Thursday, October 24, 2013
Never too many of Rose with the baby doll... soon the real thing!
Pearls of wisdom - setting the world aflame!
Rose learning to love a new baby with the help of older sister Mary and a dolly that her cousin Therese so selflessly gave to her for Mary's birthday... Mary also took this picture of Rose. A week from tomorrow when they go to the hospital to see her new brother wrapped up in a blanket and so tiny - I think that Rose will reach out in LOVE, and hold him very sweetly with adult supervision, of course.
We were able to practice having a new baby last night while Ruth was away teaching Faith Formation without Paul, as he is farming long and hard now. It was the smartest thing we could have ever done - to tell our kids that we would watch their family so that they could be the ones teaching these young kids. Ruth was describing the respect that she and Paul get when they share - Ruth spoke for about 10 minutes about how we need to thirst for the Lord..."I talked about the way I watch my kids faith mature, and then I brought it up to confirmation and told them that it is asking them to become adults in their faith." "I look around and they are quiet and listening... I think that they really respect Paul and I." Remembering the struggles Pat and I had with our classes and how they complained that we were boring, etc... it just seems so right that we allow Ruth and Paul to go and share with kids. It is also good for them to prepare and share too!
Rose having a lunch break outside with daddy the other day.
Ruth had to speak twice last night and after Faith Formation she was asked to come and speak, along with 2 other presenters, to the eagle scouts. Ruth shared about how Paul had been reminded early in college that if he wanted a pure and holy wife that he needed to deserve her in his own actions. What a beautiful reminder that we need to keep ourselves pure and holy for our future spouses. It struck me in the last few years that looking over the lives of Pat and I from before we met, then when we met and clicked, and now the 35 years of the sacrament of marriage... that Pat's clear black and white vision about only marrying a Catholic could have been instrumental in our family's conversion to the Catholic Church! I know how determined he is in accomplishing anything in his life, and I could see that his wish/prayer for his future wife was a definite contributing factor in my conversion/my entire family's conversion to the Catholic Church - all 13 of us! A man with a clear vision! The Catholic Church- the world needs LIGHTS! To me they go hand in hand.
A dolly with long lashes and eyes that open and close make for fascination of a little girl...
Lord, today we are lifted up to new heights of JOY and praise as your Word was shared with a genuine LOVE last evening with your youth/future Church! In the first reading in Romans 6 today St Paul tells us without hesitation - "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord." Lord, may we leave behind all that darkness/sin which makes us unworthy of those that look to us for direction and instruction on following Jesus down the narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross. Reminding our little ones that they find great JOY and freedom in purity, and they need to pray for their future spouse in the same way. May the seeds planted last evening by Ruth and John and all those that are teaching the youth/future Church take root and bear much fruit bathed in the Light and watered from the side of Jesus. May the earth take flame and a huge blaze reach up to heaven casting away the darkness and lies of Satan now and forever. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"The only way to approach faith is on our knees, through prayer. We should not only kneel but be prostate before him, falling on our faces, imploring, crying out for growth in faith, so that we may believe ever more firmly, not only in God, but in one another - we who are fashioned in God's image...Prostration is humility. It's an acknowledgement of who I am, and who he is. A 'prostrated Church' is a Church of what I call the humiliated: the poor, the forgotten, the lonely..."
Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty(1985)
Lord, continue to be with the farmers and thank you for the bright sunlight today!
God's not dead by Newsboys... If there is a theme song for our battle with Maria's Patrick a year ago - this is truly it! His little 3 year old brother, David, would truly roar it out over and over in that month!
This looks like a good movie to see... God's not dead
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
More baby classes - thanks T
Mary went and found the dolly that Therese gave her out of the goodness of her little heart a year or so ago for Mary's birthday! We wrapped her up in a blanket and gave it to Rose to continue with her baby lessons as we are now a little over a week from the day she becomes a big sister. Mary even took my camera and got this cute picture of her sister with the baby. Rose doesn't see baby dolls laying around with two brothers, and her sister is more into animals than dollies. This was a new and nice experience for her. She smiled and got busy...
First she held her in her little chair...
Then it was stroller time...
Then she sat in the chair with her baby in the stroller.
I think that she will not be too surprised when there is a new baby in the house now. It will still be an adjustment for her though as it will for all of them. Mary said that she will be the Big big sister and will probably be helping more with this little brother...
She says Thankyou to Therese/T for the dolly that is helping Rose learn about babies and adjusting to the idea that there will be a real new baby brother in 8 days. Lord, continue to protect Ruth and her little son. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Photo of Rose with her dolly... taken by her sister, Mary.
Baby lessons - LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT lessons
John and I just shared morning office, and the realization that I won't have my breakfast sharer and prayer partner in a week - I will be taking him to Jackson to move into his convent apartment in a week! It is going to be a huge hole in my community LIFE called Domestic Church/family! Today we prayed for both Ruth and John, who will speaking at two different Faith Formations tonight - Ruth about Faith here in Marshall, and John about Our Lady over in Tracy! Today as we were praying I had the deep sense of Christ walking among the people and how He touched them and they touched Him and were healed. My prayer for tonight as Ruth and John share their encounter with Christ is that the young people listening to them may realize that Christ Jesus is alive and walking with us in this day too! May they come to recognize HIM and his unconditional LOVE and forgiveness of them no matter what. May they no longer be "ignorant" of the Truth, but may their eyes of Faith be opened!
Psalm 36 was in the office today - Wow!
"How precious, O God, is your constant love!
We find protection under the shadow of your wings.
We feast on the abundant food you provide;
you let us drink from the river of goodness.
You are the source of all LIFE,
and because of your LIGHT we see the LIGHT."
Psalm 36:7-9
So special to have this reminder of how much our Lord loves us and cares for us. Even the hard times of suffering are there for our good - getting us to Heaven and becoming the Saint that is just me! That Most Cherished Cross we are asked to embrace and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! May we do this act of selflessness without counting the cost.
Jesus, we fall before you in thanksgiving and Praise for all you have given us to assist us in being your good and trusted servants. We are entrusted with sharing your Truth and the happiness to be found in Faith in YOU, O Lord. Be with all those that work with the youth in The Church that they may share your Way, your Truth and your LIFE with them - YOU, O Jesus! May the first and most important teachers of children - parents be open to family and LIFE and share that Truth with great JOY in that family/domestic Church! May they grow in welcoming new LIFE - realizing that LOVE grows larger doesn't get stretched more thin by each new arrival! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barb
Sure going to miss you sweet John, but very excited for your new life working with youth in 4H!
Also from morning prayer this morning Judith 16
"I will sing a new song to my god.
O Lord, you are strong and glorious!
You have never been defeated.
Let all creatures serve you.
You gave command, and all of them came into being;
you breathed on them, and all of them were created..."
It always fills me with a great sharing of Truth feeling to know that there are thousands or millions all over the world in convents, monasteries, priests, nuns and deacons as well as lay people praying morning prayer together! So powerful! I think that I will have to get a smart phone soon and get this application so that I can continue even without my prayer warrior/prayer mate, John Patrick! O yeah! Happy Feast day, John! St John Capistrano, pray for us and intercede for Ruth and John tonight as you were a great preacher and shared the Truth far and wide - changing lives for Christ!
Danielle Rose singing - If I touch him at NCYC
Her brother's nose won't be so attractive to be pinched...
Psalm 139 - wonderfully made by Danielle Rose
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
We love you JP II!
Harvest in the picture adds a lot of work shared among the families involved on the farm. Ruth hopefully worked her last shift until the baby... the kids were here while dad was outside hauling manure and now into the digger til late.
Now for the swing minus the nose pinch. We will have to continue to work on new baby lessons for the next days until the new little brother arrives! Jesus, continue to keep Ruth and the little baby safe. Blessed John Paul II - our champion for LIFE intercede for both the new life in Nancy and Ruth and protect all LIFE this night. May those that are considering abortion find the LIGHT and give their little one the chance at LIFE that they were given. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Blessed John Paul II day - he is my marriage!!!!
I was greeted by this beautiful never before seen picture of Blessed John Paul II this morning! I had to use it to begin my sharing today as it is the day set aside as a feastday for my hero for Family and LIFE - Blessed John Paul II! He is truly the wind beneath my wings when it comes to my married life! We were married in 1978 just a couple months before he became Pope. For two newly weds, who shared a deep love for the Catholic Church, to have this dynamic and amazing man become our pope just energized us even more for The Church! He radiated with so much love and support for Family and from him I learned the Truth that we are called to be a domestic Church within our family. That is truly where the Faith needs to be shared and is where we raise those LIGHTS to the world filled with a love for Christ and His Bride, The Church!
This hangs on my wall, and fills me with JOY to "see" his love for Christ, Our Lady, and LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/family/domestic Church! I have shared about our engagement weekend and how we shared that we were hoping for a large family - 10 or so. All the others shared that they thought it was a terrible world to bring children into and they might have 2 at the most. When I asked Pat if we were being selfish... he did not hesitate one minute - "The world needs LIGHTS!" Then for a John Paul to become Pope just a couple months after our marriage, and he led a plea to couples to be open to LIFE and to embrace having children - knowing that this is the path to LIFE, for sure, but also for the world to be brought out of the darkness into the marvelous LIGHT! How we were blessed each day of our marriage - knowing that he was at our side as we faced all the ups and downs of those years. The losses were so hard for me, and after John how I prayed that I could have one more so that the world could see, without words, that I hadn't stopped after I had "that boy." But it was not to be... yes, there were 3 more losses after John and two were boys that I carried for 5 months and died in the womb and are now buried at the cemetery. I held them in my arms and tearfully asked God why He wanted them. It keeps my eyes on Heaven to know that they are there and are praying for their mom's struggles here on earth!
Of course, today I have to share this! While Maria was studying in Rome, Pat and I went there for 10 days. We attended a Wednesday audience and noticed there were couples dressed for their wedding there. Suddenly they came forward and knelt before Blessed John Paul, and he blessed them! How perfect was this! The champion for marriage and LIFE blessings these young couples as they started their lives together! So Ruth and Paul went on their honeymoon to Italy with all the papers in order to have their marriage blessed just days after they ministered the sacrament of matrimony to each other on Nov 22 in the midst of an ice storm! Paul is asking the Holy Father to "bless us with a happy healthy family." The special thing about this time was there were many audiences he missed due to his failing health, and this one he was able to be there! Such a wonderful gift to look upon this on my wall every day, too!
"The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not
simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of
the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the
constant fulfilment of the promise: —Lo, I am with you always, to the close of
the age— (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread
and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with
unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New
Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine
Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with
confident hope." How I groaned with delight at the words of John Paul II in this precious encyclical on the Eucharist! I remember reading it one winter day in the pickup outside the sales barn - as Pat had hauled down some cows for sale. He is super smart and sometimes above my head, but so worth the effort to understand as he is truly a man in touch with the Truth that will set us free!
How blessed are we to have these two in our lifetime?
Jesus, you remind us this day in the Gospel to be always awake and vigilant - ready to greet you when you come to us. I am filled with so much JOY this day as I am gifted with this celebration of my hero, Blessed John Paul II! Our struggle embracing the Truth in the midst of the darkness was so helped by his coming into the Chair of St Peter and fighting for Family and LIFE! We found a great wise charismatic fighter for all that is right and Good! He truly gave us so much wind beneath our wings and our marriage and his LIGHT became one! The day he died was so hard, yet it was carried on and continues to this day by Pope Benedict and now Pope Francis, as he shows us how to live as Christ asked us - to take up our Most Cherished Cross and follow after HIM! Retweeted Pope Francis (@Pontifex):
"The crucifix does not signify defeat or failure. It reveals to us the Love that overcomes evil and sin."
"The crucifix does not signify defeat or failure. It reveals to us the Love that overcomes evil and sin."
"Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." St Paul to the Romans 5 - the first reading from mass today. We see, O Lord, that by embracing our Most Cherished Cross we have brought LIFE into the world and are asked to raise them as LIGHTS! Jesus, with Blessed John Paul II, at your feet this day... may your Way, your Truth, and your LIFE bring LIGHT into the darkness this day and forever. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think the wide circle of the American society or the wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between The Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, between Christ and the anti-Christ. This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously....
We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ. With your and my prayers, it is possible to mitigate the coming tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can The Church be effectually renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from the shedding of blood? This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared and trust in Christ and in his Holy Mother and be very, very assiduous in praying the holy rosary."
Blessed John Paul II (2005) was pope for 27 years!
My dad - a permanent deacon and convert from a Protestant minister officiated and preached at our wedding on August 3, 1978 at Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis, MN!
Danielle Rose singing The Saint that is just me
Peter Mayer - Holy Now
I need to share this again after an early morning conversation with my husband about how everything is a miracle with Christ and His Mother Mary Most Holy, all the Angels and Saints with us - a big Spiritual Army as we fight the foe surrounded with prayers from around the world... looking back at our miracles named John and Patrick!
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