Last trip with lilacs to have and to hold under my nose.

Went along with Pat today to take cows to sell.  The lilacs are fully open after a cold wet spring and lots of wind.  They have blessed my life with their beauty, so it is hard to say goodbye to them for another year.  Jesus, you have given us a wondrous creation to fill our days with wonder and awe.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

"The holy way - it is there for those who have a journey to make..." Isaiah 35

Family time on a glorious evening on the farm.  Ruth had thought about going to a local State Park with the kids, but the men were working putting cattle out to the pature here, so we decided to have our own campfire/cookout in the grove!  It was a wonderful evening.  I love to have the convenience of the house right there for anything we may need or want.  Yet we are out in a camping mood surrounded by the glorious smell of lilacs from the hedge that surrounds our house in a cloud of heavenly beauty!  I can imagine no more wondrous thought than the clouds surrounding heaven as being billowing with the plumes of lilacs.  Looking up at the fully open mass of blossoms - it did have a fluffy cloud like feeling to it!

Clouds of lilacs... smellvision... I can smell their beauty sitting here and looking at this...

Well, I am off to take cattle with my husband... we will try to travel the Holy way as described from Isaiah in morning prayer this morning - "it is there for those who have a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk... crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee."  Isaiah 35 

Every day is a challange for us to keep to the path that the Lord has laid out for us to follow.  That path that is labled for me personally?  There is a sign that says "Wife" and a sign that says "Mother" and a sign that says "Nurse" and a sign that says "One who writes a lot about her faith journey since she wrote about John's brain cancer journey" and a sign that says "One who has been blessed with LIFE with her 12 children - 7 in heaven and 5 with her" and a sign that says "Daughter to faithfilled parents, and sister to 11, 2 of which are in heaven" and a sign that says "In love with the True Church and without hesitation a believer and follower of all that The Church upholds as Truth" and a sign that says "a woman who needs her Lord as she is very weak and emotional and anxious at some of the hardships she faces!"  Well, there is so much more that marks my path in LIFE, and I know that I have shared at great length that journey here.  Yet, each new day holds so much to add, and it seems that I never run dry of all that I can, with great excitement, share!

It is such a blessing to have grandchildren sharing our life on the farm with us, and to see their joy and excitement at the LIFE they are blessed with here.  We know that our girls have appreciated their life here, and with great happiness share that with their kids whenever possible.  Most importantly we feel is the fact that as a family of approaching 20 now - we share with a single mind, heart and soul - the Truth of our Catholic Faith.  We are united in Faith and that is what gives us the greatest happiness in LIFE!  I will never forget Pat speaking to someone, who said that all that mattered is if your children are happy.  "No!  There is false happiness!  All I want is for my children to get to Heaven."  We feel, without a shadow of a doubt that the Catholic Church's main goal is to help us get to Heaven!  All that She teaches or proclaims is for our benefit and to help us get to Heaven!  Each day is filled with all that we need to keep to the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross... the sacraments, the Saints - today is a feastday of St Charles Lwanga and companions - martyrs from Uganda, Africa in the late 1800s - Our Lady, Queen of Heaven and Earth, the sacramentals as in the rosary and many others, and we are given the gift of having Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament two days a week now!  I could go on and on and I must add here the wonder of Jesus in The Word!  There is a misconception that the Catholic Church does not honor The Word as it should - every day The Gospel reading is read and preached and meditated upon around the world... that is truly allowing Christ to work in this world through the power of "where two or more are gathered in my Name, there am I in their midst." Matthew 18:20  We have adopted a wonderful taking in of the Gospel and taking it to heart through Hallel's Community of the Lamb!  They start the night before "chewing" the Gospel by repeating each line over many times and things just leap out to you in this way!  We read with great anticipation the night before the reading for the following day and we are never disappointed and go to bed with that ringing in our hearts, minds and souls! 

Jesus, we are filled with so much as we are given the path called The Church to follow on our journey to make.  Yes, it is narrow and hard, yet there is so much to help us and fill us with the strength to go forward singing to Your Honor and Glory with all the Saints!  Today we are reminded of those martyrs - "They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.  'These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have their robes washed and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' " Revelations 7:14  Yes, Lord, we too have faced those times that we are persecuted for our faith in YOU.  May we find strength in the witness of many that faced the supreme sacrifice - most especially YOU yourself, Jesus!  Turning to YOU... we are reminded of the creed of the Lamb - "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE."  As I was walking through Saint Pierre in 2009 watching my son on a walker and struggling to walk on his own after having a biopsy to discover the name of his brain cancer, and the next day to watch my 4th daughter, Susan, take the habit of the Community of the Lamb and change her name to Little Sister Hallel... Little Sister Sarah told me that this was the motto that they lived by in the Community - "Wounded, I will not cease to love."  When you engage those from the Community in conversation they speak so often of how this situation or person is a "lamb."  So when she spoke these words the vision of the spotless Lamb/Christ going to the Cross for our sins and our darkness to bring LIGHT/LIFE/LOVE into the world came over me, but I also asked her if it were a hard thing for them to do day to day.  "Yes!  It is a very hard calling to live out." she said, without hesitation.  Lord, give us the strength - most especially with those that are the closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Why is it that those that we love the most and are the closest to us, do we treat the worst?  May that change this day.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb with my most Cherished Cross - Patrick Gerard Joseph Verly

"Salvation is from God and from the Lamb!"  Rev 7:10

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

― Thérèse de Lisieux
“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”


― Thérèse de Lisieux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO_YUOAA1HU  Small Things with Great LOVE by Danielle Rose

Lilac sunset filled with the aroma of LIFE

The lilacs in the hedge on two sides of our house have lasted much longer than many years with the cool weather, today they are totally open and just standing by the hedge trying to capture the light of the setting sun on them... the smell was wondrous!  Add to that the smell of the campfire we had to roast hot dogs for supper, and the smell of grass and the sounds of family getting cows and calves out to pasture and kids talking by the campfire or playing with bare feet in the gravel pile.  Little Rose crawling across the lawn and making mooing noises back at the cows and calves as she sees her dad, grandpa and uncle out there as well as her brother, David.

The men getting cows and calves out on grass

Brown eyed Rose eating watermelon on the steps.

Wow!  Are those lilac eyes?

Farmer's Daughter - Mary - was out picking rocks with dad today.  Her feet are tired like grandma's after working the weekend too.

Campfire to wind down on a wonderful evening - no wind or bugs tonight- what a treat!

Jesus, we thank you for a lilac sunset with family on the farm.   Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

The Solemnity of LIFE - The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Simon is now receiving the Body and Blood of Christ at school and at mass on Sunday!  I hope and pray that the specialness/solemnity or the gravity of it stays always with Simon and it doesn't become routine.  One experience that has really helped me to focus on the fact that this is Christ happened a few years back... An older woman behind me spoke these words at the concecration of both the Body and Blood - "My Lord and my God."  The words of St Thomas when he saw the resurrected Christ for the first time and put his hands in his wounds!  It allows me to bring my solemn focus on my Lord there for me as my LIFE-giving Food! 

Simon's brother and sister gather around him to ask him about what he just received.  I asked Simon if he had Jesus in his tummy - "No, I have Jesus in my heart."  He responded without any hesitation.  May we all recognize that we have Jesus always with us in our heart!

I am off to work today, but thought that this reminder for the year of faith is so great... How about making an act of Faith every day?

"O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father,Son, and Holy Spirit.  I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead.  I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because in revealing them you can neither deceive nor be deceived."

My champion for LIFE with LIFE in his heart after receiving Christ's Body and Blood and LIFE in his arms of two granddaughters... a perfect picture of LIFE! Jesus, we love you and thank you for feeding us with the banquet of LIFE.  May we always hold it as the most important food and drink to desire above all else and remember that we are united as Family in Faith in the Eucharist!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9P2Znc1Tw  Danielle Rose - See you in the Eucharist

Pat picks me a bouquet of lilacs

I was amazed that Pat jumped out of the car before church to pick me a bouquet of lilacs with the word that I better write it down somewhere, soooooo...  Here is it for marking this huge occurrance - he said that Mary and Rosie would like it too, and they both held it at church, and Mary took them home to put in water.  So I feel pretty tired but special tonight with flowers from my husband.  Yes, they were the right price, but he did have to exert himself by jumping out of the car to pick them for me.  Thank you, Pat.  You sure know how to sweep a woman off her feet.

When I see how loving you are to your mother and to the grandkids... well, that makes me love you the most!  You are a wonderful family man and my champion for LIFE! 

Lilacs, Church and Family - that is about as wonderful as it gets!  Jesus, we thank you for the beauty of your creation and most especially how you brought the Truth into the world through your Mother saying yes to LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  We are forever changed by your Most Cherished Cross and mine - named Patrick Gerard Joseph Verly!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

Watching for heat in the back pasture tonight.

Rhubarb and lilacs means spring is here - where is the warmth and the sun, Lord?

Life and death on the farm

Ruth and kids came over to watch the steers get loaded up to go to the slaughter house before naps yesterday.  There were some questions about why some of those familiar ones had to go after just a little over a year of fattening up for market.

Last fall David stood on the fence and noticed Bullseye - he stands out with his red coat and white brindle face with the red rings around his eyes.  He asked grandpa to load him on the trailer and bring him over to David's house for him to take care of.  "No, David.  Grandpa has to feed him special so that he does what he is meant to do... give people good beef to eat."  "But why?"  said David, and always says David.  I think there were a few tears of frustration and disappointment.  Here is David saying goodbye to his Bullseye for the last time.

David spots him in the trailer.  Yes, we do get attached to these animals. Some just are more friendly and interested in us.  Many times I would be out to watch the gate or something and Bullseye would be right there in the front looking at me.  It is nice to have that recognition, but they are definitely here for a purpose, and you need to say goodbye with a healthy respect for us being in charge of them and allowing them to serve the purpose they are here for.

Off after lots of love and care and work at keeping them for those in the world to eat and enjoy.

David is fine and is starting to understand the life and death part of the farm.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb