HIS loving Touch!

No there is not this much snow outside, but it was a bit of a challange getting home from New Ulm a bit ago.   The slushy snow was pulling me into the ditch and it took some prayers and help on the steering wheel from my guardian angel to keep me on the road.  Then I slowed down so slow that trucks were passing me, and that would really let fly the water and slush so that I was blinded... it was kind of hairy, but with the music on and the rosary clutched to the steering wheel... I am now very weary and HOME!  I am so very tired, yet I feel the glow of the presence of God on my soul... I feel like Moses when he would come out of the tent of God and his face would glow! 

Exodus 33: ^7" Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. ⁸ And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹ As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. ¹⁰ Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. ¹¹ The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp...Exodus 34: 29  When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord..."

This really is how I feel... after having a closer encounter with Our Loving and Forgiving Lord this weekend!  I am forever HIS and HIS LOVE is my life! Jesus, I trust in you! Bless-bless

I just know that the monstrance and tabernacle are going to glow like the SUN (SON) tomorrow at Adoration!  It is so amazing how after leaving the "Real World" of my time with HIM at TEC - that I am so very intuned and sensitive to His Presence wherever I find it !  JESUS, JESUS, JESUS!  All I want is you!  All I need is you!  All I am is in YOU!  I am yours!  Use me!

Graces received from retreats...

I did a strange thing this morning - I went to my scans and without knowning what the picture was... I clicked no it and found this one of CCC - Cross Christmas Camp-  taken probably over 10 years ago of a lot of the girls that are now all grown up now!  I am thinking about retreats this morning, and this kind of fits.  The way that my family has rented a campground/ retreat center for maybe close to 25 years the weekend before Christmas, and spent the time together praying, and playing, and of course sitting on Santa's lap as we shared gifts - but the best Gift of all - Jesus is the center of our Cross Christmas Camp... and now I am adding Retreat!  There was a comment made this year that it is becoming like a Catholic Retreat, and with that being so much a part of my life - it didn't make me pause too long!  I thought; "Yes!  I love Catholic retreats and I love my family, so why not put the two together?"  I really wasn't doing it intentionally... what I was doing, with a lot of effort and energy, was trying to honor the wishes of my parents to have a more spiritual base for our weekend together.  People are totally able to take part, or not, or to just be a spectator, and it certainly is not all of the weekend!  There are crafts, and outdoor activities, and time to visit, and play games, and do puzzles, and of course Santa comes, and mayham takes over with the gift wrap everywhere, and the little ones on the floor with their new toys and books!  I think that it is just the right balance, and most of all I see that my parents appreciate the rosary in the morning, and the prayers to Baby Jesus after Santa comes and before the presents are shared!  Not too much - just enough!

So using pictures from Christmas Camp this year... I would like to share about my personal joy and involvement in retreats, and the many graces that are received in my life and my marriage!  About 14 years ago our oldest daughter, Ruth, was told about a TEC (Together Encounter Christ) retreat and encouraged to go.  We are not very much up on things, but when our girls are encouraged to make a larger faith experience, and we are told that it is very Catholic - well, we firmly and repeatedly tell them that they should really do it!  So Ruth made her retreat and as it turned out... her future husband, Paul Lanoue, made the same retreat!  This was not when the magic started, but it was a basis for what was to come in the future - the faith that they share and base their marriage and family on!  She returned glowing, and excited, and told her dad and I that we should make a TEC retreat!  I put it off - I thought and probably said: "I am fine with my faith."

Following her Nancy made her TEC, and once again we were asked to go by a very enthusiastic daughter.  It took our 3rd daughter, Maria, to go and really come back and beg me... I could not say no the 3rd time!  I went to the following retreat in October to Winsted!  Pat was deeply into harvesting,so he could not even think about going with me, and really that is a good thing as having the retreat experience to yourself is good!  He made his after me, after I came home and said to him; "You have to go!"   It was amazing, and I am forever changed by these 3 days! The prayers, that I felt surrounding me, were so powerful, and I realized that prayer is not a whimpy thing, but it is a whole heck of a lot!   It is real and powerful, and so often it is all we have to offer people!  Prayer has become for me a constant part of each day - a day would not be any kind of a day without prayer!  I truly came to know my loving and forgiving Lord in such a powerful way, and I recognized in this gift of TEC... a way that I can share my faith and evangelize that Truth, which the Lord asks us to do!  I have worked more than I can keep track of or count at this point.  I have worked really every position except Gopher... my husband is such a Gopher supreme and tells me that I am too weak for this hard servant role of setting up everything as the weekend goes along.  Well.... there are many that we have invited, and some have said "yes" and some not, but we try to continue to ask, for we know that the right time is in the Lord's hands, and that He is standing there with His arms wide to take them close to His heart burning with love for each one of us!  Tonight I leave for the TEC retreat in New Ulm - I am very excited to give my Church, People of God talk, and to serve those attending!  Each weekend is unique and special and filled with the glorious sacraments and prayer and sharing of our inner thoughts and feelings.  I would ask for some prayers for all of us there - working and attending as retreatants - we call them tecites! 

While I am at my retreat - Pat will be at an Men's Emmaus Retreat that our parish is putting on!  It is the first year that it has worked out for him as he is usually calving during the retreat!  He will be so blessed by it - of that I am sure, because I made mine about 6 years ago, and it was wonderful!  The sharing of ourselves with those from our parish in this deeper sharing and walk with HIM is a great thing, and has led many to grow in community in our very large parish, and to become more involved with all that it takes for our parish to minister to the needs of our Community!  It is a wonderful life-giving thing that has blessed our church, and I will be thinking of Pat throughout my retreat!  I guess that I would certainly love to encourage all of those that can to make a retreat - it is a time set apart from the craziness of life, so that you can concentrate on Jesus and His Bride, the Church!  A way to build up that family of faith, which makes up the True Church!  So many graces and blessings are poured down upon us after the now 12 years that Pat and I have made and worked our retreats!  We had to take a year off to fight brain cancer with our son - 2 1/2 years ago, but that too was such an amazing gift to us!  We had thousands lifting us up in our weakened state - in prayer- we are forever changed and healed by those prayers! 

Jesus, so many blessings have come to us, and so many from the graces we received from this retreat called TEC and Emmaus!  It has brought Pat and I to share prayer every day in our marriage, and that is such an answer to prayer!  It has helped us to share You with others in our family and our new family of faith!  We are healed - lowered down into your presence by our friends!  We go off walking and leaping and praising God - filled with wonder and awe at the beauty of your Truth and Way and Life!  We are reminded today in the Gospel that "whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."  We were shown that the Cross- cancer/healing, when lifted up by friends in prayer can be carried without making us fall too many times!  We are weak and we need JESUS!  We thank you for all your blessings and graces, and ask that they pour down upon TEC and Emmaus this weekend.  Jesus, we thank you and trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

James 2:14-26

14 "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no works? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have works.”
Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without works is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead."

I need to hear this again... the amazing first reading of mass today!  May my life reflect my faith, dear loving and forgiving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

The first twelve to calf...

Pat just looked at the TV - camera in the barn and saw that the first cow calved.  So it begins... Jesus, please give a good calving season.  The weather is wonderful and hopefully we can have 100% calf crop this year!  Jesus, we ask for this intention and trust in you.  Bless-bless

Celebrate baby doll's birthday with mass...

I was overjoyed to go to Maria's blog today and find her homeschool Catholic sharing in rare form!  She shared about Therese's doll turning 2 and the first thing she wanted to celebrate was Mass!  Rather than make a production at the daily mass that they attend as a family in the morning.  Little 2 year old David precided over his first "home make believe" mass!  I am needed outside now to help sort cows that are getting close to calving in the next week or so... I will return!

She also shared this special Valentines party..."Last Friday we attended the Catholic HomeSchool group, as usual, and we did something really great there. For an early Valentine's Day party, each kid brought enough holy cards to exchange (about 40!) and instead of getting a bag full of candy and silly notes, the kids got about 40 different holy cards from all their friends! Since then David and Therese have spent many moments sorting through their cards and finding out the names of "their Saints"!" I love this picture!

Such a special picture that their cousin, Bridget, took of the two of them on Nancy's wedding day August 28, 2010!  I should include Bridget's site too... she is a wonderful photographer!  http://shotsbybridge.blogspot.com/   I digress, but I am so into the JOY of family today and the lights that I see around me - reaching out in small ways with great love! 

I just went to Nancy's blog and found some great pictures of Gus in a big bird sweatshirt - How I love his big brown eyes and many cute expressions!  Precious!  Morning prayer was hurried this morning as we ate breakfast to go out and sort out the 12 cows and heifers that are the closest to calving.  The resounding message this morning is that we must choose the good things to enter into our inner places - our heart, soul and mind...."Whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  Phil 4:8  Wow!  How I see that in myself - "every day offers a choice: what sort of reading, what sort of TV, what sort of conversation, what sort of friends will we choose to welcome into our home?"  see http://www.magnificat.com/ I am so much happier and uplifted and better off - if I filter the things that come into my consciousness!  I think of the graphic example of the Poor Clares, whom Maria lived with for 5 months and considered her call to join them!   They live behind an enclosure to protect them from the world and all the evil that lurks there to distract them from the Lord.  They have no TV or radio, and the news paper is not poured over... they receive their news of the outside by prayer requests that are phoned in to them!  I see this as totally good and necessary, and I see the carry over in Maria's home... They do not have TV in their home and for long periods of time they do not have internet... they know that these can distract and bring wrong things into their home!  So powerful to see how they truly have an "enclosure" in their home that guards and protects them from evil influences! 

Jesus, there are so many lessons on how to live life as a Catholic family that I am now learning from my daughters!  I pray that they may share their light and wisdom with many that are unsure and misled!  I am filled with wonder and awe at the beauty of your domestic church - family! As our faith formation book stated so beautifully - "... with the aid of the Holy Spirit, the people of the Church live together in family - domestic church - in such a way as to make the Kingdom of God real in the world.  By practicing all the things that Jesus commanded - sacrificial love, forgiveness, prayer, the Eucharist, a just lifestyle, and so on - Christians are already experiencing the Kingdom of God here no earth.  Of course sin is still a reality, which means this experience is only a small taste of the real heaven that awaits us after death."  The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth... Thank you, Jesus, for this statement that really puts into words that Truth that I have found in my Domestic Church - our family.  When we practice our faith with JOY and LOVE by attending mass together, and joining in prayer and reading and sharing the Lives of the Saints and your Word... we find a small slice of heaven here in our midst!  Now to see it passed down into our children's homes is such an amazing GIFT!  Jesus, we trust in you!  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing. "

"A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace."
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Snowball is one of the chosen 12 - soon to calve!  Mary will be thrilled and waiting with great HOPE! 

Consider religious life - It is amazing!

Little Sister Hallel (Halleluia) and Little Sister Hosanna!  I talked about considering religious life tonight at Faith Formation as we taught our 9th grade class, so it is only right to find some special pictures we took in France this summer when we were there for Hallel's first vows!  Little Sister Hosanna has taken her final vows, which Hallel will take in about 6 years or more, she is wearing the lamb on her medalian around her neck,which signifies that she has taken her final vows.  I shared the "good choice" I made by living behind the enclosure with the Cenacle sisters for my J-term at St Catherine's as a sophomore shortly after becoming Catholic with my entire family 40 years ago this past Christmas!  The kids really seemed to listen and I hope and pray that some of them will do some nun runs or attend weekends at the seminary in the Cities for young men and women that are willing to listen to His call... knowing that this could be a life of great JOY and LOVE as his spouse or as a representative of Christ- bringing us LIFE as a priest! 

We love you and miss you like crazy Hallel!  But mostly we are thrilled that you are so close to Our Lord as his loving spouse, and as your dad says - " I want my kids to get to heaven more than anything else, and I feel like you are truly on a good track to get there, Hallel!"  You reminded your dad that he better not stop praying for you!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless

There will never be a regret if you discern a call to religious life along with all the wonderful possibitlies out there... He will show you without a doubt the path you are to take and the process will be something that you can always hold in your heart! 

"Be doers of the Word..." James 1:19

I am not used to walking into church and finding Jesus in his little hidden chapel.... Can you see HIM?  He is right in the center of the altar in the golden monstrance!  I have such a disappointed and sad feeling when I walk in to see the altar empty, but then I see HIM and I am relieved and happy and a peace flows over me.  "My Jesus is here!  He is here to listen to me and to give me sight in the eyes of my heart!"  Today is the healing of the blind man in Mark's Gospel - Mark 8: 22-26. 

We are thoroughly enjoying reading James as the first reading this week!  He speaks very forcefully to us in terms that cannot be ignored...I feel convicted today, as he points out that all the Truths that we take each day from His Word aren't just eye openning, but the Word is something that we need to take within us and "do" in our lives!  I think of the Community of the Lamb and how they "chew" the Gospel for each day - they repeat it and meditate on it and mendicate it - repeat it over and over line by line - speaking it 5 times and chanting each line 10 times!  The times I have joined them in doing this in their little chapel in Kansas City - I have been amazed at the things that jump out at you in verses that we have heard and read so many times in our lifetimes!  They represent Christ knocking on the doors of the poor as they go out on "mission" begging for their food!  They share this with those that they come in contact with.  They take the food that they will offer them, even if it is only a glass of water,  and then they ask them for prayer requests that they might have and share with them many times their own witness of their spiritual journeys to HIM.  They will pray with them and carry their requests back to lift up as they gather for prayer throughout the day!  So powerful!  When Susan first was considering joining this radical community that she had met while studying in Rome... They first came to the U.S. just a few months after she returned from Rome to do a mission in Kansas City.  The Archbishop of Kansas City had invited them to come and open a house in the U.S. - it would be the first in the heart of our country!  So Susan/Hallel went down to beg with them for a very hot week in the summer of 2006!  She came home saying that it was the hardet thing that she had ever done, but it gave "me so much joy!"  A year later in Kansas City in the chapel she had just helped them build in front of Our Lady of Guadelupe - She told us that she would be joining this community of the Lamb!  There were tears of JOY and truly we saw the fingerprint of God on our daughter!  We continue to think about Hallel,who is in Rome for Archbishop Timothy Dolan to be ordained a cardinal on Saturday!  I just went to this news spot - http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8544601 and found out that he is saying mass at St John Lateran Church in Rome for all those that have traveled to celebrate with him from New York, Milwakee, and from his hometown of St Louis - also Little Sister Marie, Little Sister Benedict from Kansas City, and Little Sister Hallel from Minnesota!  I love to think of them all gathering to celebrate with this humble approachable man!  Let us all lift him up in prayer these days, so that as he said that it won't go to his head, but to his heart and soul - that he may be "a doer of the Word!"

Jesus, we thank you for the magesty and wonder of our amazing Catholic Church!  The Word is a part of each day as it is shared throughout the world at every Catholic Church from the mud hut in Africa to ST Peters and ST John Lateran in Rome!  The entire Bible is read in a 3 year cycle and we are forever changed and touched by you and our sight goes from "people looking like trees and walking" to seeing clearly.  May the Truth that comes to us from your Word forever change us and give us the courage we need to take it forth into our lives - into our domestic church - our families!  May we share you LIGHT and LOVE there, and raise LIGHTS for the world... sharing your Word - sharing YOU as we represent Christ knocking in the doors of all those in our lives!  With all the armor of faith we go forth into battle against all the lies and evil that tries to mislead us.  Bless all those that "humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls."  James 1  We need to take time each day to immerse ourselves in the Word of God, and then armed with that Truth and given that sight by the "touch" of Christ - we need to carry that forth into all that we do each day!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

The Shadow of Peter

"It was the first time that the two Little Brothers, who were praying as they walked, had gone out to beg in the streets of the USA.  The neighborhood was peaceful, and they walked a long way in the mildness of the evening.  As they knocked at the first door to beg for their daily bread they felt very inadequate and lost in what was to them a strange country.  They paused to pray once more and to consult the word of the Lord.

'... the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily.  So many signs and wonders were worked among the people by the Apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past." Acts 5: 12

The words struck their hearts, in their littleness and their poverty they would see the shadow of Peter in the city.  It was as sent out on a mission that they knocked at the first door:

'Peace be to this house!'

An elderly couple, Ted and Debby, radiant and with unaffected goodwill, welcomed them in.  On the door of the house of this Protestant minister the Little Brothers noticed that these words were written:  'Enter with a peaceful heart.' "

Little Echoes of the mission in the U.S. of the Community of the Lamb

June 19- July 10, 2006

All I can say from personal experience and from going through discernment with two of my precious daughters - really all 4 of my daughters considered it- allow the wonder of religious life to be one of your options in life!  It is powerful and glorious and if you are truly being called by HIM - you will find your Most Cherished Cross and LIFE and LOVE without measure!