Quiet lay the land all about - Christ has entered the world!

It is a Christmas all to its own today!  John stated the sad part for him was not the fact that there were no presents under the tree, but that there were no siblings to share the day with.  It reminds us of the year when Ruth was newly married and living in Blue Earth with her husband and 3 month old Simon.  Both Nancy and Susan had gone to Rome to visit Maria, studying there, for Advent and Christmas.  It was just John and his old parents, and although we have shared a wonderful bonding time of fighting his cancer 3 years ago... it still seems quiet and lonely without the family here.  We did share mass with Pat's wonderful mom and Ruth's family minus Ruth.  She was hoping to be on call at the hospital today, but probably thanks to me and sending someone into the Marshall hospital last night from the nursing home - she got a call at 6a saying that she had to come into work.  They woke up the kids and had their Christmas quick before she had to leave.  The grandkids going over to adore the new baby Jesus in the old and special nativity scene that has been a part of our Christmas always... was a great place to really get in touch with what the day is all about... a quiet humble and most precious entry of Christ into the world in the helpless form of  a newborn baby boy.  There is no better gift we have ever received!!!

Rosie's first Christmas started early and abruptly.  She usually can snuggle next to mom in the morning and sleep and nurse and sleep.  Today she was brought out to the craziness of loud kids ripping open presents!  Dad said that she cried a lot, but she was very good in church! 

30 years ago this picture had Ruth and Nancy as little ones adoring Jesus.. now our grandchildren and a new adopted cabbage patch doll! 

The 3 girls in purple wait while grandpa makes us all pancakes!  That is a wonderful Christmas present for all of us.  Thank you, Grandpa!  And then a kiss under the mistletoe made the present complete!  What a wonderful quiet and special Christmas filled with the simple and beautiful things that really matter - our Faith and Family around us as we look out over the cold and white Christmas landscape!

Cold and Beautiful and yes that is a smiley face on the barn after Merry Christmas!  All agree that we are having a beautiful White Christmas - so pretty to look at, but not so great to get out in.

"The earth in silent stillness lay..."

May Christmas Blessings surround you now and always!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

Thanks for the wonderful yummy family breakfast Pat and Paul.  Sharing with family is all that matters truly. 

"All who heard it were amazed...  And Mary kepth all these things, reflecting on them in her heart."  Luke 2: 15-20  The Gospel for Christmas morning!  What JOY fills our hearts, minds and souls!

Family painting morning with the office- morning prayer!

Only a few minutes to wish you all a glorious Christmas Eve!  I am off to work at the nursing home, and Pat and John are going to drive a cabless tractor home from the repair shop in the frigid weather.   We all must do things that are hard at times so that others may go foward and be cared for... including the cattle!  I had a wondrous morning with 6 of our 9 grandchildren praying and painting the baby Jesus.

Jesus, we thank and praise you for Family and Faith and how they are prefected on this night of your birth.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb and all

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! 

"May you be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country! Blessed be the fruit of your womb."

In a long line for reconcilliation after work before mass last evening.  So good to be standing there with so many that understand the call to be more ready for the coming of Christ into our hearts and souls!  Reconcilliation is such a special gift in teaching us how to be humble and yet rise to new life after we embrace those crosses that are our sins.  It is such a wonderful sacrament to help us on our journey of Faith with HIM.  Yet, it is one that we set aside and don't get around to often enough.  What strides of virtue could we make if we took advantage of it bi-weekly or even monthly!  I have heard that Blessed John Paul II went to confession every day!  Wow!  How deep you could go with those faults and weaknesses we don't even see! 

The darkened church decorated for Christmas... all 4 candles of the Advent wreath are lit... Christmas is near!  Now to have a clean heart and soul... such a gift from Jesus and our glorious Church!  It was so special to find a verse I have never read before in morning prayer this morning -"May you be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country!  Blessed be the fruit of your womb."  Deuteronomy 28:2-4

It is such a gift to be living on the farm and able to raise you kids here!  But I now have daughters that live in the City and they too are filling their homes with FAITH!  It is our job and duty to have homes where the faith is passed on and it starts with being open to family and loving and cherishing the "fruit of our wombs!"

Pope Benedict in his Wednesday audiences is now speaking about faith and passing it on to our children!  "Sharing the faith with children and others should be done in a joyful, clear and simple manner.  In our time, a special place to talk about God is the family, the first school to communicate the faith to new generations."  Pope Benedict said on Nov 28

"It is important to help all members of the family to understand that faith is not a burden, but a source of deep joy."

"Speaking of God means first to be clear about what we bring to men and women of our time, which isn't an abstract God or a hypothesis, but a concrete God that exists... to speak of God requires a familiarity with Jesus and the Gospel, and one must follow the method of God which is humility."

"We need a recovery of simplicity, returning to the essential, the good news of a God who is interested in us and who draws nearer to us in Jesus Christ."

"To speak to God, we must make room in the hope that it is he who acts in our weakness.  Make room without fear, with simplicity and joy in the profound conviction that the more we put him in the middle and not us, the more our communication will be fruitful."  Pope Benedict XVI

St Nick was spotted peaking in the windows to see if they were being naughty or nice!  This reminds me of a sweet story about Simon.  He is in second grade at the Catholic School here in town and he just had his first reconcilliation.  Ruth was with him as the parents are very much included in the process.  "He was saying that he hit, and punched, and didn't listen to his mom."  Ruth shared.  The day after he got mad at his younger brother and hit at him...  a few minutes later his dad found him loudly crying..."My soul isn't clean anymore - I have sinned!  I have sinned!!!"  Wouldn't it be great to have this keen sense of doing wrong?  Instead we have over all these years sugar coated it and minimized it to the point that we don't even recognize our sinfulness and the things that separate us from the LOVE of God! 

Family is the domestic Church - the center and heart of our FAITH  and passing it on!  Jesus, we are filled with JOY at this time of year!  We reflect the great wonder and JOY that entered the world in just a few days in the institution of the Most Holy Family!  Yes, they were poor and humble and yes they faced great dangers and hardships, but they also had LOVE and LIFE beyond all telling!  They came together as a unit of Faith, LOVE and HOPE in the Truth that will set all free!  Jesus, may our families grow in the knowledge and LOVE of YOU!  Jesus, we thank, praise and trust in YOU.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"First he says, 'Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings , you neither desired or delighted in.'  These are offered according to the law.  Then he says, 'Behold I come to do your will.'  He takes away the first to establish the second.  By this 'will' we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Christ Jesus once for all."  Hebrews 10:5-10 The second reading in mass today

MARY

Today the Gospel is Mary's Magnificat... the amazing words she says to Elizabeth in Luke 1.  What strikes me when we repeat this prayer everynight in evening prayer is the call to humility.  Over and over again she tells us that the proud will be cast down and the lowly lifted up.  How we struggle with pride and the desire to be something in this world!  Yet, it is not what we should be doing at all.  St Paul tells us in Corinthians:  "the body is meant... for the Lord , and the Lord for the body... You are not your own; you were bought for a price.  So glorify God in your body."  Mary truly did this in the most perfect way and as a result brought Christ into the world to redeem us.  May we learn from her the key to following after HIM - humility!

Lord, we are given the precious gift of having Mary with us as we follow after you.  She brings all our prayers and petitions to you and asks as only a Mother can for you to answer our pleas!  We are forever grateful for her intercession and how she shows us the simple and humble way to come to you and be YOURS!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

My granddaughter, Mary!

Bless-bless, Barb

FOR THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR BLESSED MOTHER.

JESUS, I LOVE YOU.

"For her being the Daughter of God the Father.

For her being the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

For her being Your own Blessed Mother.

For her being conceived without sin.

For her being hailed 'Full of Grace.'

For her being the Mother of the Mystical Body.

For her being the Mediatrix of Graces.

For her being Our Lady of the Holy Eucharist.

For her being called 'Mother of Fair Love.'

For her being the Queen of the Universe."

Fr Adelman

John home from the seminary!!!

John and his dad are enjoying the light of the advent wreath as they talk, and watch TV.  He came home tonight for a few weeks here with his old mom and pop... the old feeling of comfort settles in as we are feeling the joyful family closeness we had over our year battle against John's brain cancer.  How we love to have our son with us!  He seems to be happy with his first semester of seminary, although the academics are challanging for him.  At supper he shared with us his paper he wrote on the Book of Ruth, and he really made me smile when he talked about the fact that Ruth had been a convert to the Jewish faith, and that she became a model of a faithfilled and excited-for-the-faith convert.  That is what I am and how I love my Catholic Faith!!!  I also loved the name Ruth, and named my oldest daughter that name.  And now I have an even better reason for loving it!!!  Thank you, John!

The sunset tonight was another gift!!  Thank you, Lord!  So wonderful to have our family growing to include our children and their spouses and children.  Nancy and her family will arrive tomorrow and we will gather with Ruth and Paul and family for pizza night at their house!  I will fit in work here and there over the next few days and will be still have the JOY of the last Sunday of Advent and then CHRISTMAS!  JOY, JOY , and JOY!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jddK0JlhLjg  A great Christmas song that makes you think by Casting Crowns - While You Were Sleeping

For some amazing pictures check out Nancy's blog - http://thegreatgusadventure.blogspot.com/

"Hark! My lover comes, springing across the mountians." Song of songs 2

My husband, Pat, is so wonderful with children!   He was loving and always wanting to hold and spend time with ours, and he continues to be such a beloved bummpa for our grandchildren!  He never seems to tire of having them on his lap, and they just seem so content and comfortable on his big lap with his huge arms around them!  Nancy just called to tell us how much her little one and a half year old, Augustine, loved to have grandpa come for a few hours yesterday... he was tired and sick with a cold, but he just loves to be with grandpa!  When he arrives tomorrow afternoon for Christmas, and he sees Grandpa on his tractors... he will become near to godly in his little boy eyes!

He can practically hold a new little grandchild in his big hands, and he loves nothing more than having his arms full of LIFE, and this is the basis of the most Wonderful LOVE, and he promotes being open to LIFE, as this is what God calls us to - bringing LIGHTS to the world!  Reading the special first reading today from Song of Songs and the passion which fills the heart, and mind, and soul of her beloved.  The part of Pat that makes me just fall in love with him over and over, is his LOVE and conviction to LIFE, and FAMILY, and bringing LIGHTS into the world!  I shout from the rooftops that Pat gave our entire marriage, and that of our children, direction in his answering my questions at our engagement weekend - "Are we being selfish to want to bring a large family into this mess of a world?"  This started to make me question after all the other couples at our engagement weekend said that they were only going to have at most 2 children, and some of them none, due to the mess the world was in.  Pat did not hesitate one second... he said "The world needs LIGHTS!"  All my doubts and fears melted away, and the Truth filled we with such peace and happiness!  This motto for LIFE has been carried forward by each of our daughters and their families.  Such an amazing legacy for LIFE and LOVE resulting in a glorious LIGHT for all the world to see! 

Gus is such a wonderful big brother - he loves his new baby sister and wants to be close to her and gives her special kisses and hugs!  Today the Gospel is the one that is full of the JOY of the Spirit - Mary enters the home of Elizabeth, and the baby in her womb is filled with the Spirit and jumps for JOY!  Just as Pat was filled with the Holy Spirit, and recognized Christ's call to being open to LIFE, and raising LIGHTS... so also was Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice and said, 'Most Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb... For at the moment of the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."  Luke 1: 39-45

How glorious it is for the little ones that enter the world into a family centered on Christ and his Bride, the Church!  They "know" in their hearts, minds and souls much peace and JOY at the rejoicing at their birth!

Then there is the little Lamb, Patrick, who was surrounded by so many prayers from his first hours in this world - raised to new LIFE after being born dead without oxygen for 20 minutes in the womb!  To look at him filled with LIFE, and health, and showing the world his LIGHT, due to Christ being in his heart, and most especially the heart of HIS FAMILY... I am filled with such wonder and awe!  The little family has now returned to El Paso Army base, but we are still filled with the hugs and times we shared!

Patrick looked into my eyes and held my hand and smiled at me on the way to the airport!  This is being held closely in my heart and the LIGHT is glowing there as the result of this Christmas miracle - Sweet whole and healed Patrick!  He is the Lord's and had the Cross placed on his shoulders before he entered this world!  He taught us all how to Trust in HIM and as we are lowered into his presence on our mat paralyzed by our sin - He forgives us, and tells us we are healed, and take up our mats, and walk.  WE then go walking, and leaping, and praising God! 

Jesus, I are filled with so much love and joy, when I think about the wonderful Spirit filled spouse I have been given to direct me down your Path!  To see that now carried forth into the next generation as both Pat and I came from large loving faith-centered families.  We are always in a state of happiness due to the love of our family, the faith we share, and our special life on the farm!  I was overwhelmed at the Christmas shared with my family of over 90 last weekend - seeing with eyes of Faith the wonder of God's call and touch upon us, as my dad listened to the Holy Spirit call him to become Catholic, and leave his Protestant ministry behind!  What JOY we have been blessed with ever since in our daily walk with HIM and His Bride, the Church!  I will always remember the slip of paper I found in Hallel's room when she went to enter the Community of the Lamb - it was a verse from Song of Songs - a very personal love note from her beloved, Jesus Christ!  True Passion - and he showed us that in a most powerful and REAL way on the Cross!  Patrick is my Most Cherished Cross and I his... to be embraced and to bring LIFE and LOVE and LIGHT one to the other!  Jesus, we are overwhelmed with YOU and your LOVE for us.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"Behold then the Joy of the whole universe.  Let the union of God and man in the Son of the Virgin Mary fill us with awe and adoration.  Let us fear and worship the undivided Trinity as we sing the praise of the ever-Virgin Mary, the holy temple of God, and of God himself, her son and spotless Bridegroom.  To him be glory for ever and ever.  Amen."

St Cyril of Alexandria (444)

"The worlds needs LIGHTS!"  Patrick Verly 1978 

The Church asking us to be open to family - it all makes sense now, when you see the darkness in the world! 

Family LOVE is a beautiful sight! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIhEQuDgtSw  Danielle Rose sings Hail Mary