the green Cathedral in Saint Pierre, France August 2009

 

Saturday April 24th,2010 - Our Lady and a message on You tube about being a woman building her cathedral - Builder unknown.

I am adding a post today, but i would encourage you to go to the post beneathe this one.... it is a You tube video that was sent to me from a friend, and it is a wonderful reminder of what we are all about as women. Quietly building up our families with the little things that we do and most especially in our prayer life for those that the Lord has entrusted to us. What an amazing lesson to look at the Cathedrals of the world, but most especially in Europe! They are stunningly beautiful and if there is ever a way to "see" the glory of the Lord... this is about as close as it gets! Of course there are also gorgeous churches around here also and they allow our spirits to soar to heaven...not quite to the magnitude of ST Peters however... but still wonderful!

One Cathedral that I was in in August in France was called the Green Cathedral... it was in a forest with a hill going up the right side of it...there were pews set up under the trees and those that could would sit on the hillside. There were 500 of us there for the taking of the first vows and mass. The roof over head was green branches and sunlight breaking through here and there. It was forcasted to rain that day, but the Lord held it off. The altar was in the front and on trees of the sides were the icons of their 4 patron saints - St Francis, St Clare, St Dominic and St Theresa of Avila. They had flower arrangements -stunningly beautiful - hanging by each icon! It reminded me that God's created world is wonderful and beautiful and also shows us the glorious beauty of heaven and the life everlasting that we are called to! Today in the Gospel - John 6:60-69. Jesus says to us; "It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life."

Jesus we love you and thank you for the beauty of the world around us as well as the man made places where our spirits can soar to heavenly heights! May we come into your presence with faith and hope and trust and thanksgiving! Halleluia, Halleluia, Halleluia! Bless-bless, Barb

I was sent this by a friend.. Such a lesson of doing small things with great love and "building our cathedrals"! You tube video

Friday of the third week of Easter - the conversion of ST Paul today as well as the Lifegiving Food from above here for us to receive every day!

In the midst of deep interior prayer as my son in law is at this moment at his second interview at a law firm in town! How we hope and pray.... Also in the midst of a very bad cold that is draining me of energy and thought... I have alot more sympathy for Pat, who was so sick with this cold about a week and a half ago... Hopefully John's pennicillin will keep him protected...

Two powerful messages today in the readings of the Church - The conversion of St Paul on the way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. St Paul is so powerful to me because just like you and I... he never walked the earth with Our Lord... Yet he was one of his most passionate followers and converted the world to know and love the Lord! He went to the Gentiles - those that worshiped gods other than the one true God. So many amazing words we have from him in all his powerful letters to all the new churches that he started all over the place!

I would love to put the entire Gospel in my blog today! I might not be up to it... It is the true meat of John 6:52-59. I would highly encourage you to grab your Bibles and read it thoroughly today! It would be amazing to "mendicate" it the way the community of the Lamb does it...with speaking each line numerous times followed by chanting it to song more times. There is no misinterpreting His command to us: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you will not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life... For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him."

As I was writing this I was recalling all the conversion stories I have encoutered lately in the last few years. Of course there is my dad and then my entire family... but also I am thinking about Scott Hahn... who was out to discount everything about the CAtholic Church as he believed that our beliefs were of Satan. The more he read the Church Fathers and tried to refute the Truths that the Church upholds... the more he became convinced that he could be misled... finally he started entering a Catholic Church and sitting in the back row to observe the mass. He was totally amazed to see that it was totally scriptural and that the book of Revelation now made sence where the heavens come down to the earth at consecration! He was a goner and in a short time he converted to the Catholic Church and has been instrumental in many conversions among other Protestant clergy! A wonderful show on ESPN... my dad was on there and told his conversion story a few years ago... I have copies if anyone is interested in seeing the show... It is called Journey Home and it is an hour show where Marcus Grodi - a Protestant minister that also converted to the Church - has guests that share their own conversion stories! Most amazing to hear the stories of Mormons, Jews, Protestants that have come to the true Church! I am passionate about this topic and there is no holding back for me!

Jesus, may the divisions that exist under your name come to an end that all Christians may embrace you and all the amazing sacraments that you have given to us to be more perfect and more yours! WE want to be "raised on the last day" Jesus we trust in You! Bless-bless, Barb

In closing the person quoted in the meditation of the day today was Blessed Charles De Foucauld - he died in 1916 and was a comtemplative mystic... I would highly suggest that you google him and read about his life... He was a modern day man which makes him good for us to know about... he also had a huge conversion in his life. He had always been raised Catholic, but fell away into a life of excess and total worldly pleasures... He came totally around and embraced humility and the Word of God as well as Christ's Eucharistic self in the Body and Blood of Christ... He writes: "He who offers himself to us in the Holy Eucharist offers himself in it every day, at all moments of our life, to be possessed by us, to be our life throughout our entire existence and in eternity. God gave himself, offered himself once to us: he will continue to offer himself always, always, at all times of our life so as to be always, eternally within us... Let us hope! It is always up to us to receive him and to keep him in this life and in the next."

Thursday - the third week of Easter! "I am the living Bread." Jesus said - Let all the earth cry out to God with joy! Ps 66 & Jn 6:44-51

Pat and John just headed out to a noon Twins game at the new stadium! Pat mumbled about feeling guilty, but they are both super excited! The corn is in the ground and there will be a week or so now til we get to May before the beans can be safely planted... My garden is not getting tilled today, and I told Pat that I know he isn't guilty about that. I just would like to have it tilled in time to get some help planting. Maria with her family will be here later today, and my daughter makes sounds of wanting to have a garden someday soon... so I thought this would be a good time to refresh her memory on the planting part... I do have JOhn here now too, but Pat pretty much dictates what he is doing. Although he did mow my lawn yesterday, and that is super nice to have done by someone else.

I was to be orrienting at my new job at the Minneota Manor Nursing Home yesterday... I have decided that subconsciously I have decided that I am done with cancer, so I am filling up my life with new and exciting things. It fell through so I had the afternoon to myself as a gift. I was out putting bedding on the line... getting ready for guests... and it struck me that it would be the last chance for little Davey to ride along with grandpa... so I went over and watched the other two so that Ruth and her little guy, who is totatlly enamored with grandpa and the "brummmm brummmms" (tractors) right now. After Simon went to school on the bus... Mary and I had fun out enjoying the day with her baby kitties and their mom. The big picturesque cottonwood on the edge of their driveway called us... as the baby green leaves are growing as you watch them practically! Mary wanted to run and Purrrrs, the mother cat, did too... the result was numerous races with the two of them running side by side from the barn out to the tree or from the gravel road to grandma sitting by the fence. Mary loved it! I think Purrrrs did to as well as her babies that tried to follow along. The fresh air and the sunshine was enjoyed by one and all. I love those times that you thought were taken from your life by this or that and then unexpectedly they are free and are a gift that keeps on giving! Time is certainly precious!

We are getting into the "meat" of John 6 today! It seems that the Catholic Church is the only one that takes what Jesus is sharing here as the literal truth! I remember that a local pastor in the paper addressed John 6 and his argument was that just like when Jesus says that he is a "door" or a "gate" or a "shepherd" is he truly those things therefore is he truly in the form of bread and wine... His Body and Blood? His point was that Jesus did not mean this literally. I fail to see how he could negate all that Jesus empahtically tells us to do here in this short sighted way! He ends the Gospel today with these words... "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world."

There are many Eucharistic miracles that are true signs of Jesus showing us beyond a shadow of a doubt that He truly is giving himelf to us in the Eucharist! http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/lanciano.html I just googled this site to remind myself of all the details of this most amazing miracle where the host turned into actual heart tissue and the wine turned into actual blood! The priest consecrating the bread and wine was actually in his heart questioning the whole "truth"... and this was the answer that after 12 centuries it continues to be there for all to see! This happened in the 8th century in Lanciano, Italy! For me there is no doubt! There are those that complain that they as Protetants are not allowed to come to the table to receive the Body and Blood of Christ! It is crystal clear to me... If you want to receive the Eucharist you must believe that it is Chirst! And if you believe that is true... why would you be anything but Catholic?

Jesus, from the first moments of my Catholic Journey as I lived in the convent with the sisters studying religious life... day after day at daily mass in their light filled chapel I watched the elderly priest consecrate the mass and learned of the "truth". I fell in love with the Lord's supper and I was fed with your body and blood and I became more and more yours... Your hand was upon me and I thank you with my life! Use me to your honor and glory! Jesus I trust in You! Bless-bless, Barb

Please bear with me... this is so good that I want to share it with you all today on this theme of "I am the living bread". It is written by Caryll Houselander, who died in 1954 and was a British mystic, poet, and spiritual teacher:

"In the offering of the bread and wine we give material things, as our Lady gave her humanity, to be changed into Christ. At the words of the consecration the bread and the wine are not there any more; instead, Christ is there. In that which looks and tastes and feels like unleavened bread, Christ comes closer to us even than the infant could come, even than the child in the womb. He is our food, our life. We give ourselves up to him. HE gives himself up to us. He is lifted up in the priest's hands, sacrificed. God accepts the sacrifice and gives Christ back to us. He is lowered onto the altar; he who was taken down from the cross is given to us in Communion, buried, laid to rest in our hearts. It is his will to rise from the dead in our lives and to come back to the world in his risen Host-life. In his risen life on earth Christ often made himself recognized only by the characteristic of his unmistakable love, by showing his wounds, by his infinite courtesy, by the breaking of bread. He would not allow the sensible beauty and dearness of his human personality, his familiar appearance, to hide the essential Self that he had come back to give. Wholly consistant with this is Christ's return to us in the Host. WE know that in it he is wholly present: body, blood, soul, and divinity. But all this is hidden; even his human appearance is hidden. Because this is the way of absolute love, he insists on coming to us stripped of everything but himself. For this self-giving Christ in the Host is poor, poorer than he was when, stripped of everything, he was naked on the Cross. HE has given up even the appearance of his body, the sound of his voice, his power of mobility... He has made himself as close to nothing as he could be, while still being accessible to us... In the Host, he is our life on earth today."

Wednesday April 21, 2010 - We are into the third week of Easter! "The light shines the the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (Jn 1:5)

Just in from feeding the bottle calves with John... Another beautiful day and are we ever grateful for the warm and sunny weather! Today we will finish getting the corn in and then a break in between the corn and the beans as it is a bit too early for them to go in. Now I think that would be happy to see some rain... in our part of the country we pretty much are always looking for rain and will take it anyway that we can get it! I think that Pat will get my garden tilled this afternoon with the new tiller... . the old one I could even use, but now I get to have my husband do it for me... I think that Ruth will get hers done too, so we can get the early things into the garden. Yesterday I picked some spinach and my first asparagus! How we love those fresh garden produce! I emptied two of my jars of homemade canned food last night and as the empty jars accumulate in my canning closet... it is a sign that canning is going to be here before we know it! My daughter, Maria and her family will be here tomorrow so I might have a few helpers to plant this year! That is so much more fun for me!

For some reason this year the memories of 4 years ago with Ruth are very powerful... today was the day that we drove to Sioux Falls to see Ruth for the first time after her surgery and brought her the kids. She wiped tears as she hugged her 20 month old son and held her baby for basically the first time and gave her from a bottle the milk she had pumped in her absence... she loved it! And the next time she was nursing like a trooper! Ruth is known as being a very peaceful and unflappable type person... She takes things in stride and rarely gets upset or worked up, and to see her wiping tears was a sign of all that she had been through in those hours and days! For her... she could still hold her healthy wonderful daughter... it is a reminder of a cousin recently... who lost their son in childbirth and was unable to hold their beautiful son...other than with copious tears and disbelief to say goodbye to him! So unbelievably hard! Thank the good Lord they recently had a wonderful baby daughter to hold and to love!

Some things are beyond our understanding and all we can do is cling to our faith and walk forward into life. What I have noticed when I have had horrible losses like when I lost my baby while I was up for my sister Mary's funeral at 28 yo from cancer... the world around us is going on as normal... totally oblivious to the pain and loss we are experiencing! The saying; "Life goes on." rings true at those times. I am sure you all have experienced similar feelings like looking at the eyes with such pain and loss and wondering how all these people in the world can be so unaware and feeling similarly! It does help to have all the support and love out poured... like at my sister's funeral to help you take that step from the deep grieving back into the flow of life! And then getting back into the activity that is called on us from day to day certainly does help with the healing also. So often you remember that keeping busy does help you out of that deep pit of sadness and even depression!

One thing that is so sad for me to see is how there is an epidemic of depression out there these days! When I work retreats I am the nurse many times and have to interview each participant as they come in... it is shocking to know how many young people are on meds for depresssion already at their young ages - from 16yo to the early 20s! Why is it so overwhelming for the young to face the world, their families, their school situation? Rather than getting to the bottom of the problems are they just medicating them? Where is the faith in the families when it comes to these hard things? Life is hard and the paschal mystery is how I look at the "crosses" that come along regularly in our lives... but without the cross there would not be the resurrection! We are called upon to embrace those crosses and to turn to our Lord... in our weakness He comes to us... Why? Because we look to him and turn to Him... He is there with us every step of our lives, but when we are going along just fine and dandy... we forget about him and are full of ourselves and our stuff and our own path that WE want for ourselves. There is so much more happiness to be found in His Way for us and His path for us and His call for us to be humble of heart and weak as lambs that he carries lovingly in His arms back to the fold!

I look at the lives of Little Sister Hallel and her community and the poverty that they embrace! It keeps all the clutter and the "things" from crowding in and allows them to turn to our Lord with song and prayer and His Word! Now there is happiness beyond telling! One thing that Little Sister Benedict shared with me on one of our trips with John and his cancer... when Susan first came from France to be with her family in the face of discovering that John had cancer... She shared that unlike some religious communities that do psychological testing to see if a man or woman is mentally good to enter the community... their foundress, Little Sister Marie, descided that she wouldn't do that and welcome those that feel called. "As a result there are many in our order that would not be accepted in others, but we have found that the life itself seems to help them to find a healing." To my earlier question about the epidemic of depression... I think that this is a powerful answer... daily Eucharist, prayer throughout the day, embracing the life of poverty, chastity and obedience and all that means... this is the road to healing!

Jesus we are immersed in John 6 and all that you have to tell us about your "gift".... "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." Jn6:35-40 We are spiritually in need of you to walk with us and yes carry us as we are weak and confused and "lost". How we are unhappy when we stray and try to figure out our own lives... we find happiness and peace following the Truth and looking to the wisdom of your Church filled with those that you have raised up to lead us and show us your truth along with your Mother most Holy, all the angels and saints. St Anslem pray for us! Jesus we trust in You! Bless-bless, BArb

Some pictures of Ruth reunited with her little family 4 years ago today! Also of our final day of planting corn. Lord, continue to be with the farmers... protecting them and give them a good year ahead.