Hit by the first blizzard in a few years

Pat made a quick trip to town, and we just barely got home in front of the storm about noon.  It was so white out white that he had to get out and walk ahead of the pickup to show me where to drive and not go in the ditch on either side of the driveway.  You can just barely make out our house straight ahead.  We are cozy but have no TV, so we might watch a Louie Lamour movie.  It would be a sacrifice for me, but I know that it pays to keep my husband happy.  I walked around in the storm and took some pictures so I will share a few here.

Our Lady of the Storm - reminds me the words of Hallel - "Mom, this is the storm and Jesus is in control!"  The day that John found out he had brain cancer - Father's Day 2009 - the Gospel that day was Jesus calming the storm.

All the pretty snow will be blown out of the trees and there will be big drifts where it is stopped.

About a foot at noon, and now how much?

Too much snow on the Christmas lights - barely visible in the deep snow.

Pat and the pickup were stuck but did manage to get out eventually.  Roger watch out you could get buried little dog!

Much better inside - where did our road and all the neighbors go?  White out!

Hope everyone is safe and warm!  Sad that Ruth is at the hospital away from her family, but someone needs to be there caring for the sick.  Lord, be with all affected by the storm.  Bless-bless, Barb

"And life to JOY awakes.." Morning hymn

"The King shall come when morning dawns
And Light triumphant breaks;
When beauty gilds the eastern hills
And life to joy awakes." 
Morning hymn - see www.magnificat.com
These words are stirring and beautiful at the beginning of morning prayer.  The world is softly white with inches of snow overnight and more coming down.  There is a blizzard to hit in just an hour for the day, so there is no visible sun rising in the East this morning.  I found this Christmas light in the bushes in front of our house to look like a rising sun... a sweet reminder of the King we are awaiting...  Yet this hymn is not your typical hymn about the coming of Christ in the form of a humble helpless child...
"Not, as of old, a little child,
To bear, and fight and die,
But crowned with glory like the sun
That lights the morning sky.

The King shall come when morning dawns
And Light and beauty brings,
Hail, Christ the Lord!  thy people pray:
Come quickly, King of Kings."

Yesterday the heifers found shelter out of the wind in the bottom of the pasture.  Today they are allowed to be in the barn...  Yes, it is wonderful and powerful and a huge lesson in humility to remember that our God came to earth in the form of a prefect helpless child, but Advent is so much more than that!!!  It is the reminder that He is coming again in glory as the True King, and we had better prepare ourselves and rid all those sins that come between us and our loving and forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ!  I am longing to get to the sacrament of reconcilliation now in my life - to be ready for HIM!  "Safe in his shadow, armed with his promise (Robed in majesty, might and power, the Lord promises to extend his mantle of justice over all the world), let us sing songs of Joy as we await his coming in glory."

Oh, those chubby cheeks, that button nose and those dark eyes and hair - I am blessed to have a little reminder of my own precious baby girls!!  After 4 of them to start our family in the midst of many losses (I thought that I couldn't carry boys)... I have a very soft place for baby girls, and little Rose Ida was prayed for so much by her grandma - calling her my little Rosebud!  Now she is here to give me much JOY - "and LIFE to JOY awakes!!"  Reading the Gospel for today about John the Baptist going ahead of our Lord to prepare the way... this powerful lesson emerges to truly alter the look of Christmas - baby Jesus!!  "Jesus Christ was born to die on the Cross" (St Leo the Great).  The winding road that Christ makes straight is the way to Calvary...  The 'affection of Christ Jesus' moves us to embrace every sacrifice that prepares in us the way of the Cross.  In Christ's flesh 'all flesh sees the salvation of God.' "

Sister time on a snowy winter day.  Lord, we are filled to overflowing with the power and might we look for in YOU!  Armed with your Truth and LIFE we are following after YOU, Your Mother Mary, all the Saints, Your Bride the Church as we are shown the WAY!  We embrace our Most Cherished Cross and follow after YOU as we look only to YOU.  We are so blessed to have so many surrounding your Throne and adoring you in Glory.  So many that are there to show us a more perfect and selfless way to LOVE and serve all those in our domestic Church/family,and our neighbors as ourselves!  "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with JOY." 

 Psalm 126:3  (I am closing my eyes and imagining the sound of all the men's voices as they sing this psalm today at mass at the seminary!)  How I love to rejoice and thank you, Lord, for all the blessings we are given through your glorious Bride, the Church!  Each day is more wonderful than the one before as we follow after You and your Bride!!  There is unending growth and graces as we are open to your Word and Sacraments of LIFE and LOVE and LIGHT!  What JOY fills our minds, hearts and souls as we fall before your Throne of majesty and might!  Come. Lord Jesus, and show us the path to your Cross/LIFE.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Brothers and sisters:  I pray always with JOY in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the Gospel from the first day until now.  I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.  God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Jesus Christ.  And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the first fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God."

Stunningly stirring words from St Paul to the Philippians in the second reading at mass today... 1:4-6,8-11  Who better to share in perfect words the Truth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWeHo8E70E  Casting Crowns - If we are the Body 

Lord, may we serve YOU with our lives!

A feast for women - Immaculate conception of Mary

What JOY this morning to attend the feastday of Mary!!  I now have the 4 grandkids here while dad and granddad are out bedding the cows and calves... the snow makes more work for them.  But we all agree that it is very pretty.  Last night before bed I read some of Edith Stein's writing on Woman.  She is an amazing saint, who was a profound philsopher, who converted to Catholic from Jewish became a Carmelite nun and then was killed in the concentration camps!  Wow!  St Teresa Benedict of the Cross is very much a part of my life growing up as my mother looked to her for much direction in her writing about woman and submission in marriage.  I will have to return to this as I have a bunch of hungry kids looking for lunch.

Some outside pictures were just too cold and with the little ones... we were quickly inside by the heat of the woodstove watching Home Alone 2.   I discovered that we could still get some cute snow pictures from the inside. 

Fun on the sled, but inside warm and fed is better!

"...feminine nature can be restored to its purity and led to the heights only if it is completely surrendered to God.  Whether she is a mother in the home, or occupies a place in the limelight of public life, or lives behind quiet cloister walls , she must be a handmaid of the Lord everywhere.  So had the Mother of God been in all circumstances of her life, as the Temple virgin enclosed in that hallowed precinct, by her quiet work in Bethelem and Nazareth, as guide to the apostles and the Christian community after the death of her son.  Were each woman an image of the Mother of God, a Spouse of Christ, an apostle of the Divine Heart, then would each fulfill her feminine vocation no matter what the conditions she lived in and what wordly activity absorbed her life."  St Edith Stein

From the inside looking out... much warmer that way.

Lord, we thank you, as women, that we have been gifted with the beauty and Truth of your Mother, Mary most Holy!  She shows us the way to follow after you - leaving our selfishness behind and giving our all to our domestic church/family or to our religious community as your Bride!   We are each called to be a Handmaid of the Lord, and to say Yes to your request that we bear you to the world and nourish You and care for You in the faces of our neighbors and families.  All we have and do and live is from YOU, and we are YOURS!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

In the pink today as Fr said to me after mass this morning.  Girls are so special in PINK!

"For you preserved the most Blessed Virgin Mary from all stain of original sin, so that in her, endowed with the rich fullness of your grace, you might prepare a Mother for your Son and sigify the beginning of the Church, his beautiful Bride without spot or wrinkle.

She, the most pure Virgin, was to bring forth a Son, the innocent Lamb who wipes away our offenses; you placed her above all others to be for your people an advocate of grace and a model of holiness..." 

Preface of mass to the Holy, Holy - the Mystery of Mary and the Church.  Talk about amazing and saying it all!  So powerful! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5npOxjWOhUI Another great song by Danielle Rose - A Mother's Song - Mary's song about her son from birth to death...get some kleenex!

First snow

Last night we were out putting a tarp on the pile of feed that Pat stockpiled.  It was dry and cool.  Tonight we went to town to get some things we needed on snowpacked roads.  The stores were quiet due to the snow I am sure. 

 Pat was feeding bales and I snapped him going in front of the big picture window.  A short time later he called me outside as the cows and heifers had gotten out of their gates.  When we came home in the dark from town we both were impressed by how beautiful all the lights, and especially the pine trees with lights, look now with the fresh pretty snow on them.  When we put the dog food in the shed we saw the dogs had made themselves some cozy beds in the hay.  The big dog, Lilly, had a nice nest of hay at the bottom of the big round bales, and the small rat terrier, Roger, had the best place of all... he came out from a crack in between some of the bales.  He is in a huge dog house made out of warm hay!  He might even have a few cats back there to snuggle with!  We don't need to worry about the dogs.  They are about as cozy as they would be here in the house in front of the wood stove. 

The cozy warm feeling of being snuggled down in the house as the wet cold snow covers the earth with fresh white cover... winter has arrived and its very pretty and quiet tonight.  On the prairie that can all change and probably will tomorrow.  For now we are enjoying this light touch of winter on the farm/prairie.  Jesus, we love the seasons and we love YOU.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Very excited about a project that I am working on!!!  Life is a gift - we are called to raise LIGHTS!

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