Spiritual care first then for your body/Aglow -"I say to you, something greater than the temple is here..."/A special stop along the Highway

The newest sculpture of the Scourging at the pillar just arrived in the Reflection Park a month ago or so.  It is so powerful with his hands showing his suffering and the lashes visible all over his body! 

Every time I go to the Cities I pass this along Hwy 19... I am always on a schedule with a destination, but yesterday I only had to get to Redwood Falls for an errand, and then no real schedule to get back... so, I stopped for the first time right at 3p when when we recall Jesus' dying for us at that time each day, and spent an hour in prayer there in the bright hot sun - yet, a wind kept me pleasantly comfortable.  

It was a reminder to me also of my Deacon father and I praying on my porch at 3p each day - Rosary and Chaplet for the last 6 months of his life here on the farm living with me on hospice!  

Mass this morning algow with the humidity and the great LIGHT we have received - Jesus in Word and Eucharist!  Fr Denny shared that Jesus in the Gospel is reminding us of his "tremendous Mercy"  As he began mass he kissed the altar - where Jesus comes to us in His Body and Blood!  Our beautiful Church/temple brings our thoughts heavenward - Yet, Jesus tells us today this truth - "I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”  Matthew 12 

I prayed here for my family on the 2nd Sorrowful - Jesus is scourged at the Pillar.

Next he has to take up the Cross on those torn shoulders and back and carry it to his Crucifixion.  

The landscape all around is corn and bean fields as far as you can see.  Such a special humble place to come across this place of prayer recalling our Lord's LOVE for us!  His Mercy for us if only we follow Him - "Take up your Cross and follow me."

So close to Him and able to walk around him and take it all in.

Looking towards heaven and doing as His Father asks of him.  The only Sorrowful Mystery that is not here is the first one - Agony in the Garden.  Not sure if it will be next year, but his posture says what we hear in the First Station - "not my will but yours be done, O Lord."

Off the road as you begin the path around Reflection Park.

Blue skies, bean fields and an occasional whispy cloud, and of course, cars and trucks going by on the road.  As I pass this over the years - since 2016 - I cross myself.  

Now to be so close to him...

You have folded up my life, like a weaver
who severs the last thread.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Those live whom the LORD protects;
yours is the life of my spirit.
You have given me health and life.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.  Psalm from Mass today - Isaiah 38

I was sharing with a friend today at Water aerobics that I go to mass before I come to exercise - "You do spiritual care and then care for your body."  Yes!  Jesus has "given me health and life."  

A couple years ago this was the first new statue added - Jesus carrying his Cross the 4th Sorrowful mystery - I just am back from praying for Fr Denny with 7 Sisters and for the 4th Sorrowful - I do the stations of the Cross all around the church - as dad and I would mention 10 Stations for each bead and follow Jesus on his Way of the Cross!  

He is looking at us as he asks us to take up our own Cross and follow Him!  I have added a decade to my rosary each day for my Most Cherished Cross - Patrick, my husband.  I combine carrying/dragging my Cross as I need to embrace my Cross to bring LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT into my marriage, and add to that the Crucifixion as I need to die to self and serve him above myself.  

The motto of The Community of the Lamb - "Wounded, I will never cease to love."  speaks of Jesus, The Lamb slain for us out of total LOVE! 

The heavy rough wood of the Cross on those wounded shoulders and knowing that he was soon to be nailed to that unto death.

The Crown of thorns - 3rd Sorrowful decade of the rosary - totally ridiculed and humbled even though he was God!  

Many times we are unjustly called judgmental and that our morals and values are antiquated and wrongly harmful to others.  Yet, we must stand against wrongs that are made to be right!  There is no justification for the taking of innocent life in the womb, and marriage is only between a man and a woman for life!  To name a few for which we are ridiculed, and a crown of thorns are placed on our heads for all to see that according to the world's standards we are wrong.

Praying for my brother, Phil, today when I gazed upon his window...

Now my brother, Jim, side by side with Phil... Lots of prayers for so many when you come from a BIG family!  We are over 140 in my family and over 100 for Pat's = Over 250 when I lift them each up by name during my hour of Adoration on the first hour of Monday each week!  My family litany is my JOY!  I love to have those new lives in the womb to begin to pray for as soon as I know they are there!  I currently have one on my side...

Good to stop and spend some time.  Thankful for this unexpected holy place in the middle of our prairie farm land.  Thank you!  

The wind was welcome and reminded me of our prairie winds, which are most often with us.  Also our Lord always with us!  

Memories from 8 years ago on Beautiful Beach!  How I love and miss my weeks in Michigan with family!  

Grandma loves to spoil and dress alike - 2 year old Rose and Berna in matching hot pink tutu swim suits!  

Now the other way!  Sugar sand and clear cool waters in the Big Lake Michigan

St Bonaventure today - dad thought he had a lot of good to say and so he did!  

Amen.  Amen!

Dad's man, Brother Victor Antoine, today is very special about the beauty of Gregorian Chant in their prayer! 

"the sound of heaven, with the vision of the eternal."  

Hail Holy Queen/Salve Regina as sung by the Community of the Lamb - gregorian chant!  

Now the daily meditations of Pope Benedict XVI left behind for me by my mother, who read this for 10 years over and over.  Benedict is wonderful and so smart that he takes my breath away sometimes, too!  Now that I am able to attend daily mass before my time at the Y... these all make me smile as they take me deeper into the wonder of daily Eucharist!  I have wanted to start going and having mass most days at 7a with time to do morning prayer after mass and then head over to the Y for 8a water work out... It is a whole new way to start my day with what is truly good and important!  Spiritual followed by physical!  Then to have Pope Benedict to expand my mind! It is a complete package!  Thank you, Lord!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah!  

This was at the foot of the Cross... Such a good reminder of how we all have those things in our lives to lay at the foot of the Cross.  Father Denny reminded us today that there is the Sacrament of Mercy in our attending the Sacrament of Reconciliation - how we find it so hard to admit our sins to Jesus, but he is there to forgive us unconditionally if only we do!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 53 - 34 with us and 19 in heaven including our parents and my sister, Mary, and Brother, Lincoln. 

Danielle Rose

Zach Williams

 

"No man can give birth!" Pat - "giving birth to wind..."/Fresh zucchini!/ St Kateri- "bearing in our body the Death of Jesus"

Tommy came over with mom and the kids and joined them for his first ice cream sandwich!  Boy did he love it!  Grandma thinks he is the sweetest and cutest and happy as can be! 

I grabbed an old bib that his aunts and uncles wore before him and his mom too!  He gave grandma a proud and happy smile from ear to ear.  "I am sitting up to the table like a big boy, and I am eating this wonderful treat from heaven!"  

He ate the whole thing!  Mom helped him get the last bites without too much of a mess.

So wonderful to watch these little ones grow before our eyes.  The kids biked over and after getting cooled off with ice cream and water they went out and picked mulberries from my trees that are filled with ripe berries.

Joy with mulberry lips...

Up early this morning with Pat just getting back from 2 hours of Adoration as the one following him did not show up.  Pat had a lot to say as usual- today it was about how crazy and ridiculous the liberals are in not saying who a  woman is.  "They got upset when the interviewer said that only women can give birth.  They can't put a uterus in a man!"  He was also talking about how those that love The Church are taking to heart openness to LIFE!  Many children, if it is physically possible for them.  As for us - we were open and hence we have 5 with us and 7 in heaven!  

I had to smile at the first reading from mass today...  the part about giving birth to wind...

As a woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pains,
so were we in your presence, O LORD.
We conceived and writhed in pain,
giving birth to wind;
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,
the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.
But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise;
awake and sing, you who lie in the dust.
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the land of shades gives birth.  Isaiah 26

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Our marriage stories - "The world needs LIGHTS!" 

10 year old Rose again with Iggy and Tom loving being a big boy at the table.  

Mass this morning for St Kateri!  The closing prayer after Communion spoke powerfully to me after just receiving Jesus' Body- the Eucharist... Renewed by partaking of this divine gift , we pray, O Lord our God, that by the example of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, bearing in our body the Death of Jesus, we may strive to hold fast to you alone.  Through Christ our Lord.

I had just received Jesus - how powerful to consider that we are truly bearing in our body the Death of Jesus.

The Gospel today is the best!  Sharing it here...

Gospel  MT 11:28-30

Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

 To the upright I will show

the saving power of God. - Psalm 50:23b

 

"... Kateri Tekakwitha was devoted 
to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified.  
At 4 am she could be seen kneeling outside 
the chapel in the snow waiting for it to open.

 

 

She attended three Masses daily and always managed
two hours in preparation for Holy Communion
and two hours in thanksgiving; and she 
made frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament. 

Her motto: 'Who can teach me
what is most agreeable to God so that I may do it?'"

 

Louis Kaczmarek

Excerpt from: Hidden Treasure, 
The Riches of the Eucharist

_______________________________________________

 St Kateri Tekakwitha

1656-1680

Daughter of Christian Algonquin mother

and non-Christian Mohawk Chief

Consecrated Virgin

Greatly devoted to the Eucharist and Mary

"Lily of the Mohawks"

Patroness of ecology and the environment

Feast Day - July 14

Sharing mass with 4 nuns this morning from Mary the Morning Star.  Feeling close to my nun, Little Sister Hallel!  John and Bobbi and kids are heading down to Kansas City tomorrow to spend a couple days with Hallel and the Community of the Lamb!  So excited to know that my two youngest will have some wonderful time together before Hallel returns to France on July 22nd.  We know not if she will return to the U.S....  

 

"I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. 

He must be my only love. The state of helpless poverty that may befall me if I do not

marry does not frighten me.  All I need is a little food and a few pieces of clothing.

With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary

and what is left over I'll give to my relatives and to the poor.  If I should become

sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. 

He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure."- St Kateri Tekakwitha

 

 

St Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!

My zucchini plants are lush and I was yearning to for my first baby zucchini to go with my eggs this morning.  LOVE to see the squash blossoms for 2022!  

Only last first thing in the morning and each one will become a squash - LOVE!

My flowers are squash blossoms - so beautiful 

Baby zucchini made me cheer with great JOY!  

Better pick them small as they will soon be too many and too big and I will have to give them away!  

A hand full of baby squash makes me happy this morning!

Growing on the vine in the glorious July summer morning and on my plate half an hour later!  Talk about FRESH!  I can taste the sweetness of God's bounty along with "in our body the Death of Jesus."  My JOY and thankgiving is off the charts!  

Jesus, how we love you and long to die to self so that you may use us - hands, feet, and voice!  Thank you, Lord and Lady, for being with me as we journey down the narrow path carrying/dragging our Most Cherieshed Cross with heaven forever as our goal!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

It is so fun to have our military granddaughter here for the week on the farm!  She has been charmed by sweet Tommy! 

It happened that she was here for the last night of John's play.  So fun to share family times with her here!  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 53 - 34 with us and 19 in heaven including our parents and sister, Mary and brother, Lincoln!  

"Bearing in our body the Death of Jesus"  

Danielle Rose

True LOVE - the Cross

Tauren Wells