My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Hector will be one in just a few days!  Sunday to be exact!  Here he is getting a basket ride in the 24 hour snow they had in Washington a short time ago.


It was gone 24 hours later, but Hector got his first sleigh/laundry basket ride thanks to his big brother!

LOVE!

Drumming on windows is fun for 3 year old Evie and almost one year old Hector!

Maria has fake plans to come home for a day in May with Hector.  I might get the 3 boys together if Nancy can come here to the farm for that day!  Be still my heart!!!

Hector's first mohawk!  Therese got the camera on a normal homeschool day and recorded some great day to day occurances in their household.

With the Psalm today from mass... Psalm 51
R.    (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R.    A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R.    A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

This brings to mind for me the time I was so weak and such a mess after my hip replacement.  I was talking to Susan/Hallel about my situation and how weak and sick and sinful I felt... "Mom, when we are weak is when we turn to Jesus."  "Yes!!!  May I always be weak, because I always want Jesus!  I know that I always need him and may my heart stay humble and contrite!"

LOVE the snuggles in the midst of homeschool!

Rubber scrapers all around.. the two youngest are in the midst of school.

Classic - in Maria's words - "Workout clothes, a naked baby, and smiles whenever possible."

A picture of happy and fulfilled with her saying Yes to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!

The two girls - 11 soon to be 12 year old Therese with her little sister, Evangeline in their new bedroom!  So happy that they are now in a bedroom!  The 3 boys share a bunk room, and soon Hector will be #4!

This Lent is filling me with lots of gratitude to the wisdom of our Church in giving us this time in the desert to deny ourselves and follow Jesus more!  It is just plain good and important to come closer to Jesus in prayer, fasting and almsgiving!
 
Cute Evie in the Sound on a beautiful day!

Jesus, how we love you with our all, and we are eternally grateful for the desert time in Lent in which we get those distractions out of the way so that we can focus more on our time with you in prayer and study of Jesus in The Word!  When we are in that desert with limited food and water we realize how we turn to you when we are weak and needy!  We come to the banquet table you have set before us as we ponder the sacrifice you made for us on the Cross!  Making the Cross the Tree of LIFE!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

From Patrick's first Reconciliation on the First Friday of Lent!  We have 3 grandchildren taking their First Communion now and have experienced their first Reconciliation!  May they always love and follow Jesus and His Bride, The Church!  Bless-bless, Barb

Ruth just called - the carpeting is going in today and we are setting up Cow TV... I am heading over to learn the ropes for this 2020 calving season!  "It's exciting!"  were Ruth's words.  Time to get the kids in their new bedrooms!  Exciting indeed!

Danielle Rose - Litany of Humility
St Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity pray this each week!

Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,

Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being loved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being honored,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being praised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being approved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being despised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Psalm 139/Wonderfully made - Danielle Rose

Hills and Valleys - Tauren Wells

Zach Williams - Rescue Story

Casting Crowns - Who am I?

Isaiah 55, so close and so beautiful is His Word/God's Word shall do his will/Thy will be done

Hallel echoing the Gospel with other scriptures throughout the Bible and Meditations by the Church Fathers.

How I love to witness my daughter's love for her spouse, Jesus, in His Word!  They start the night before mendicating/chewing on the Gospel for the next day.  Similar to Lectio Divina they repeat each line numerous times in song and in chant.  Then led by the Holy Spirit they sit with Bibles in their laps and share related "echoes" from Old and New Testament.  My Protestant roots before my dad led all 13 of us into The Church 48 years ago was not for naught.  Hallel loves her Lord in The Word of God!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

New Catholics in 1971 at our "farm" in Wisconsin.  My parents were always creative to get all these kids out of the Cities for the summers and busy with garden, remodeling the disused farm house, and swimming at Half Moon Lake.

I had a jolt of JOY shoot through me last night before bed when I read the first reading and saw that it is from Isaiah 55:10-11!  So close to the amazing Eucharistic verse my dad read at his Ignatian Retreat... Isaiah 55:1-2 and the Holy Spirit told him to swim against the tide and come into The Church soon after Vatican 2!

Reading 1 Is 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

Wow!  LOVE to recognize Jesus each day in His Word and how The Holy Spirit leads and teaches and loves us and then asks us to carry Him to all we meet - sharing the Good News/The Word/the Way, the Truth and the LIFE!

Also at the Farm...

LOVE this, too!

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Isaiah 55:1-2

How we have been given with each new day more than we can ever truly take in - my cup runneth over with Jesus in Word, Body, Blood, Mary Most Holy, Mother of God, all the Saints, PRAYER filled with so many blessings as the beads of the rosary pass through my fingers each day!  This most powerful time in the desert called Lent!  The wisdom and beauty of Jesus's Bride, The Church!  How I love, love, love The Church and am forever grateful to my parents for not only bringing us into The Catholic Church 48 years ago, but also for sharing that Journey with me and my family for all of those years!  We speak the same language of LOVE/LIGHT/LIFE!  This girl is forever joy filled and grateful!

My wonderful dad and brother, Dan, on Christmas Day - the 48th Anniversary of our coming into The Church at Nativity parish in St Paul!

I am beyond thrilled that I could share this special anniversary with my wonderful father and brother!  They share the same birthday on March 6th!  When dad was 40, Dan was 4, and we just realized that on Friday my dad will be 95 and Dan will be 59!  LOVE!

Deacon Robert in Colman, SD!

My dad then became a Deacon in The Church in 1976!  He had been a Protestant minister, and now was doing all those same things in The Catholic Church except consecrating the mass and hearing Confessions.

The Gospel today is Jesus teaching us to pray the Lord's Prayer.  Tying the first reading from Isaiah to the Lord's prayer we get more insight into how we are helped to love and serve the Lord through our dying to self and serving without counting the cost!
The Lord promises that the Word that comes forth from his mouth will be like the rain and the snow that comes down from the heavens.  Our Father who art in heaven.  God's fruitful Word gives bread to the one who eats:  Give us this day our daily bread.  God's Word shall do his will: Thy will be done.  God's Word shall not return to him void:  Thy kingdom shall come.  God's merciful Word changes our hearts: We forgive those who trespass against us.  God's Word achieves its purpose:  Deliver us from evil.  
see www.magnificat.com 

Love Jesus in His Word, and all that he showers upon us for the journey down the narrow path carrying/dragging our Most Cherished Cross!

Deacon Cross baptizing Nancy held by her Godmother, Mary, in 1982.

Jesus, how we are given overwhelming food for the Journey down the narrow path by you!  Your Mother, Mary the Mother of God, is walking with me as I am lifted up in prayer by her carrying my needs to you.  I am filled with so much peace, joy and love and how I long to share this with all!  Most especially those the closest to me in my domestic Church/family.  May I die to self so that you may live in me!  Jesus, I trust in you.  Amen

An awkward one with my parents a  few days ago.  How I love them and am so blessed to have them still together in their new home in New Hope and the new normal is still filled with special times with them!  Lord, give my parents more good time together and allow me to share Faith/Family/Farm with them!  Bless-bless, Barb

LOVE this!  Sharing our Faith with JOY is truly the way to pass the faith on in our domestic Church/family!
Happy Feast Day
Saint Katharine Drexel
1858 -1955
Feast Day: March 3
Patronage: Philanthropists, racial justice
One of the 12 American Saints, St. Katharine Drexel was an American heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, educator, and foundress. Taking religious vows in 1891, she is known for her selfless service of the oppressed. Donating her life and considerable fortune to the betterment and education of others with an avid interest in Native American and African-American peoples. “The patient and humble endurance of the cross - whatever nature it may be - is the highest work we have to do.” ~ St. Katharine Drexel

"The offspring of this intensity of love

for our Eucharistic Lord

should be a consuming zeal for the 

gathering of souls into the fold of Christ.”

St Katharine Drexel

American ~ 1858 - 1955

Heiress, educator, founder of schools

Entered religious life at age 31

Foundress - Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

aka 'the anti-Margaret Sanger'

(We need St K's special prayers in these days!)

Feast Day - March 3

 

“And here is the passive way – to be filled unto the fullness of God.

The passive way – I abandon myself to it, not in a multiplicity of trials, 

extraordinary penances accomplished, practices of great works – 

but in peaceful abandonment to the tenderness of Jesus, 

which I must try to imitate, and by being in constant union 

with His meek and humble heart."  - St Katharine Drexel

The Gospel - Ryan Stevenson

Ryan Stevenson - Eye of the Storm

Danielle Rose - the Saint that is just me

Danielle Rose - Small things with great love

Danielle Rose - Nothing compares to you

Calving begins early/I want to be a sheep... Baa, Baa, Baa, Baa

Early but healthy is our first calf with Joy this morning.  It is the year of the Ms before their number - her name is Minnie and she will be M1!  Joy will be 3 in a month and looks like she is a farmgirl in the line of her sisters ahead of her.

So begins the spring mud - Joy took a tumble in the mud and grandma had to come and rescue her while the older kids were helping with the implanting of the steers and heifers from last year.  Lots of muddy clothes and boots!

David and Luke ended up in the shower in the shop getting the mud off and having fun, too!  How we are grateful for some nice weather to start our calving this year and more nice weather ahead.  So many prayers and lots of watching our cow TV from here and the farm.

Grandma to the rescue!

It has been a morning with some medicare physicals and it was nice to see that things are going pretty well for this old woman.  It is always a bit scary to face yourself and so I am thankful for a fairly good report.  We all know that things can change around the corner, so we take today with some gratitude and continue to pray.

I had my rosary in hand while my vitals were checked and feel that those prayers without ceasing are huge for me keeping my inside peaceful and calm.  There were many questions about anxiety and depression and I know that My Mother of heaven and earth helps me deal with those flashes of worry and trouble that come with this journey for me.  Real true HELP for the journey!

A memory from 5 years ago with Pat's mom and sister, who is a Leap year baby.  She had a birthday this year!  She is in Seattle with her daughter and family, so no family time with her this year.  Pat's mom has been gone for 3 years now, too.  Seeing her house across the street from the hospital today for my mammogram always makes me sad and miss her.

The Gospel today is that one!!!  The sheep and the goats!  How I want to be a sheep and it calls me to reckoning on how well I do at caring for others and giving to those in need!  As I read it I think about Hallel and her Community of the Lamb and how they visit the prisons, go to eat at soup kitchens and lovingly share their love and the Gospel with the Poor.  There is a precious story in the Community of them begging and the person giving them a glass of water.  This Gospel comes rushing to LIFE!  It is a blessing for them to allow the poor to be sheep also!

My parents sharing The Eucharist on Sunday a few weeks ago.  Mom is not up to going to mass with dad and I so he brings Jesus to her and they share the prayers of The Church... the Collect and the prayer after Communion together along with the Gospel.

Todays needs to be read and pondered and prayed over as to how we can live it better as "sheep!"
Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46

Lord, how I long to be on the narrow path to heaven forever carrying/dragging my Most Cherished Cross and finding LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/heaven forever with you, my Lord!  May I never turn my back on those in need weather it be of body, mind or spirit.  May I share without any selfishness and always give.  May I die to self so that you may live in me.  May I become your hands and feet!  "Wounded, I will never cease to love and to serve."  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

 My most Cherished Cross with 1 year old George, who cried when he left him to come back to the farm this weekend.  How he loves those little ones and they love him in return!

 Then charming baby Jude, who will be a year in 3 1/2 weeks!  He is such a sweet and good boy, too!

 Family job on a nice day.

Many hands working together on the farm.  Grandma gets to have the young kids in and out of the house - lots of mud was
found!  Bless-bless, Barb

Minnie and Joy

John's story of finding faith through brain cancer

Danielle Rose - Hail Holy Queen

Salve Regina - Gregorian chant

Zach Williams - Rescue story

On the go - wave after wave of Faith/Family/Friend/Farm...sharing them with hubby before calving

Big days away, but this morning we were able to share mass with John and Ruth and their families.  Jude smiled for grandpa and grandma after mass.

 It was the first Sunday of the month and Ruth's 3 oldest serve at mass... Paul reads and Pat was Eucharistic minister.

 The younger kids are watching their older role models.

 Last night we found ourselves at Nancy's and grandpa charmed baby George!  George cried when grandpa left for home.

 Yesterday George's oldest brother, Augustine, had his first Reconciliation.  He has now had 2 of the 7 Sacraments and soon he will have his first Communion!

 At the altar to St Maximilian Kolbe in their parish doing his penance after Reconciliation.  Such an exciting time in our family with 3 grandchildren having their First Reconciliation and Communion!

 Such a beautiful church which lifts us heavenward in our inner temple filled with prayer and LOVE of our Lord, Jesus and his amazing Mother Mary!

Patrick in Washington also had his first Reconciliation this weekend and has now had 2 Sacraments! Reconciliation and Baptism and in a few weeks Communion!

 Jude will be the oldest in his family and will be the first to embrace the Sacraments on his spiritual journey!

That makes his ponder the beauty of The Church for him, his parents, his new sibling coming soon, and his extended family!

 It has been quite a big few days filled with travel and time with my husband going to a funeral for a friend and trip to South Dakota, and then a funeral for a family member almost to Wisconsin yesterday.  It was special to have 4 of my siblings singing at mass!  It really made me swell with a lot of happiness to see them together sharing their musical gifts with all.

 6 of the 10 together is kind of a very special occasion.  Pat and I stopped to see another brother close by, too!  Family is such a blessing to me!  Traveling with my husband, who loves to visit and solve the worlds problems.  There is much to ponder on our 3 1/2 hours on the road including picking up a brother half way.

Gus and his dad called to ask for us to pray and give Gus some encouragement for his first Reconciliation.  It was perfect timing to say a rosary for the intention that he would be blessed by this amazing Sacrament and fall ever more in love with The Church and how it will bless and lead him in his life journey!

 Pat wanted to come and visit my parents and we brought along some special flowers from the funeral and some of the wonderful food.  Although my parents weren't able to join us... we could share with them how their prayers being offered up for us were answered in a very real way!

 Such a special time to visit with my parents, and brother Jim!  Pat was so impressed with how good and alert and happy they both looked and acted!

Great day filled with lots of emotions and supported by so many prayers of my wonderful parents!

 Before we hit the road - Pat had to check on the cows and calves.

 Peeking through the fence.

 These two girls will share a room and are getting excited for their room to be ready for them to sleep in their new bunk beds after the carpeting gets laid.

 Family breakfast at Ruth's after mass - next week it is supposed to be 50 degrees on Sunday - first breakfast on the porch?

 Spring fever has hit!  David on his pogo stick jumping "10,000 times!"

 Bike for Luke with shorts, Tshirt, and flip flops!

 It looks like spring!

Family job with cattle - farm shared with the family.

It has been a big day today and the days before.  Soon the calves will be coming and that will require all of us to watch and be on top of things!  Bless-bless, Barb