Anniversary Week of Prayer goes out with POWER

This is what greeted me this morning at mass... 11 sisters coming in and sharing the Eucharist and Prayer!!!  It was a beautiful and stirring sight to behold!  How I yearned to go over to them and discover more about them.  I do know this much - they are contemplative and spend their work doing prayer, and they have moved into the convent in Ghent.  Knowing what little I know of their charism of prayer, I was drawn to remain in church with them for the time they spent focused on HIM in the tabernacle after mass.  I know of their deep prayerlife and was wanting to join them in the deep places of prayer that they encounter HIM.  With my rosary in one hand and camera in the other (not all the time) I joined with them in prayer in that inner place of worship and praise!

One came forward on the floor and was humbly on the floor in prayer.  I am familiar with this with my time spent with the Handmaids in St Paul when Hallel lived with them.  The posture of humble and total prayer is a beautiful sight to behold.  It was a great gift on this the final day of our 3rd anniversary of PRAYER!  It was also a gift yesterday as I was interviewed for an article for the Prairie Catholic - to share for over an hour about our journey called cancer/healing/seminary.  At the end the interviewer requested prayer for his uncle, who is facing the recurrance of cancer.  "I just feel, after talking to you that prayer is so important and that you are a prayer."  Yes!!!  Thank you, Lord, for the amazing gifts that continue to pour upon us reminding us that we always want and need to keep those lines of communication - our LOVE for YOU shared in constant PRAYER without ceasing!!

I counted 11 of them - 10 in habits and one looking to be a postulant.  What a blessing to have them in our area and to have this love of God so visible and the prayer here for our benefit in time of need.  Sitting in the church with them for the extra time after mass and receiving Jesus into us... such a special gift to me!!!  I had my rosary and prayed the 5 for my kids and one for Pat "with" them.  The quiet about them and the humble posture throughout mass and in prayer was a beautiful sight to behold.  I had to send my girls an hour away to Schoenstatt camp to see sisters in habits and in order to know that this life is something to consider for every girl... now to have them living in our midst and to share mass with them is outstanding!  I long to meet them and to discover more about their life.  I want my granddaughters to know them and appreciate them and their LOVE for HIM!

They do have the glorious blessing of having the Community of the Lamb in their lives and their Aunt Little Sister Hallel!  So wonderful that they are introduced to the beauty of being a spouse of Christ and living according to his call to live the Gospel with poverty, chastity and obedience!  They take it as totally normal that they have a religious community in the family.  All our efforts to expose our girls to this as a beautiful option for them in their lives has now paid off so gloriously!  Now it is just part of our lives and we are given so many graces as a result!  When I was being interviewed yesterday - I just wanted to stress that this is such a gift to give our children when they are looking at where the Lord is calling them - "All you parents, encourage your children to consider the beauty of a call to religious life or the priesthood.  It is a wonderful life and a blessing to the family.  It is the best!!!"

Lord, so glorious to be reminded so powerfully that PRAYER is as the life we live - with each beat of our heart and with each breath that we take!  So special to celebrate the end of this week of prayer with the power of giving our all to pray for the world, our domestic Church/family, your Church, and the needs of all.  I am reminded so often that all those that prayed with us for John have many needs of their own!  I continue to pray the Crown of Thorns mystery daily for them and all the needs that they have.  We are united in prayer - one supporting the other as we go down the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross.  It is through that Cross that we find LIFE and LOVE and are able to share your LIGHT!  May we look to you and leave our selfishness behind more and more as we follow after YOU.  St Ambrose, pray for us this day.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Be holy – let us pray." 

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Topknot 2

Top knot!!!!

My day is made!!!  Little 7 month old Rose came for the afternoon, and grandma got the chance to put her first topknot in her hair.  And then she gave me this smile and wide eyed look!  Perfection!!! 

Reflecting on your sweetness and LIGHT!

Praying at sunset.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"so do you prepare your heart for his dwelling-place" St John of Avila

Paul was to give a talk on chastity last night at FF, and he was thinking about using a picture of little Dave sleeping under the Christmas tree - waiting for the Big Day!!!  I had Dave show me how he gets his pillow and blanket and crawls under the tree... before I knew it he was truly fast asleep in the glow of the Christmas lights in the branches overhead.  Laying on the floor to get the picture of him... he was truly under the Tree!!!... I could sense the feeling of wonder and safety Dave felt under there.  How much anticipation is building in his little boy heart and mind as he counts the days of Advent until the arrival of... probably Santa, but also the baby Jesus is promoted as the reason for the season in our family!  It speaks much of keeping yourself chaste for marriage - a Truth that is seldom heard these days!  So disheartening to read a booklet I found on marriage at the Birthright office and the way that they have to approach the questions about living together of getting married after getting pregnant... the ideas of morals and looking to the Truth... that we are meant to enter marriage as virigins saved one for the other.  Where did the world idea of sex and marriage get so warped and wrong?  How special we feel as spouses when we open that gift meant just for us... when we give ourselves one to the other, and become one!!!  The best gift in the world, and the glue that holds our marriages together as we embrace the motto of the Lamb - wounded, I will not cease to LOVE!  Ever since Hallel wrote a letter to Nancy on the occassion of her engagement - Pat and I call each other Our Most Cherished Cross with great JOY and see that we truly do receive LIFE from each other!   Not only the children we have been blessed with here and in heaven, but the rubbing away of our selfishness as Pat is the sandpaper that rubs off my rough edges!  Ouch! 

Ruth is so sweet with her little new baby girl, Rose Ida.  The two of them reveal such a special bond, and the thankfulness that Ruth feels in being blessed with another perfect gift-from-God Child after being told no more... well, that it also a special waiting and trusting lesson of allowing her uterus to heal long enough using natural methods to prevent, and then trusting with prayer and vigilance to get the baby safely here!  Ruth and Paul certainly can talk about waiting over and over in their marriage!!!  There are so many blessings we receive when we sacrifice for the Truth and for LIFE!  Jesus, shows us the Way through the wisdom of His Bride, the Church!  It brings tears to my eyes to "see" the Love that little sweet Rose has for her mommy.  She misses her when she is gone working a 12 hour shift at the hospital, and the look of sheer love and devotion that fills her face as she hugs her mom's neck is a thing of beauty to behold!  The absence makes the heart grow fonder!!!  I have great joy in knowing that all 3 of our married daughters are having the special gift and bond of nursing their babies now.  They are all having that closeness and nourishing their babies to have that big cheeks and chubby healthiness!  So special, and I have said that if I had known that John was to be my last... I probably would have had a very hard time, but as it was there were 3 lost after him, and then it was over.  The Lord wanted to draw my eyes more and more to heaven, I guess.  I guess the two brothers, William and Robert, that I carried for 5 months each after John, needed to be in heaven praying for him through his cancer/healing journey, and not standing at his bedside. 

Dear Lord, how I am filled with wonder at the ways you touch our lives with your Way, your Truth, and your LIFE!  We are so much more precious one to the other, if we truly wait with great anticipation for each gift we are given from YOU.  If we wait for each other on our wedding night - what JOY and LOVE!  If we wait for the children and are open to LIFE - we are blessed with each one, and our love grows and grows!  If we wait for the problems of life to pass, and forgive and forget, and not throw up our hands  and walk away from our spouse or family... the LIFE and LOVE will come after we embrace our Most Cherished Cross!  Through the Cross we find eternal LIFE, O Lord!  "God who is about to be born has no house, no cradle ready for him, so do you prepare your heart for his dwelling-place?  Let it be warm with love, for the Babe is chillled; but still, if it only be tepid, the shivering infant will still bring greater heat.  The more he suffers from the cold for us, the more strongly does he prove his love, and so deserves our love still more.  In the rigorous winter weather which he bore for us, he chose to wear no clothes to protect him; but naked was he born, and naked died upon the cross for us, because, both his birth and death, he manifested the greatest excess of love."  St John of Avila  Yes, Lord!  I want to prepare myself to be totally yours in all that I am.  Jesus, I love you and worship you in my holy temple within - may your LIGHT pour forth upon all those in my domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

Rose giving grandpa a kiss...  we are all blessed by her presence and that of all our grandchildren!

"You must have ready a crib, then, in which to rock him to sleep, which symbolizes the repose of contemplation... He has many poor brethren, and those who love him must love them too, for his sake.  Give them your alms, for they are the brothers of your Creator.  When our Lord comes to be born in your soul, keep careful guard over him, and may he protect and save you for his mercy's sake."

St John of Avila (1569)

St Nicholas, pray for us and show the true meaning of the Season - the Child of God!!! 

"Trust in the Lord forever!  For the Lord is an eternal Rock."  Isaiah 26

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCR24-tkWI  An amazing song by Danielle Rose called If I Touch HIM

The woman, who had the hemorrhage for 12 years - talk about waiting for healing!!!

Six years later...

Tonight I had the joy of taking some pictures in front of the tree with little 7 month old Rosie in an outfit that her sister wore 6 years ago!  So cute!!

Here is blond haired blue eyed Mary at the same age... you see just 11 days after Mary turned 6 - her new baby sister was born.  So the two girls are able to share clothes and grandma has super fun with my two sweet girls!  Another thing they share are the healthy cheeks that they get from their wonderful mommy!  So sweet and healthy and happy!  When Ruthie got home from work after a 12 hour shift - little Rose lit up like a Christmas tree, and hugged her hard with a huge smile of delight on her face! 

She seems to think that the stocking her mom stitched for her is so good that it must taste great too! 

Meanwhile Dave fell asleep under the Christmas tree!  Sweet dreams and bless-bless, Barb

PS Nancy added some great pictures on her blog of our newest granddaughter, Bernadette - BeBe

http://thegreatgusadventure.blogspot.com/  Of course Gus is super great too and a wonderful big brother to his sister - the kiss is so great! 

"I do not want to send them away hungry..." Jesus

How grandpa Pat loves it when the kids and grandkids show an interest in his cows and calves!  David spotted the 3 red steers as they stand out in the crowd of mostly black ones.  He thought that it would be fun to bring them home to pet and care for.  Not realistic with the winter around the corner...they need to stay with the rest so that grandpa can care for them and feed them daily. 

The amazing Gospel for today from Matt 15 shares this scene of glorious mountainside occurance!!!  Jesus goes up on the mountainside and great crowds are with him and they lay all the "lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute and many others.  They placed them at his feet and he cured them.  The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Isreal."  Then we find out that they have been there with him for 3 days!!!  Wow!  just putting myself there and laying down to sleep after witnessing the miracles and hearing his Words of Truth!  What excitement would fill me as I lay there in the dark and thought about how I personally have been touched by HIM.  I have been healed by him over and over in my life and within my domestic Church/family.  Everytime I go into the confessional and lay my sins and burdens at HIS feet - I am healed and leave there with great JOY.  Every time I receive his Body and Blood in the Eucharist - I am fed by HIM with Jesus!

Dave having a cute conversation with grandpa about his having some steers at his house and how they could be fed.  He is sad when grandpa tells him that they have to stay with the others and be fed by grandpa every day! 

To think to this scene on the mountainside once again... the need for food was probably overshadowed by the wonders they were witnessing and hearing as Jesus spoke to them, and taught them, and healed them inside and out!  After 3 days they were weak and Jesus wanted to feed them - "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for 3 days and have nothing to eat.  I do not want them to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way."  In like manner He is there to feed us as we are healed and whole through the sacraments of the Church, prayer and looking to our Church!  I remember that with John's battle with brain cancer... there were many books suggested and this and that, but I wanted to put my all in my Church and all that it has to offer to me - Christ and his Bride, the Church healed our son, and taught many the value of the Church and the power of PRAYER!

Learning at the feet of grandpa about the good life we have on the farm - caring for the animals and crops that feed the world.  A constant and sometimes difficult job, but for those that love it a good life.

Jesus feeds us and cares about us - He is there for us in the Eucharist and His Word always!  How He fills us with LIFE and LOVE!  Would you have slept for those nights, or would you be glowing from being face to face with God and gathered around HIM or in groups just talking and sharing those deep feelings of LOVE you have witnessed over those days?  I work retreats where you encounter Christ, and yes you do sleep at night but many times it is very fitfully and you lie awake many nights thinking and feeling and yearning for sleep.  The food is wonderful there, and plentiful too.  Although those that are serving at times are left with the remaining food and that can be less.  We give it up as a penance for those that are making the retreat for the first time.  Much time spent in prayer and penance- wheat!  Please consider making a Together Encounter Christ retreat... it is going on the mountianside with Christ for 3 days!  Truly- you will encounter HIM in all his glory and sacraments of the Church! 

Davey's special steer - Bullseye - likes grandpa because he feeds him and cares for him.  We love and need Jesus for the same reasons, and because He came to show us the path to LIFE!  Jesus, how we love you and praise you for ways you care for us and feed us on our journey of LIFE.  We are sitting on the mountainside with YOU as you break the loaves and divide the fish..."They ate and were satisfied."  Yes, Lord, we are given the food to strengthen us to leave that mountainside and carry forth your Truth and healing to all in our lives in our domestic Church/family.  We have met you face to face in the confessional and in the Eucharist and we are satisfied as we walk away from our selfishness and become more and more YOUR DISCIPLE!  May we allow our LIGHT to shine and no matter how hard life is to LOVE!  "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE."  May we live this as the Lamb showed us how.  The innocent child is welcomed into our hearts at this Advnet time of year.  May we be childlike in all that we do.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

26 "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?"Matt 6:26-27

The sermon on the mount!!!  Wow!

Dave and grandpa find Snowball out there with the cows and they pet her and spend some time with her.  I guess that is why Dave would like to have some animals at his house - he remembers this summer when they had Snowball and Snowflake in their barn getting ready for the fair.  In a few years, Dave, you will have some beef pets to show at the fair too!

Feeding at sunset...  Always caring for the cattle no matter what the weather.  How Pat loves this open winter.  No snow?  That would make Pat the farmer very happy.  So guess who is praying for a brown Christmas/winter?  Blame Pat!

"That is the very deepest meaning of Advent.  Our holy seasons always ought to be something special.  They are really holy mysteries, and they should awaken a mystery as echo, as consideration, as prayer, in our minds and in our hearts... Indeed, after all, the ultimate and deepest meaning of this coming feast, the Christmas and Coming-of-the-Lord for which we are preparing ourselves, is that the created being, man, actually finds himself in the presence of the Absolute Ultimate.... become ready - really ready- to encounter and respond to HIM, the Ultimate, in an appropriate way, as befits a creature encountering the Ultimate."

Fr Alfred Delp (1945) was a German Jesuit priest condemned to death by the Nazis in Berlin, Germany.

http://www.riverbendtec.org/  Check out a retreat!!! You will never regret it! 

Gate watching with Bossman - Dave!

After a nice nap Dave is out to help with the cows. 

Dave spots a big red steer with two red eyes and he names his Bullseye and wants grandpa to load him up and bring him to Dave's house. 

The best picture of the two guys admiring the cute steer Bullseye!  "Load him up grandpa and bring him to my house.  I like him!"  "Well, David, what would you feed him and where would he stay."  "You have lots of hay, grandpa, and he can be outside."