Lord's mountain being the highest mountain, and all the world could put HIM first and stream up the mountain together.  "Advent is a wonderful time to dream, to stir up our desire for what God wants to give us both individually and communally.  When God is our highest value, God and God's ways will be for you the highest mountain, higher than your own ego, thoughts and preoccupations.  Symbolically, all the people Isaiah imagines streaming up the mountain stand for everything that is in you now ordered to this highest good - all your energy of mind, will, body, passion, your public and private life... It is the picture of ordered life."

The red plaid wool days - even I had a skirt made of it for myself.  It is no wonder that people still talk about the girls all dressed alike with ribbons in their hair... the girls included me!  This was also the time of bangs!  Recently there was a statement made that round faced girls shouldn't have bangs and suddenly my granddaughter, Mary's bangs disappeared - never to be seen again!  But aren't they adorable? 

It was cool today to read the words we now say just before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist as mass - "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof: only say the word and my servant will be healed."  Wow!  Seeing the scene of these words and how this man could put all his Trust in our Lord to answer his prayers for his suffering servant!  It is such a lesson of Faith in this year of Faith..."such faith" says our Lord to the crowds around him!  No matter where we find ourselves in life and what illness or hardships come our way - we need to have the faith of this centurion that the Lord is not only listening to our plea, but able to answer it no matter the crowd that is surrounding HIM! 

Here is another silly dressing alike picture I found... the girls on the swim team with their embarrassing mother!  Yes, the next year when Ruth graduated then Susan was on the swim team... the 4 missed being all on the team together by one year.  Yes, I am in a silly mood today, you might say.  Jesus, sometimes it just is too much to hold in... all the fun and goofiness that comes with LIFE with family.  It seems that the kids escaped from their home/domestic Church without too much lasting damage!  The other day in Kansas City... Ruth and Nancy even put up with me dressing their two girls alike!  So fun!

It seems that both girls are smiling about it, too!  Lord, may we have "such faith" to put all of our worries and hardships in your hands.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"What I say to you in the darkness speak in the light, says the Lord, what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops."  Matt 10:27

St Francis Xavier, pray for us on this your feastday!

The tidal wave of BLUE that is showing us how to climb the mountain of God!  We rejoice!  America, there is HOPE for climbing into the LIGHT! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-hyn63jB4  Give and Take by Danielle Rose - the first song we heard her sing at NCYC about 9 years ago!  Lord, whatever it takes to allow us to be close to you... do it to me!

Families touched by YOU!

Remembering 3 years ago...

 So many hopes and prayers three years ago, it is good to be reminded by little Lamb, Patrick in the last month that we are always needing to be in the state of prayer for all the needs that come with LIFE and LOVE!

Not yet 2 years old... sweet cousins Therese and David remind us that there is much beautiful and hopeful about LIFE and LOVE.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

3rd Anniversary of our week of PRAYER!!!

Three years ago we started a week of prayer for John's healing on Dec 1-8, and here he is today - healed of brain cancer and now discerning a call to the seminary!  It was 168 hours - 7 days 24 hours each day!  We stormed heaven with the help of so many!  Thank you, Jesus, and we trust in you.  We are reminded that this is something we should consider doing for many of life's hardships.  PRAYER is our answer!  Bless-bless, Barb

A year ago our anniversary of our week of prayer was the day that we went for John's checkup.  Nancy and 7month old Gus joined us there for the good news of John's continued healing.  We are to go on the 11th this year, and only expect another perfect report!  We are excited to go and see our doctors and their reaction to the news about John entering the seminary as a result of his asking the Lord why he was spared.  I think that they will be very happy for him - #1 to tell him that the cancer has not returned.  #2 to see that he is very happy and growing in his faith and listening to the Call...  #3 LIFE and FAITH has become a gift as a result of his battle and victory called cancer/healing!  We will then drive up to the Cities to pick up his sister, Maria, flying into the Cities from Texas with her 3 kids!  Her husband flies in the next day.  Pat will be able to see and hold his namesake, Patrick Joseph, for the first time!  They will come down to the farm for a day to see relatives and friends!

I love this picture of John last year... always ready for a nap!   Happy first Sunday of Advent to one and all!  We all are preparing for the coming of Christ more and more fully into our lives, so that when He comes for us we are ready!  John may not complete all 6 years of seminary, but the boost and growth of his FAITH- LIFE is tremendous!  Lord, we thank and praise YOU for the beauty of our Most Cherished Cross!  We embrace it as it brings us to LIFE and LOVE.  "Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand."  Luke 21 - the Gospel for today tells us that we are to be YOURS alone, and never waver as we leave our selfishness behind.  May we pray without ceasing for all that are on this journey of LIFE with us.  We are reminded of the power of PRAYER, Lord.  We look at John and his healing and FAITH he prayed and hoped for has been found in the Cross!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Be vigilant at all times." Luke 21:36

Sweet Mother Mary

John is being interviewed by the Prairie Catholic about his cancer journey and resulting Faith and call to the seminary!  I too am being interiviewed for this on Monday.  I am so thrilled by it all, and told Sam, the one who is writing the article, that I have lived and experienced this Cross called cancer/healing right with John.  It was such a powerful blessing as his mother to be given the honor to fight beside my son in the battle for his LIFE as well as the finding of his FAITH!  I clutched my rosary as if it were a lifeline pulling me to safety and indeed it was!  We shared the morning and evening prayers from the Magnificat - see www.magnificat.com

The day before Nancy had Bernadette,we had the joyful experience of attending mass with John at the seminary and then joining him for lunch.  It was good to see him in the midst of such a powerful faith experience with those that are listening to his call to bring LIFE and LOVE into this world.  As our Spiritual Mother said YES, so must we as we bring Christ to the world around us.  Lord, may we love and serve you this day.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb