Heading South with my men to spend time with family...

On base with our family - yes, that is Marshall sweet corn brought 11 hours South for our supper tonight!  Romeo couldn't wait for the cooking and grandma spoiled him with a cob to chew on while we got supper on the table.

The corn was a huge hit..."This is so great it does't even need butter or salt.  It's so wonderful on its own." 

A Romeo smile for grandma!

"Take our picture grandma!"  The floodgates have opened!  Another day with Maria and family and then we head to KC for the Baptism of cousin, Josephine.

So great to bring our farm food to share with our families down South!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"When I am praying, I am not sinning."

Mom saying goodbye to her last living sibling - Maurice Louwagie- yesterday with 4 of her kids.  Mary, Pat, and RaTerra, and Ed had left with the honor guard.  Can a funeral for a 94 year old man be wonderful?  Yes, there was sadness for mom, who told Pat that she wanted to go ahead of her younger brother, and she will continue to miss him and mourn him.  Yet, there was much about the funeral and gathering with his wonderful huge faith filled family that made it all wonderful on so many levels, too!  The homily by Fr Matt, who had never met him personally, but knows 3 of his daughters and their families very well, was so good that Pat's sister, Mary, said that she was taking notes!  I smiled inside and out when Father said that Maurice always had his rosary beads and spent much of his day in prayer... "When I am praying, I am not sinning."  My newest motto for life!!!!  Thank you, Uncle Maurice!

Talk about crazy... Pat surprised me with roses for our anniversary, except he had me drop him off at HyVee, and then he ran into his sister, Mary, there to get some flowers for her mom.  Catching up in the car with my beautiful roses!


This all landed on our 38th wedding anniversary, so it gave me a lot of happiness to share this big part of the day with Pat and quite a bit of his family, who came up to the Basilica of St Mary for our wedding that same day 38 years ago.  Yes, Uncle Maurice and Aunt Bernie came along with all of mom's brothers and sisters with their spouses.  Now all 19 of them are gone... mom is the only one remaining of the 10 siblings and their spouses! 


We even had our Matron of Honor, RaTerra, there with us.  She introduced me to Pat at her wedding just a year before, so I always say she is the reason for my whole life!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Lots of deep thoughts and prayers...

Somehow this fits in my heart with the motto I have gained from Uncle Maurice...  If we are praying, we are not sinning and much of it is a love language between us and our beloved Christ Jesus!  This is so true for me... I only want to be with my Jesus every moment of every day.  How I long that every breath that I take and every beat of my heart could be speaking his name with LOVE and adoration!  I just remembered that today is Adoration and I have a need to go to town!  Now I am so excited to go and have the best hour of my week - such an amazing gift! 


Yes, today is the feast of St John Vianney, a truly humble man, who gave his life for the priesthood, and as a result is the patron saint of priests!  John and I were praying for all the amazing priests in our family and our lives, and prayed that many more young men would say "yes." 

Mom is so loved by her nieces and nephews!

Lots of interruptions with the phone today.  We are trying to get out of town tomorrow morning to see two of our daughters, so it always gets zooey when we try to get out of town and away from the farm.

Jesus, I think I should be praying always and give that sinning a wide berth!  May I carve out time today to come to you through your wonderful loving Mother.  She never leaves me and so often a "Hail Mary" will come to me in the midst of the frustrations and worries of life.  The peace then flows and I know that I am not alone.  Thank you for the lesson in humility we see in St John Vianney today.  We truly are called to be childlike in our care only for you and not for we ourselves. Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Hard for mom to smile...  She is so supported and loved by her kids these last days on this earth, though.  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Pat and I went to bed laughing about our favorite story of Maurice and Bernie... We had decided not to invite the great aunts and uncles to John's graduation party.  About an hour before it started Maurice and Bernie arrived and sat on the couch waiting for it to start.  We politely offered them food, but they said they would wait for others to arrive.  They sat there and watched us do the final jobs like mopping the floor on my hands and knees, and all those last minute things you do last minute while you are frantic and dripping with sweat!  Talk about one of the most humbling moments of my life!  Oh, and Uncle Maurice had on his famous pink pants to top off the fun!  It brings laughter to us and we will always recall that funny time shaking our heads with chagrin!  I came down a notch closer to the humble Saint John Vianney that day and every time I recall it. 

Farewell Uncle Maurice - Jesus, is our all in all too!

Nuns needed to be there, too!  The handmaids knew his wonderful daughters and their families in New Ulm, so they needed to come and pray their respects to the man responsible for their Faith and Family!

Do you think Nancy has her arms full?  The Best!!!  Love to see how Josie is bright eyed with all the others!  So wonderful!

38 years - A day spent with Family

I came across this picture lately of Pat and I taken 5 years ago in France for our daughter's first vows as a nun.  Being in the midst of such a powerful and hard week with all the international travel, having his 91 year old mother along, and the rustic lives of the Community... our eyes are like windows into our souls laid bare as we observed 5 young women taking their habits and changing their names the night before Hallel's vows.  Pat had just been wiping tears to see the transformation as he was unable to come with John and I two years earlier when we suddenly jumped on a plane and came for Susan to come forth transformed into a nun by the name of Little Sister Hallel!  We were in the midst of fighting brain cancer with John, and here we had our daughter also coming to Jesus as his bride! 


Today marks our 38th anniversary!  John was quizzing me about this day, and I am rusty on some of the details, but I do know that we were married on a Thursday afternoon, and had a small cake reception at my parents' home. Then we had one here in Garvin Park the next day.  Yes, we were married in The Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis, my parish as a new convert to Catholicism,  I am a city girl come to the farm!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html


Today we will be with Pat's mother and siblings as we bid farewell to her only other sibling, Maurice.  She is now the lone one of 10, and on hospice herself for the last year and a half.  It seems kind of interesting to be at a large family gathering on our anniversary, but it will be time spent with Pat and family, so that is appreciated in the midst of this busy day with prep to leave on some time away with out two girls, Nancy and Maria.  Nancy's daughter, Josephine, is to be baptized on Sunday and so we are to have a reason to leave.  It is always hard to get Pat away... the process is hard, but once he leaves the peace and joy come along!


Jesus, thank you for this life filled with so much hard and wonderful!  The wonderful would be dull if all was good and happy.  Without the struggles life would be dull and uninteresting and boring.  The hard make the good so good!  Help me to be a better wife - more giving and loving and forgiving.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barb

Giving us a hand as we sink...

I apologize to the other 3 in this picture, as I cannot name them, but I had a great wonderful surprise looking at pictures put on by St Thomas Office of Spirituality yesterday... there was my daughter, Little Sister Hallel, smiling at me from WYD!  Yes, Susan/Hallel is a former Catholic Studies graduate from St Thomas, and Bishop Cozzens was a priest friend of hers while she studied in Rome and throughout her schooling and call.  He was shown in the other picture they shared and was also there at WYD in Krakow, Poland!  I imagine these girls are Catholic Studies students also.


It is such a Joy to see my girl as we have not gotten a real hug since a year ago Easter in Kansas City at the Lumen Christi/Light of Christ Monastery.  I recently had a picture she sent along with one of her rare notes, because they accidentally made too many copies of the picture.  Otherwise it is kind of a sinking feeling in how little we see her, so a picture here and there of her glowing smiling face is a huge hand out to lift us up!  Yes, she reminds us of the sacrifice both she and us make with her call to be a Little Sister of the Lamb stationed in Rome for two years, Marseilles, France before that, and Saint Pierre, France before that.  She is on the road today - driving 3 days back to their home base at Saint Pierre, France for a few months.  "I will be in St Pierre with the whole community until mid-September and after that... God only knows."  Hallel wrote this in a small note sent with that picture I mentioned.  How we pray that she could come to live in the one house in the U.S.  - Lumen Christi!

When I showed John the picture I came across of Hallel with some St Thomas students - he gazed at it a long time!  How he loves his Susan!  Their two journeys are so tied together, as we surprised her in August of 2009 in flying to France in just 24 hours notice to attend her taking her habit and changing her name from Susan to Little Sister Hallel!  "Every time someone says my name they are giving God the highest praise!"  Want to know more?  Read Psalms 145-150 they are the Hallel Psalms!

The transformation brought a river of tears and so much JOY!  Yes, the two can come together!  Talk about smiles from the heart!

Helping her brother walk - much like Jesus taking the hand of St Peter today and helping him back to the boat in the midst of the storm called brain cancer!

One last one to give me a lift today!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/susan-angela-agneslittle-sister-hallel.html

Luke in two different rubber boots and no pants... He had to show me his rocks in water in his wagon.  Life is truly an adventure for Luke on the farm!

I think it is pretty obvious that the Gospel today is from Matthew 14 - Jesus walking on the water, St Peter tries it, gets scared, sinks, "Lord. save me!", Jesus reaches out and caught him, together holding hands they walked to the boat and got in!  This is one reading that I can really put myself in the situation, and FEEL it!  Why?  I am not really a risk taker, yet I do feel overwhelmed quite regularly by what is asked of me probably more than what I want to try on my own.  St Peter was much more of a passionate and excited follower of Christ in these early days and I probably was more so in my early days as a new Catholic, too!  I was considering a call to religious life, and that door closed, I was in nursing school and accomplished that... then I only wanted to work at Hennepin County Hospital/General Hospital, where I had fallen in love with nursing while working as a lab charter/nursing assistant.  I had to work 6 months in Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home first before I could work there as they required experience first.  A lot was going on in those days for me, and I did ask to step out of that boat in the storms and walk on water with my Jesus bravely and then at times I was overwhelmed and he would take me by the hand and pull me up!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Rubber boots can run fast!  So fun to see all the LIFE that is now on the farm!

Pat and I will be celebrating 38 years of marriage tomorrow.  Looking at my early days as a young enthusiastic Catholic asking the Lord to show me the way, and daring to walk on water to Him, I see that my life still has those times of daring to share my Faith and trust, but it seems that those times come to me rather than I ask for the Lord to call me out.  It seems that I am called to trust and climb out of the boat onto the stormy seas.  Yes, I will limpinly and with fear and maybe angst in my heart do it, and maybe I will start to sink right away and call out for him to help me... He is always there to reach out and get me to the boat, and yes he reminds me that I have such little faith, "why did you doubt?"  I am thinking of John's brain cancer battle, which still is in progress with the new John and continuing to ask for direction and the path to be revealed.

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html

Walking the pigs at sunset.

I am wanting to be more filled with Faith and willing to take the risk in Faith of putting myself out there to give my all and accomplish more than I think I can!  Lord, give me the Faith and energy and the courage to die more to self so that you can live and use my hands and feet to be YOU in this world! Jesus, I trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Susan back from France to support John 7 years ago!  How I love to picture our family all together in my heart!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Another time we were called to step out of the boat and trust - grandson Patrick!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-story-of-little-lamb-grandson.html

Taking his mom's hand...

How did this horror ever happen?

Danielle Rose - Walk on water

Casting Crowns - If we are the Body

Chore time is famliy time - "all ate and were satisfied." Matthew 14

So fun to be over at Ruth and Paul's as the sun was setting... Chore time for all the family!  The pigs were walked and fed in prep for the fair coming up next week!  Last year they would get out of their pen and walk up along the fence and around to the statue of Mary and back.  Now of the farm they walk out and around the mono slope barn..  I longer walk and the whole family helps!

First mixing their feed, but they have to walk first before they get to eat!  Notice the audience they have - nothing like the cuteness of pig snouts through the fence.

They started out going forward, but soon they would try to turn back.

Dad would help turn them with the hog panel...truly a family time!

On this feast of St Alphonsus Ligouri it was great to read the Gospel - Matthew's version of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men not counting women and children.  First Jesus was moved with pity for this huge crowd and "cured their sick."  Then he that compassion included feeding them all from 5 loaves and two fish with 12 wicker baskets left over!  How I pondered the huge crowds at WYD approaching 2 million and how they were fed 3 meals a day for a week!  A miracle?  In my mind his tending to all the needs you would encounter on such a scale and the peace and joy you witnessed in this world of violence whenever you turn around.  Yes, I would call it pretty miraculous!

So amazing to find this in my emails along with a short explanation!

"Its a small world. We ran into Sr. Hallel in Krawkow Poland! She wasnt suppose to be

there that day but through God's intervention we were able to meet. "
Lori Timmerman

It certainly shows that the Lord is directing lives and he loves to shower them with special times and encounters and having their needs tended to and healing their hurts and illnesses whether physical, mental or spiritual.  The Holy Spirit allowed this "family" to find each other and share their love for Jesus and His Bride, The Church!  We share that LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Walking into the setting sun!

Yes, there were families together being healed and being fed by Jesus in the Gospel today.  How wonderful to share the miracles and ups and downs of life as a family!  It truly is the tie that binds us - Faith/Family/Farm!

Many years of walking pigs before the fair lie ahead as Luke is only 2 1/2! 

Jesus, we know and love your care for us, the miracles in the ways we see you and encounter you in our families and Community of Faith!  We long to be forever with you and to stay on that narrow path carrying/dragging our Most Cherished Cross and finding LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT.  May our family become more and more your Domestic Church where Faith is shared with JOY and we are open to life and raising LIGHTS for this world of darkness.  May the culture of LIFE reign.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Around the barn as the sun sets.  We did not do pigs with our kids for 4H.  This is new for Ruth, but what Paul grew up with both pigs and beef to show at the fair.  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

The beautiful bean field around the farm this year.  Here where we live we have corn on all sides.  The crops are especially beautiful this year.  The beans look like a waving green lake all around.  A lot like when I used to spend the summers on Lake Michigan for the summers... the same kind of feel with the visibility on the prairie!

Lord, show John your path for him... he burns to share how he found faith through brain cancer and fell in love with The Church/Jesus/Our Lady!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html

With the conventions over with and the blatant disrespect for life in the womb - almost hate of those innocent little lives... this is especially needed in this world and culture of death!  Lord, please protect all life from conception to natural death!

The Word is huge for me these days!  It led Hallel into her Community of the Lamb!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/susan-angela-agneslittle-sister-hallel.html

Pursue Me - Danielle Rose

Wonderfully made - Psalm 139 Danielle Rose

Danielle Rose  - Walk on Water

Jeremy Camp - Same Power

Holy Now - Peter Mayer

World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland - Family sharing Faith in The Church!

Pat and I were looking through deleted emails and found this treasure/gem/gift/the best!  Hallel in Krakow surrounded by an amazing family that are her shirt tail cousins!  And among them is a seminarian, Troy Timmerman, a priest, Fr Paul Timmerman, a young lady going to college to discern her call, Monica Timmerman, a youth director/Faith Formation Director at our church, Lori Timmerman, and a college student going to U of Mary, Kelly Timmerman!  Such a family of Faith in The Church, and look at all their beaming faces - that's Christ and LOVE!  They are all connected to Hallel by Fr Paul's mom, who is a cousin to her dad, Pat!  They are am amazing family of Faith and that is a powerful bond with Hallel and foremost at that!


This note accompanied this gift on email...  "ts a small world. We ran into Sr. Hallel in Krawkow Poland! She wasnt suppose to be
there that day but through God's intervention we were able to meet. "
Lori Timmerman 
So much more than a small world... it is a world filled with the wonder and direction of the Holy Spirit!  I am filled with such JOY this morning gazing at this!  Thank you, Lord!