Mary's Heart..."since there was no self there, He filled it with His Very Self."/fullness of peace for ever.

Starting my sharing today with this most special picture of my brother's family including my wonderful parents!

I am so blessed to have them both in my life still and although they only shared a few hours with us at our family camp... we realize that their love and example of Faith to us and Family being a very close second will carry be carried on as the Love that we share thanks to their saying "yes" to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!

Our group was smaller this year as Maria and Joseph with their 5 were missing.  Now Pat and I have fake plans to get out there soon.  Road trip or flying?

Lots of powerful thoughts as Christmas is just a week away and we are into the 3rd week of Advent!

“God looked over the world for an empty heart – a heart that 

was empty like a flute on which He could pipe a tune ... 

and the emptiest heart He could find was the heart of a lady.  

Since there was no self there, He filled it with His Very Self.” 

- Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God (1944)

Amazing!!!  With 3 little ones in the womb right now... how we pray for their growth and safe arrival as they lie in the wombs of their mothers'

"In Advent Christ rested in Mary

still, silent, helpless, utterly dependent.

The Creator trusted Himself to His creature.

...This was a foreshadowing

of what the Incarnation would mean for us;

for in us too, Christ rests as He rested in Mary.

From the moment

when the Christ life is conceived in us,

our life is intended for one thing,

the expression of His love,

His love for God and for the world.

... We must allow the Christ life

to grow in us in rest.

Our whole being must fold upon Christ's rest in us,

as the earth folds upon the seed."

Caryll Houselander, The Passion of the Infant Christ

(London: Sheed and Ward, 1949)

82 is the head count this year of the 120+ that make up the family of my parents.  Family is a gift and we rejoiced on Gaudete Sunday!

Loved this put out by Franciscan Sisters;
Advent is a time of hiding, hibernating, silence, and darkness. When Elizabeth found out she was pregnant she went and hid for five months. Why? So that she could go and thank the Lord for this child and talk only to him about this profound mystery. Some mysteries can only be talked about with God and they require us to go away and be alone with him so we can reflect on their profound beauty. When Mary found out she was pregnant, she was covered, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit; we can think of that almost like the Holy Spirit hiding her, allowing her to hibernate under his wings, in his shadow as she went away to be with Elizabeth for three months. May you find your place of hiding this Advent, where you can be alone, still, and silent and prepare for the profound mystery that is to come.....Emmanuel.
by Sr. Rita Clare

Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother
 
Therese with the Belgian cookies they made this year in Washington!

Internet is slowing down to a crawl so I will end this for today.  May our hearts be selfless and allow Jesus to come and take hold of our lives!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Angela's pics

Angela requested these...

Precious family time/Gaudette Sunday 2018

The picture of our family at CCC this year was minus our Maria and Joseph and me with my new knee!  The weather was splendid and the family time cherished and as Pat said; "Another Christmas Camp in the books."  

The official family picture for 2018 with my parents in the heart of our huge wonderful family!  It looks like about 80 of our 120+

Joy loved Christmas Camp and Baby Jesus!  

"Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life."

 Luke is being a super sweet brother getting Joy's shoes on for going to see their other siblings in the HRS Christmas program.   It really touched me to see Luke doing this all on his own.

Having siblings is the best!!!!  I see how it makes you look past yourself and think about others!  That is what the Lord  asks of us foremost and the Saint for today was a huge promoter of getting out of our selfishness and looking at Christ in others and The Church!

Precious indeed!  I watched him struggle and turn her foot this way and that, but he got her shoe on and both were smiling through the entire process!

 I can't get enough of this sweet moment that just happened naturually between these two.  The Light flooding in and all around them brings the words of the responce to the Psalm from mass today taken from John 8:12 for Psalm 1
Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

The Church asks of us to be open to LIFE in our marriages and those we are gifted with on this journey to raise as LIGHTS!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Little LIGHTS made more perfect by having many siblings to keep them humble and caring and praying and serving and giving and loving and helping and hugging and maybe some arguing and rough stuff here and there, and tears... the ups and the downs of family, yet the beauty when it is a domestic Church where the love for Jesus and His Bride, the Church are shared with JOY!

 It really struck home last night that Simon is in his last year at Holy Redeemer as a 8th grader!  Lots of finals as he was a shepherd in the live nativity that ends each Christmas program.

 Ruth shared with Simon on the way home that she was in the live nativity as well as did the Light of Christ as an 8th grader herself!

A powerful moment indeed... live newborns over the years.  5 years ago Baby Luke was baby Jesus.

 The light of Christ has come into the world!

Simon and Mary in the 7th and 8th grade choir... next year Mary will be having her last year, too.  Wow!  How did the time fly so fast?

Jesus, we thank you for the wisdom of The Church in asking us to deny our selfishness and share our lives with family.  Dying to self so that your light may shine forth  into the darkness.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

 The 3 baby girls at my family Christmas last year... Evaneline will be missing this year as Maria's family won't be making it...

Ruth and I head out at 3p today and Pat will come later with John, Bobbi, and Paul!

All our girls last year... Therese and Evangeline will be missing this year...

Joy will be dancing up a storm at the dance after Santa... she makes us smile!

Brown eyes and red hair... Romeo won't be there either.  Sad!!!

Smaller family picture this year... but soon we will add 3 new little ones!  John and Bobbi are having #1, Nancy and Bill #5, and Maria and Joseph #6!  LIFE is the Best!!!  Life is precious and to be cherished and protected from conception to natural death!

St Lucy/LIGHT up our temples! "Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit." St Lucy

2 year old Evangeline eating her mom's homemade pizza.  Saturday night is pizza and movie night tradition at the s!

We haven't seen Maria's younger 3 since John's wedding in June.  A little girl can change a lot in that half a year.  She is talking a lot and we get a kick out of her talking to us on the phone.

We are sad that they won't be here for the big CCC this weekend.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder... Pat is making sounds that we are going out there this winter.  My new knee better be ready for 2 days of travel one way!

 Joy turns on the music and dances... then big brother Dave puts her on his shoulders... "I taught her how to dance!"

St Lucy today!  "Lucy, bride of Christ, by your suffering you have gained the mastery of your soul.  You have despised worldly values and you are glorious among the angels.  With your own blood you have triumphed over the enemy."  Liturgy of the Hours

It was special to watch Joy with her older siblings last night.  She receives lots of love and is a very happy girl as a result.  Like a flower opening to the sunlight.  She lives up to her name and brings out the sun around her!

Lord, God of power and might, you enlighten the world by the example of the life, suffering and death of St Lucy.  Illumine our darkness with the light of faith, that we may look with eager hope toward your coming kingdom...

Let them make known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
Psalm 145 - A Hallel Psalm used in mass throughout the world today!

 Heart warming scene of being open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

How do we work on pure hearts in our families making our temples a place where the Holy Spirit dwells?  By sharing prayer each day, Mary Our Mother of God is there to lead us to her Son through the Rosary each day/// prayer without ceasing,  Looking to Jesus in The Word each day, asking the angels and Saints to help us, St Lucy hear our prayers, taking part in the Sacraments of The Church, Reconciliation is huge and not used enough to keep pure and open to Jesus at work in our lives, monitoring the stuff we put into our minds and hearts!

LOVE!!!!

Yes, Lord we long for your Kingdom and are blessed when we can share in a small slice of heaven here on earth!  Gathering with my family this weekend is filling me with great hope and JOY at the thought of sharing Faith and Family together.  Come Lord Jesus and fill us with Your LIGHT/LOVE/LIFE.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

I don't know if Christmas Cards will happen this year... so... wishing you a blessed Christmas from our family to yours!

The Visitation/Our Lady of Guadalupe/Pregnant Mary transforms/converts our world... Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, JESUS!

 This treasure came up on my memories from 5 years ago...  Baby Luke was just 5 weeks old and was to be Baby Jesus in the Holy Redeemer Christmas play.  We will be attending tomorrow night, and Simon who is in his last year at HRS will be in the live nativity.  Another new baby will play Baby Jesus this year.

Much has happened in Luke's family and in our farm situation in the last 5 years!  Most wonderful is the addition of our Joy.  They are now truly farm kids living and loving the life they are gifted with on the farm as we switched houses about 2 1/2 years ago now.

From KC this morning!!!  A beautiful celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe in our families/domestic Church, our Church and our inner temple/heart/mind/soul are filled with her Truth and her Mother's LOVE!

“Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”

These were the words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego when she appeared to him in 1531. They are still relevant today as Archbishop (now Cardinal) Burke reminds us in a homily he gave at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe that he helped establish in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Some insights...

“…our late and most beloved Pope (Saint) John Paul II placed the mission of the Church in America, at the beginning of the Third Christian Millennium, under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe and commended her to us as the Star to lead us to Christ and, in Christ, to the conversion of our personal lives and the transformation of our world.” ...

(Cardinal) Burke calls this apparition “the mystery of the Visitation as it was experienced on our continent in 1531. The woman clothed with the sun, bearing the Infant Savior, the Anointed, in her womb, appeared to Saint Juan Diego, from December 9 to 12, 1531, in order that a chapel be built in which she might manifest the all-generous and never-failing merciful love of God for us, incarnate in her womb and alive for us in the Church, above all, in the Sacrament of the Real Presence, the Holy Eucharist.”

 “…she has desired to remain with us always, in order that the mystery of the Visitation might be always new for us. She has miraculously left her living image on the tilma or mantle of St Juan Diego. In the magnificent basilica built to her honor, in which the tilma of St Juan Diego is enthroned, the Mother of God continues to visit pilgrims and to announce to them the great mystery of God’s all-loving and never-failing mercy.” ...

“… in 1531, she inspired her sons and daughters to abandon the horror of human sacrifice and to respect the inviolable dignity of every man, both the Native American and the European, so now she inspires us to be tireless disciples of the Gospel of Life, working to end the horror of procured abortion and so-called “mercy-killing,” and to promote the respect for the dignity of every human life from the moment of inception to the moment of natural death.”

Little Joy visiting Our Lady a few months back...

The glorious thing I discovered about Our Lady of Guadalupe is that she is pregnant with Christ!  The high placement of the ribbon, which indicates virginity also is there to reveal that she is with child!

The visitation as Mary pregnant with Jesus comes and our hearts jump  for JOY as we join with Elizabeth... "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb... Jesus!"

She converted millions and the horror of human sacrifice ended for the Aztec Indians.  Now she comes to us in our ugly mess of a world and we beseech her to end the horror callous end of innocent human life in the womb by abortion!

Virgin of Guadalupe,
Patroness of unborn children,
we implore your intercession
for every child at risk of abortion.
Help expectant parents to welcome from God
the priceless gift of their child’s life.

Console parents who have lost that gift
through abortion,
and lead them to forgiveness and healing
through the Divine Mercy of your Son.

Teach us to cherish
and to care for family and friends
until God calls them home.
Help us never to see others as burdens.

Guide our public officials
to defend each and every human life
through just laws.
Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life,
to speak for those who have no voice.

We ask this in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself.
Amen.

 Christmas camp 6 years ago...  the babies then...

Last year they were all 5!  Patrick will not make it this year, so... We are sad that all will not be gathering this year at our wonderful CCC! 

Pat last year with Joy and Evangeline, our two youngest grandchildren.  They still are the youngest but only few a few more months!  We are expecting 3 new grandchildren in March!  Nancy will be having #5, Maria #6 and Bobbi and John having their first!  LIFE is a gift and we are called to raise them as LIGHTS for this world of sin and darkness!

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

If you love Mary there is only one place to be... The True Catholic Church!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb