"A peaceful island for me."

I am iced in at my mother-in-laws here in town after taking a turn helping out with her, as she recovers from some issues related to her age.  I know that at our farm are 2 grandkids under the watchful care of John and Pat is there with all he needs to do for the animals outside.  To be totally honest I am content to be here on this "island of peace."  With the request of allowing some to help her "alone" - I am so happy to be here with the door closed and some peaceful time alone!

Where do I find this "island of peace" throughout my days of this journey of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT with never a dull moment? Little Dave praying the rosary for his brother, Patrick, back 2 years ago is where I find my "island" in each day... through the gift of The Rosary!  

 Therese and David joined me visiting the Cathedral of St Patrick in El Paso 2 years ago... I certainly find so much peace and know that I need not be anxious or worried because I have an army of Saints, My Spiritual Mother, Mary the Mother of God, Jesus, and The Church, not to mention my guardian angel as well as my 7 children praying for me from heaven!  So much help to keep on the narrow path and shoulder my most Cherished Cross!

 As a woman... Mary is such a gift to me, and models for me how to say "Yes" to all those requests made of me... it seems that the requests made by those the closest to me are the hardest to happily perform!  How I LOVE to have her always with me!

 Time spent in the Adoration chapel gives me the most beautiful place of PEACE!   I plan to go there soon, and just sit in His presence.  I place each member of our families in the monstrance or tabernacle with Jesus!  I have seen answers to these prayers!

 PRAYER TO
SAINT MICHAEL
THE ARCHANGELSt. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..


O glorious prince St. Michael,
 chief and commander of the heavenly hosts,
 guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits,
servant in the house of the Divine King
and our admirable conductor,
 you who shine with excellence
and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil
, who turn to you with confidence
and enable us by your gracious protection
 to serve God more and more faithfully every day.

 The rosary in my fingers and a new life in my arms... sweet Bernadette two years ago just after my return from my month with Maria and her miracle baby, Patrick, born dead and brought back to new life!  Talk about an island of peace - feeling the fingerprint of God upon me!

Today with the first reading of God creating the world in Genesis... all the world and the LIFE in it are GOOD!  "God saw how good it was...  God looked at everything he made , and he found it very good." Don't you just feel that way sometimes - when you can find that small slice of heaven/a peaceful island?  The world can be Good and we can find our way into the LIGHT leaving the darkness of sin and death behind!

 Mary with her namesake, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the chapel in Kansas City.   We all love to spent time there!  It is our home away from home!

I am yearning to get some time away to go to my haven of Faith with my family/Community of the Lamb in KC!  It might have to wait until our daughter, Little Sister Hallel, comes there for Easter, but that gets closer and closer!

 Augustine pointing to their icon of the trinity.

I have shared in the past that I listened to a call to religious life, which was instrumental in bringing me with great excitement and joy into the Catholic Church with my family - all 13 of us 43 years ago!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
I have come to realize that I now am blessed beyond belief to have a daughter, who is a nun, in large part to my own heart-felt desire which was no for me, but as a result I encouraged and fostered this option in each of my children!

Maria visited with Patrick for the first time a couple years back.  Pat's mom with her 3 - now Maria had added Romeo here with us and two in heaven!

I must say that having my 7 children in heaven is a gift for me and allows me to keep my eyes on my true "treasure in heaven."  Talk about an island of peace in the midst of this crazy world.

 I was explaining my love for how I have witnessed Ruth's little ones eat her chin out of love and gratitude for her...

 I have seen this over and over again in the loving icons of Jesus and his Mother, Mary Most Holy!  It fills me with the greatest of JOY and Peace to see this sight!  Knowing that Jesus is totally in LOVE and gratitude towards his Mother for saying "yes" and sacrificing her all for him!

 Another example of so much beauty!

 I adore this picture!  It portrays how much I LOVE The Church!  I have no reservations whatsoever!  I love, love, love The Church!  I am on fire with so much LOVE!  Yet, it is where I find contentment and peace no matter what I face!

 A few years back the Little Sisters from Kansas City came and did our hour of adoration with us.  I think those sharing the time with us must have thought they had died and gone to heaven to see 6 sisters in habits there.  Now we have 2 new religious communities in our diocese and one is just 6 miles away and contemplative!

 Jesus reaching down from the cross to heal John from brain cancer!  John shares that being surrounded by so many prayers allowed him to find total Peace in the midst of the biggest battle of his life, which brought him to Faith!

 Another example of eating his mother's chin out of LOVE!

 St Therese with her namesake, my precious granddaughter!  I have learned so much from both and strive to give my all to Jesus, die to self, so that he may live in me and use me to his honor and glory!

Jesus, I am thankful for this island of peace this day, and all the times I am given this wonderful place to gain strength and to give you the praise you deserve!  I love you with all I have, and I ask that all that separates us may be gone!  In the name of Jesus Christ!  Jesus spoke today int he Gospel about how we are to cleanse ourselves of falsehood and look to the Truth!  May we be LIGHTS for the world and only when necessary use words.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

 Making lasagna for the family on the occasion of the birth of Bernadette a couple years back... This is a very special blessed memory to me... the story of The Grocery Store girl!  I would like to share it here:
As we brought John up to the Cities - we had a homebase at Maria and Joe's home close to the St Thomas campus in St Paul.  It worked out well for this to be family central, as Nancy also lived with their family as well as 3 law students!  It was a lively place where we could make big family meals and since it was summer - grandma bought this pool complex for the kids to enjoy in the midst of the craziness and emotions of this shocking outcome for our 20 year old John!  As the family was all around John  - I took a day away to make FOOD!  I just needed a down day to make some homecooked food for the family, and get some mental health time.  I ended up at a big Cub Food store that was nearby.  As I slowly walked the aisles picking out what I needed... I got in line of a black checkout woman about my age.  She asked me the ususal - "How are you doing?"  I just couldn't say the usual "fine."  I said - "Not that good."  "You at least have money for food." she says, "unlike that guy ahead of you."  she points to a black man bagging his own groceries that has just paid with food stamps.  "That's true," I say, "but my 20 year old son has brain cancer!  Could you please pray for him?"  She looks shocked at me and slightly nods her head.  At that exact moment a young girl in the next lane says - "Are you from Marshall?  I think I went to school with some of your girls.  Did you say that your son has brain cancer?  Can I pray for you right here and now?"   I was shocked and nodded my head in astonishment by it all.  She bowed her head, and said a simple short prayer asking for John to be healed and protected as well as his family.  I looked up to see the checkout lady and the man bagging his groceries also bowing their heads in prayer - united in prayer!  That changed me!  I might have lost a bit of my fire since.  But for a long time after this happened I would pray in the street, on the phone, in an email  - I would no longer say that I was going to pray for someone - I would do it right then and there!  I call this the Grocery Store girl, and she started me into a virtual prayer warrior!  I was reminded of this the other night - John and I were talking on the phone, and we were talking about my working the overnight shift at the nursing home that night.  This is a hard task for me, and John knows it.  He said that he would pray for me, and immediatly launched into a wonderful sweet prayer asking Jesus to go with me and to use me!  I thought of my grocery store girl, and smiled all the way to work and many times during the night remember the blessings that we have received.  Just yesterday I called a special friend/daughter that is struggling with her faith, and we prayed on the phone!  Such a powerful connection!  Prayer is something REAL and powerful!!!  We certainly have discovered that on this journey.
Maybe you have noticed how I no longer say I will pray - I pray!!!  So powerful and amazing and life-changing this was for me!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

 In looking through my pictures for those of peace - my island of peace - I find it spending time with my aging parents in St Croix Falls!  I am so blessed to have the two of them together and loving to have me come when I can!  A wonderful "island of peace!"

 Miracle boy, Patrick, now shares the love he has been given with his new baby brother, Romeo!

So many ways I see the face of God always with me and in me and hopefully working through me!

Holy Now - Peter Mayer

Casting crowns - East is to the west

Lifted to the heavens with sharing Prayer!

 I found this special picture of our year sharing John's discerning a call to the seminary!  This was the chapel just across the hall from John's room, where they gathered for night prayer.  Little 1 1/2 year old Augustine thought it was special too.  John loved the Community and prayer life he shared with many young men.  This morning we shared an article from the Star and Tribune about young priests... so very good to read, and filled with so many pearls that we groaned and exclaimed - "Wow!" over.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/291114671.html?page=all&prepage=2&c=y#continue

Why don't I just let it go?  Because it still is part of our lives we are blessed to share with John as he is back home, sharing his light, and asking the Lord to show him the path he is to take.  Sharing evening and morning prayer with my two men is lifting me into this heavenly place we experienced in John's year in the seminary over 2 years ago now.  To have one on each side praying to end and start the day is a small slice of heaven.  I would say that Pat's mother's illness and weakened state of health is calling us to more deeply and devotedly enter into prayer!

I found this wonderful picture of Pat's mother with her 5 daughters taken at the same time as this trip to the seminary taken about 2 1/2 years ago at a wedding shower for a niece.  It speaks of the huge love and support that they are surrounding their mother with these days of recovery at home. 

It was very sweet to watch Pat yearn to share this spiritual place where we are gathering strength and hope with his siblings and most of all with his mother...  She is a woman, whose faith is foremost in her life, and family is her close second to that.  Pat knows how much our prayers as a family mean to her, and wanted her to know that all of our kids, grandkids as well as Pat, I, and John are lifting her up.  Father coming and anointing her just felt like a good thing to do to give her that spiritual boost that the anointing of the sick offers us through the sacraments of The Church!  Also getting her The Eucharist in her home is so healing and powerful for her!  We know that this touches her deeply and that she is very close to Jesus after all these years of receiving him in daily mass!

One more... it just seems like a special gift to come across these today!

“Many Minnesota Catholics think they know what to expect from clergy — a now-familiar mix of soft social criticism and gentle moral encouragement,” says Robert Kennedy, chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas. “But many of the younger clergy take a very different approach. Their voices will not be soothing and predictable, but challenging and supported by personal witness. They are out for souls, not social change.”  This was one of those quotes from the article that made me shake my head and go wow!  We not only know, but have in our family these young priests that are challenging people and concerned about "souls" finding eternity with God!  Fr Craig just warned his parishes not to attend 50 shades of gray...

"On another note I want to warn you, my children, against seeing the movie 'Fifty Shades of Grey' that comes out in the theatres on Valentines Day. This movie has nothing to do with Love - it is soft pornography on the theatre screen for all to see. Please BOYCOTT it. It is terribly demeani...ng of women and will bring images to your mind that possibly will never go away. This is very harmful to our spiritual life, and I must warn you against it as your spiritual Father. If you want to see an article to understand why this is the case, see an excellent article below:
It shows the beautiful teaching of the Catholic church on the tenderness of sexual love between a husband and a wife. God bless you all and enjoy a romantic Valentines Day, minus the lust." St. Leo / St. Peter's church bulletin today!!

http://www.impactingculture.com/2015/01/05/50-shades-broken/
How's that for a young priest out to save souls?!?

 The day before Nancy had Bernadette - November 6 we were at the Seminary Mass with John... I am revisiting those pictures after reading this wonderfully powerful article this morning with John, and he does know the skateboarding priest and some of the others quoted and mentioned in it!   John continues to feel that his calling is in The Church somewhere, but also is pursuing jobs here in town.  Show him your path, O Lord. 

 The same day we visited John - a young priest cousin to the kids - Fr Paul Timmerman was there!  He is also a shining LIGHT in the priesthood and is calling us each to be Saints and to allow Jesus to save our souls and heal us as He did today in the Gospel from Mark 6:53-56...they laid the sick in the marketplace and begged him that they might touch only the tassel of his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed.  Do I get another wow to that amazing reading?  Just a simple touch of his garment is healing, yet we eat him in the Eucharist Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.  And we are touched by him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation!  How often do we witness the power of this Sacrament of healing when we work retreats where there are those that come to partake for the first time in many years?  So powerful!!!

 A seminarian walking to lunch carrying Augustine...

Jesus, there is so much that is filling me with so much hope after reading the words of the young men that are coming to serve as priests in The Church!  Wow!  I said over and over again as they brought LIGHT to those that need to understand that these men love Jesus and his Bride, The Church.  We ask for healing where needed and new trust and confidence in priests/those that carry forth your ministry in The Church and give us LIFE through The Eucharist.  In the first reading from Genesis we are reminded that this world is created by you and is yours... the only way we will find happiness and wholeness is to die to self so that you may live in us!  We are yours, and only find a small slice of heaven here on earth by loving and serving you in one another - most especially those closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

 It is so great for the little ones in our family to have the exposure to those in and discerning religious life and the priesthood!  They will each have that amazing powerful LIFE as an option when they ask the Lord to show them the path he has for them!

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Bernadette arrived the next day!  So blessed by LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

 

May we die to self so that you may live in us -  May we embrace our Most Cherished Cross and follow after You, O Lord.

Venerable Thomas A'Kempis - The Imitation of Christ

If you find this book and read it - You will groan and say "Wow!" a lot.  He was and is a priest, who is concerned about our eternal souls!

This priest walked with me on my early journey into The Church, and touched me so powerfully!  Lord, be with your priests!

Danielle Rose - Pursue me

Danielle Rose - True LOVE

The Cross!

 

Sharing Jesus...

Pat's mom is dealing with some health/age issues, so Pat was able to bring along the Eucharist to share with her.  She has been our companion for mass for almost 6 years now.  Ever since she broke her hip about 6 years ago.  We love to have her along, and lately she is not strong enough.  Between John and Pat , who are both Eucharistic ministers, we make sure that she can get her Eucharist.  It was special to share it today with Pat's sister, and we all held hands and prayed "The Our Father"  together before and after.  Pat also read the Gospel for today - and shared some of Fr's words in the homily.  He spoke about getting away from the distractions of life and  go find that "deserted place" to spend time growing in Faith and our love and all to Jesus. 

"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,  but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."  The words we say to Jesus just before we receive Him.  We are filled with Jesus/LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

Take the rosary with you always! Yes!!!!

 I do this!  I will recall one time on a plane -I always pray my rosary throughout the flight.  It was from El Paso so I had some army men around me.  One acknowledged my rosary in hand and spoke about how he has some nerves at flying too.  He admitted that this was his first time flying!  He was of Hispanic decent and spoke to me of simple roots, and Catholic roots.  We didn't share a lot, yet there was a bond called Faith in Jesus and His Bride, The Church. 

My car becomes my chapel on wheels, and as soon as I back out of the garage my rosary is out of my purse and into my hands, heart, soul, and mind!  My half hour trip to work is filled with prayer and asking Our Spiritual Mother to intercede for each of my children, my husband, all those in need, my Godchildren, Family... I only get 3 decades done as I pull into work at the NH, and some days I continue to pray as I enter the home with the beads still in my fingers.  But a lot of times it is in my pocket where my hand finds it throughout the day.  Then as I drive home it continues on through the 5 decades and then over again with 5 more with all the needs that I lift up each day.  At this talk in Wabasso sharing his story... John mentions how he found comfort and peace with my constant having the beads going through my fingers as we faced his battle against brain cancer.  He shared how The Wedding at Canna speaks so much to him as he discovered his love for Mary, Mother of God, and how she tells Jesus to act!  "Do it!" 

When I am watching Ruth and Paul's kids - it is normal for the baby to grab and play with the rosary that is in my hand.  I have left numerous ones there that I have found later, and the other day I had to rescue it from the chewing of their puppy, Holly!   Our two house kittens now play with it while I am praying after lunch.... joining me in prayer.  Last night I shared that prayer became something real and part of each day since I made my first TEC retreat about 15 years ago now.  Prayer has become with every breath that I take and every beat of my heart!  Giving my LIFE to Jesus - giving him my all takes a constant inner life of prayer and sacrificing my all/dying to self so that Jesus can live!

Enjoying the nice weather... so blessed this winter!

Jesus, on this Saturday devoted to your Mother Mary... The Blessed Virgin Mary... may we all fill our lives with the power of the rosary prayer.  Meditating on your life and how your Mother's Yes allowed you to fill this world with embracing The Tree of LIFE/The Cross and finding LIFE everlasting, Love without end and unconditional, and LIGHT to fill the darkness of sin and death and bring us to a culture of LIFE!  May the beads traveling through our fingers bring us to a place of peace and hope and love and joy and all the fruits of Your Spirit alive and at work in us!  Armed with those may we love and serve those around us - most especially those closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Mary show me how to say "yes" without hesitation to all that is asked of me, and even when "wounded, I will not cease to love."  It is so hard to do that... not to try to return hurt with hurt, but to instead share the unconditional love and mercy we have been shown by our Lord.  Give us the strength this day to be loving and kind and gentle and merciful.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

 

Find Imitation of Christ by Thomas A'Kempis and read it, you will be touched deeply and given instruction in following Jesus carrying our Most Cherished Cross and finding LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

Lead me to the Cross - Francesca Batistelli

A great day for a farm family in Minnesota!

 What a glorious day!!! T-shirt weather - all decked out in Farm Bureau to go with their new red pickup! 

 Such a special day for this humble farm family - Ruth and Paul Lanoue and their 5 kids!

 Congratulations Ruth and Paul and Family!

 Rose in the driver's seat with the candy bouquet!

 Hard to decide which is most exciting the candy bouquet or the new pickup?!?

 The new pickup wins!!!!

Getting the keys to their new shiny red pickup!  Big smiles all around.  Bless-bless, Barb

 The showroom was a busy place...

 Kid approved!

 I wonder if it will still be around in 15 years when Luke can drive it?!?

The kids thought this would be a fun spot to have a camp out some night.  Lots of fun in store for this new pickup.  I heard Pat say numerous times - "It's a lot nicer than any pickup I have ever had."  I had to sit in the back seat, as I have never been in the back seat of an extended pickup before.  Very nice!