Jude is 5 today!/"My praise is continually of thee." on this Tuesday of Holy Week buried under snow! - +JMJ+

The 3 boys at Verly Christmas Camp are now all 5 years old as Jude joins the other two today!  Our plans to celebrate together are on hold until Nancy can get here from Delano to pick up her kids and be there for her Godson, Jude Dale!  

Jude and Hector are just 3 weeks apart and George is 6 weeks older - our 3 boys in 6 weeks!  

Birdie is just 13 months younger than the boys and is friends with them.  

Jude at one with grandpa Pat at mass 4 years ago.  He now has two siblings - Birdie and Lucy, who is 14 months.  

Lots of snow to move - Pat with the payloader and my spring summer wreath is seeming out of place.  The first day of spring has come this last week!  Pat reminds us that March came in like a lamb and is going out like lion!  

Lots of heavy wet snow.  

It has been a brown winter, so this is a lot of snow now at the end of March!  

Psalm 71 today is so special today from mass!

 5For thou, O Lord, art my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 6Upon thee I have leaned from my birth; thou art he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of thee. 15My mouth will tell of thy righteous acts, of thy deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. 17O God, from my youth thou hast taught me, and I still proclaim thy wondrous deeds.  Psalm 71

I especially love the - "My praise is continually of thee."  How I love this and need to do this more and feel that it is a Truth for me on the blessed Faith journey I have been given with my parents and extended family and now with our domestic Church/family!  Thank you, Lord and Lady and I truly am filled with great JOY and thankfulness for how you LOVE me and forgive me unconditionally!

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: The amazing story of the 13 becoming Catholic!  

John with  Lucy and their palm branches on Palm Sunday - we have now entered Holy week with each day leading up to the death of our Lord on Good Friday.  

The Gospel today is from John 13 about Judas leaving to betray Jesus, and St Peter being told by Jesus that he would deny him 3 times before the cock crows.  

Lucy loves her brother and his boots!  

Walking with her pretty dress and her brother's boots on Palm Sunday as we gather for our brunch celebration with 13 of our grandchildren.  Pat drove to Delano ahead of the storm to bring Nancy's 3 oldest down for some cousin time - there have now been 2 snow days and they have been spending a lot of time sledding behind the 4 wheeler.  

Watching Cow TV with grandpa - we are now up to 90 plus calves on the ground.  Half of our cows have calved!  Lots

My butterfly for 2024 Easter - David's Confirmation with Archbishop Naumann a week ago in Fort Leavenworth, KS.

The Cross for this year.  

The leaves are bursting out on my Easter tree in the house as the snow is deep outside.  

Highlights from the past year includes Tom's 4 wheeler accident.  He is now 100% back to normal.  We will see if we can get together in the next day to celebrate our little Jude.  Jesus, we love and thank you as we continually praise you with our all!  Holy Week is a close walk with you, and may we take up our Cross and follow you down the narrow path.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen 

Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many little sisters and little brothers.  

Tuesday of Holy Week

"If you can not soar up as high as Christ sitting

on His throne, behold Him hanging on His cross.

Rest in Christ's Passion and live willingly in

His holy wounds." - Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ

 

 

"Oh, my God, through the precious
Blood of Jesus and His five wounds, 
grant me today five graces:

the conversion of a sinner, 
the conversion of an unbeliever, 
the salvation of someone 
dying in peril of everlasting death; 
a vocation to the priesthood 
or to the religious life; 
 and, for some new soul, 
the grace of entering into and
savoring the mystery of the Eucharist."

 

Prayer of Elisabeth Leseur (+1914)

________________

Image above: Angels Bearing Instruments of the Passion

(detail from altarpiece) ~ Rogier van der Weyden (+1464)

 

 

"The Body of Christ (Eucharist) will unite

the Body of Christ (Church)." - Bishop Paul Dudley

___________________________

 

JOIN IN PRAYER:

Let us especially be mindful of and in prayer for

the thousands of Catechumens and Candidates

who are preparing to fully enter the Catholic Church on

Easter vigil and participate in her rich sacramental life!

Life in abundance! - John 10:10  

 

Will Morrison

Goodness of God

Easter pictures from a year ago.

 

Pictures of our Lucy a year ago...

Easter tree buds and snowed in/"... the house was filled with the fragrance ..."/Palm Sunday shared with 13 grands - +JMJ+

John and Lucy with their palm branches for the procession into the sanctuary on Palm Sunday.  "Hosanna in the highest!" 

The Gospel at mass was the Passion of Jesus - from glory and praise to his suffering and death on the Cross.   

After Church we found a white world and the boys digging out the steps and walk up to the Parsonage and The Apartments.

We still gathered at the farm for our brunch as the snow fell outside.  

The night before Pat and Rose drove up to Delano to pick up Nancy's 3 oldest kids to come and have a few days on the farm with the cousins.  That is a total of 5 hours on the road and dealing with snow and slippery roads for the last hour or so.  My husband will sacrifice all to allow the grandkids to have time together.  We had 13 of our 23 grandkids with us for a snowy Palm Sunday celebration and entering Holy Week beginning today!  

Delano has the week off, and today here we had a snow day, so all the grandkids are having a day of work on the farm to keep the cows and calves dry and safe in the storm.  

It was fun to see Birdie Barbara in a dress that I bought 10 years ago for Rose and Bernadette.  

Both Birdie and Joy in hand me downs from the girls older than them.  We get a lot of use out of our boy and girl clothes as they are passed back and forth.

On Saturday Rose, Joy and Tom helped me get my lilac tree cut for the Easter tree in my house - by Easter the buds will open into leaves!  

Each year of the last 20 years I have made a cross and a butterfly for the Easter Tree.  This year I used our family picture taken at VCC - Verly Christmas Camp for the first year at Lake Shetek Lutheran Camp!  Every time Pat walks by this picture he just raves about how wonderful it is and how it is a picture of being Open to LIFE!  

The butterfly is centered around the wonderful gift we have had with our 2 daughters both in Kansas and just 40 minutes apart!  We can stay on base with Maria and Major Joseph and then spend time with Hallel and her Community of the Lamb too!  

Clearing the steps at the Parsonage after mass - the snow continues today with a snow day off of school. 

Dominic loves doughnuts and that is how I have gotten hugs from him in the past.  He was in doughnut heaven at our brunch after Palm Sunday mass yesterday morning. We had to send this to him mom and dad and 3 younger siblings just because...

Lucy and grandpa sharing breakfast as they watched cow TV.

Cow with the feet out of her calf - in a few minutes she had a healthy calf - we are approaching 90+ calves now with that many to go yet.  This snow is challenging for our guys to keep them warm and dry.  

Here we go!!! Holy Week has begun!  Today the Gospel is John 12 with Lazarus raised from the dead sharing a dinner in his home with Jesus.  Mary anoints his feet with costly perfumed oil and wipes them with her hair!  A true sign of total LOVE and devotion to her Lord Jesus!  

Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.  John 12

How I pray that my house may be filled with the fragrance of my total LOVE and devotion for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 

A Easter butterfly made some years ago of our farm family.  It was made before Thomas was born 2 years ago, so I added him in the arms of Ruth!  Outside the snow keeps softly falling and there is wind to come up later today.  As Pat reminded us - "March came in like an lamb, and going out like a lion."  

Easter 3 years ago - all together for VCC!  My Easter tree is just about ready for the leaves to open here in the house while the snow is piling up outside for the first time this winter.  

For my butterfly this year - Archbishop Joseph Naumann with David on his Confirmation a week ago in Kansas.  We are eternally grateful that Archbishop invited The Community of the Lamb to come to KCK in 2008 just as Hallel was entering their Community in Saint Pierre, France.  I know that it was huge in her decision to know that there would be a foundation in the U.S. just half a day from our farm in Southwest MN!  

The back of my Cross for this year - All the big events over the year from last Easter until this Easter.  Ruth and Paul - the Apartments and much time for Tom and I, Nancy put in a in ground pool and work with her ministry - Catholic Sprouts, Maria moved to Fort Leavenworth, KS, Hallel has now left for France for 3 months to elect a new Prioress, John and Bobbi with Lucy at 1 and walking! 

White world outside with inches of snow falling all day, and buds about to open on my Easter Tree in the house - a sign of new LIFE! 

Out with Rose and Joy to see the new kids -  4 of them and they are bouncy like they have springs on their feet.  

Joy with her arms full of a healthy kid.

Joy with her Star of the week poster that dad helped her get ready for school - she is a first grader at HRS.

My Easter Tree with Neumann playing with all the fun stuff on it!  

Lucy with her brother's boots at our brunch after Palm Sunday mass.

Snow!!!  Tom is now sharing the day with his 6 siblings and 3 cousins on the snowy farm!  

My Cross from 4 years ago - my mom had just died a few weeks before.  A week later my dad came to live with me as they would not take him back into his Assisted living after a procedure at Veteran's hospital.  He spent 6 months here in my "farm monastery."  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Deacon Robert Cross - my dad on hospice in our Farm Monastery for 6 months - 4/16/20 thru 10/23/20  

Lord and Lady I long to love and serve with out counting the cost.  May I die to self and follow you down the narrow path with heaven forever as my goal.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many little sisters and Little brothers.

Monday of Holy Week

"There is only one anointing that is strong enough to meet death

and that is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the love of God. 

There is, then, something that is both exemplary and lasting

in Mary's anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  It was above all a concern

to keep Christ alive in this world and to oppose the powers

that aimed to silence and kill him.  It was an act of faith and love. 

Every such act can have the same effect." - Pope Benedict XVI

(Today's Gospel: John 12:1-11)  

"Nothing is held back, no drop is kept in reserve.

The house is filled with the fragrance,

because the perfume is no longer hers;

it has ceased any longer to belong to her as a

personal possession. The excess of this gesture,

 its extravagance, expresses

the essential truth about love.

Neither love nor the perfume, in this case,

can remain enclosed in a container, protected

and saved.  Instead, it must be all thrown away

in the hour of love, wasted imprudently

without a thought for tomorrow, poured out

in its entirety." - Fr Donald Haggerty

_______________

 

Prophetess and Penitent - The Catholic Thing

(Fr Paul Scalia)

 

Painting above:  Forgiven ~ Daniel Gerhartz
Hat tip: Both quotes noted in Magnificat Magazine: Holy Week 2018, Vol. 20, No.1

 

 

This Holy Week let us together 
pour out our love before our 
Eucharistic Lord, Jesu Hostia...

 

Danielle Rose