The magic words...

Grandma babysat tonight... dad was hardly out of the house and I was getting the kids dressed for a photo shoot out on a beautiful summer evening!  Turned off the TV and out we went.  Of course, accidentally cut out David out of this special one!  OOOPPPss!  Still is a wonderful one!

Dealing with a lot of movement and no one looking at grandma, until....

I said the magic words... "No one can watch TV unless they look at me!"  I was shocked to suddenly see 4 sets of eyes looking at me and most of them smiling sweetly!  I guess I know what to say from now on!  Mom and dad now have an almost picture perfect picture to take along to the State Fair tomorrow to show people stopping by the Farm Bureau booth.  Two are going to be in school, and David will be spending time with his Aunt Nancy and Augustine.  But little Rose will be with mom and dad at the fair!  This way they can share their beutiful family in photo form!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Yes!!! It's Sunday!!! And the Gospel is John 6!!!

Rose watches her first canning of soup.  Next year we will have to watch out for her under foot.  She will be that toddler that is heading towards the kitchen when you are carrying steaming jars out of the canner.  Little Gus was that baby yesterday, as the older cousins all got some turns at the jobs of canning.  Great Grandma showed up too and put all of the tomato soup in the jars with the assistance of granddaughter, Nancy, and Great-granddaughter, Mary.  It just takes a few watchful parents and grandparents to keep them safe, but the joy of sharing a busy family day of canning is wonderful and this soup was made by generations of LOVE and LIFE!  So good!  Great grandma brought a part jar home and Aunt Raterra said - "The best soup ever!"  That is a thumbs up!

Ruth got Church in before she got called into work... so that is wonderful!  Rose really liked to share mass in the arms of her loving and beautiful mommy!  It is a very wonderfully joyful family time to share mass as a family, and once again we had 4 generations there.  It was a special day, as Paul and John were up leading the singing, and grandpa was a Eucharistic minister.  It is very good for the kids to see the adults being involved in their worship service... it shows them in real ways... living out the ways Our Lord asks us to put our faith into action.  It shows them that our faith is valued and cherished!  That we want to be at mass, and help make it a special tribute to our Lord!  "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."  John 6:60-69 The Gospel for today and the continuation fo the last few weeks - where Jesus tells us in definite terms that HE is the Bread of LIFE, and that we need to eat HIM! 

Three of the 4 generations, and so much JOY sharing the most important part of our lives - Our Catholic Faith!  Jesus, we are filled with the Bread of LIFE, after sharing mass together this wonderful day of week - Sunday!  The day that you set aside for Family and Faith!  Our blessings are so great, and we rejoice in and with you!   St Peter said it for all of us this morning - "Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal LIFE.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."  John 6: 69  We are filled to overflowing with YOU, and may your Spirit dwell within us and tranform our world!  Our world that starts with our domestic Church/family!  May we carry you always within our hearts, minds and souls.  You are the Way, the Truth and the Life!  We are on the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross and following after YOU!  Jesus, we praise you and trust in you now and always!  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"To work slothfully and tepidly in God's service will cause you to lead so unhappy a life that you will be forced to change your ways.  Besides, such a life is disloyal to our Savior who labored with such ardent love to redeem us, and so willingly took up the cross that his love for us exceeded his suffering.  The tepid soul cannot enjoy the world's pleasures, having given up in the desire of doing right, and yet, for want of fervor, it does not find happiness in God.  In this way such a soul is placed between two opposites, each of which is a torment to it; it suffers such severe afflictions that at last it leaves the right road, and with miserable fatuity seeks the flesh-pots of the Egypt it had left, because it cannot endure the hardships of the desert.  Compare the trouble that is undergone by one who serves God diligently and fervently, with that which the tepid soul offers through sloth, and you will find the burden borne of tepidity is a thousand times the heavier.  It is indeed wonderful that vigils, prayer, fasting, mortification, and other works undertaken for our Lord should bring more pleasure to fervent souls than the tepid find in their feasts, and riches, and other indulgences.  The lukewarm Christian appears gay, but grief gnaws at his heart:  while the just man, though his life be one of penance, has happiness within his soul."

St John of the Cross (1569)

Rose watches her brothers running around the table - combine derby game!  Great grandma shows Mary something in the kitchen as Rose uses grandpa for a chair.  We fill up grandma's quiet house with LIFE and JOY overflowing from within!  Thank you, Jesus! 

Beyond Everyday Angelic Unearthly Triune Yearning-for-LOVE! - BEAUTY

I attempted to make an acronym from the word BEAUTY... using the letters to make a thought to express the way I feel about the pictures I try to capture in Church.  I find the Catholic Church to be the most beautiful place on this earth!  I love the stain glass, the statues, the amazing lighting as the LIGHT cascades in the widows and doors, the gold of the tabernacle... there is no end to the unearthly angelic feeling that overtakes me as I spend the best time of my week there!  Lately it has become part of each day, as I attend daily mass each morning with my 23 year old son, John.  He will be entering the seminary in a week, to start a process of considering the priesthood.  After surviving brain cancer 3 years ago, and being now 2 1/2 years cancer free... he wants to discover the answer to - "Why was I spared?"  Now I spend the best part of each day at mass with my son!  This picture was taken in St Paul at Nativity Church.  I spent many hours in this perpetual Eucharistic chapel 3 years ago, and now with a son-in-law in Alfghanistan and in danger - I wanted to return to pray!  It was early, and mass has just ended, a group of women were in there saying the rosary together with the door open.  Jesus was on the altar in the monstrance of gold, and I could see HIM through the door.  The resulting photo is so beautiful in its color and content and the glow of the LIGHT of this world on the altar - there to answer all our needs!  We realize our weakness and that He is in control!  The icon over the altar of Mary holding her Son, Jesus... he has his hand around her neck and is kissing her chin with all the love he has for Mary - the gateway of all LIFE and LOVE into the world! 

I noticed that people put more pictures on last week, so I just wanted to add this one of daughter, Nancy, and her little 15 month old, Augustine, walking down the aisle of beautiful Nativity! 

Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

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The best kind of a family day - canning 40 qts!!!

Mary got some lessons on some of the steps of canning today as it was passed down another generation.  Great grandma came out for a while, and put all of the soup in the jars for me.  She loves to help and not just be there to watch and visit.  That means that there were 4 generations all having a hand at making this almost triple batch of tomato soup!   We filled 40 jars which will be wonderful in the winter nights and lunches... we love to use it during lent and on our fast meal from meat on Friday nights!  It's the best tomato soup ever and with grilled cheese - that certainly is far from a fast meal!

It was a great day and very tiring too.  We enjoyed having Nancy here and visiting and spending some time outside with all the kids.  Nancy has headed back and called to say that Gus was so tired that he was sleeping by time they got down the driveway.  It should be a quiet trip home.

Mary learning to put the rings on. 

Simon likes anything that turns, and if it helps doing a job... all the better! 

Pots full and a house full - adds up to FARM and FAMILY time!  Thank you, Jesus, for the ability to share this family tradition with the new generation and to see the smiles on their faces as they taste the fruits of our labors makes it all worth the day of work, and talking, and laughing, and baby talking, and giving bottles to new little ones, and going out to see the dog-dogs, and to ride on the 4 wheeler to give the cows water in the pasture, and to pick apples off the tree and eat them, and say some prayers for Joseph, and stir and mix and blend and put through the colander, and cook and taste, and put into jars, put lids on and cook in the canner, take out to cool and listen to the lids pop down - canned for us to use for the next months and years!  Life on the farm is good, and this is my favorite kind of day.... Family working together - many hands make light work!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

Anyone want some apples?  They are small but yummy, sweet, and crisp!  Here we thought that the late frost would keep us from having apples this year.  We were wrong!  We did 90 quarts of applesauce last week and now what?  Pie filling next...  Gus and the other grandkids like them for eating!

Getting ready for a big canning day

John has less than a week left at home before he heads up to seminary.  He has become quite a good helper to me with the COL - Clothes on Line and Clothes off line... I used to announce to the kids - COL!!!  They would know that it was time to head out with the wet clothes and put them on the line, or get the dry ones off.  John has discovered that he is much better and more particular about folding clothes, so I let him have at it.  Tonight after supper we headed tout to pick the tomatos both here and Ruth's as we need to can tomato soup tomorrow.  We found enough for a double batch, so the jars are in the dishwasher and the tomatos are picked in pails in the house ready to get a start in the morning.  Nancy and Gus are heading down in the morning to give a hand as Ruth is working this weekend.  We probably will have a house full of kids and adults all in a big loud active family canning day! 

I thought that you would enjoy seeing this one of about 20 years ago doing applesauce.  It should be about this same craziness tomorrow, but the kids are now adults with kids of their own.  It still is a fun and hectic day to share a family canning project! 

Ready for the morning to become the goodness we love on Friday nights during Lent - our wonderful Tomato Soup!  Bless-bless, Barb

young and old and the tomatos!

Fr Harry! "The World needs LIGHTS!"

Little Rose Ida on her feastday at mass in our beautiful newly remodeled Church!

What a day I had yesterday!  I shared in the early morning that I had plans to go to the Cities with John while he was interviewed and accepted at St Paul Seminary.  After returning from mass, and Pat asking me to stay home and attend a funeral with his mother and himself... within minutes all plans changed.  I was very torn, because I wanted to see Nancy and Gus and spend some time in the Adoration chapel praising God for the wonder of his hand upon us each moment of each day.  Of course, praying for Joseph's safety and that of all the life in the womb keeps us on our knees also.  BUT.... Pat had noticed that Fr Harry Tasto was going to be back for the funeral!  You can have no idea of how important that was for me!  I have heard about Fr Harry at least a hundred times in our 34 years of marriage.  He is like a celebrity to me, and he looked shocked when I told him that!  My entire marriage is based on how he touched my husband as junior high boy, and Fr was a new priest just out of seminary.  Pat reminded him that the taught just the boys, and it was at a time in our history of huge turmoil with the assassination of both Kennedys as well as Martin Luther King and the Vietman war..."You taught us that we needed to rise above the mess of this world and be lights in our worlds."

Fr Harry was surprisingly young!  I expected him to be a old gray bent over old man, and we discovered that he is just 10 years older than I - " I will be 70!"

 I so wanted to share our story with him, so that he could understand why we embraced him with so much enthusiasm, after he had not been in our area of seen Pat for over 40 years!   I didn't want to be a pest and follow him around, although I wanted to share so badly with him.  I just prayed that if the Lord wanted me to share with him, that he would come over to us and act interested.  Well, after the meal, we were standing by some family, and he walked over and said - "These people think that they know me."  with a big smile on his face!  It was my opening - "Can I tell you a story, Father?"  He nodded, and I launched into our story - the story that is the foundation of our LIFE and LOVE and it is all as a result of the Holy Spirit working in and through him!

Ruth Ida Rose and Rose Ida at mass on their feastday yesterday - ST Rose of Lima! 

My story to Fr Harry...

  "The first date we had... we shared with each other the things that we wanted to find in another person.   We both loved the Church, and both were open to a large family.  Pat is from 10 and I from 12."  Fr at this point shared that he is one of 13!  "When we went to our engagement weekend, there were no other couples that were open to children.  They all only wanted to have 2 or none due to the mess the world was in.  They made me question if we were being selfish to want to bring a lot of children into this world.  So I asked Pat this question, and he did not hesitate one minute... he told me - "The World needs lights!"  And that is because of you and the Holy Spirit working through you!"  By this time I was crying, and then I said..."It has not been an easy journey!  We have 6 in heaven and 5 children, and he never said to quit or that we should stop!"  Fr looked both shocked and moved by our sharing with him how he innocently touched and laid the foundation for our family and our striving to bring lights into the world!  I can hardly hold the tears back even now to "see" with eyes of faith the Holy Spirit at work in my life and now flowing over into the lives of my children.  When he heard that John was up checking into seminary and that he would be up there in a week to begin - he invited him to be in touch and I will certainly find a way for that to happen - this is a priest that gave us our direction... We have shared that so often in our working retreats and any chance to share that we have!  It is so powerful and the TRUTH, and I rejoice when I hear the waves going out to cover and cross the entire sea!

Fr Harry and mom Verly - remembering his time here many years ago!  Lord, on this feastday of one of your apostles, St Bartholemew/Nathaniel we are reminded of the wonder of your Bride, the Church!  "For you have built your Church to stand firm upon the apostolic foundations, to be a lasting sign of your holiness on earth and to offer all humanity your heavenly teachings." (Preface II)  Wow!  How I love the True Church with such passion and JOY!   There is no doubt of the Way, the Truth and the LIFE being in YOU, O Lord, and Your amazing wonderful Catholic Church!  I am a river of tears at the realization of how the Holy Spirit touched my domestic Church/family through the sharing from the heart of one of your priests!  I place our son, John, in your hands and am so touched by YOU and how the doors have flown open for him to discern a call to your priesthood!  So many prayers are surrounding him as he starts on his 6 year journey.  We trust in you, Jesus.  Amen and Halleluia! 

Bless-bless, Barb   This was the begining of our domestic Church - on our honeymoon in 1978! 

John 8:12 "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Cross references:John 8:12 : S Jn 6:35John 8:12 : S Jn 1:4John 8:12 : Pr 4:18; Mt 5:14
Kathy Trocolli - Go Light your world!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVqR6kTu8lE