Mowing lawn on a humid day

Beautiful apple blossoms with soybeans coming up in the field by our house.

 The rain had washed clean the marker of William and Robert... the pink geraniums had opened up beautifully for them!

 Airconditioning cooling the house, Lilacs in a jar or water, and a special picture that will be cherished always, now out to mow for the afternoon...

 Mowing by the cows in the grass in the middle of the yard.  Nursing her calf - cute alert.

 Super cute white face calf laying in the deep grass...

Green soybeans coming up and the apple blossoms in full bloom in front of white puffy clouds.

Totally in bloom with the warm weather.  They will not last much longer.  Sigh!!!!  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Bless-bless, Barb

"his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God." Acts 16:22-34

Rose heard the 4 wheeler and started walking across the yard saying - "Grandpa."  Soon she was happily in his big strong arms and grandpa had a very pleased smile on his face.  He loves family and I have shared often that he is my champion for LIFE and raising LIGHTS!  http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html  Here is the page I have devoted to this story in greater detail.  The fabric of our marriage/lives and now that of our children!

How I love this first reading/story from Acts 16!  Why do I find it so charming and wonderful?  The jailer is such a family man, and when he realizes that these men of God, who were beaten with rods and have wounds are in their cell singing and praying- filled with the Spirit.  There is an earthquake and all the doors are open and the chains are broken... Paul and Silas do not escape but call out to the jailer right when he is about to take his own life thinking that he has allowed them to escape.  He asks them - "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved."  ... "he and all his family were baptized at once.  He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God." 

The little ones love their grandpa so much!  They sense that he always has time and love for them!
I love the beautiful part of this story about the family coming together to Faith through the father/ the head of the family.  Rereading it now I do see that Paul invites him to bring along his family, but the jailer certainly seems to be a man of great love for his family and of JOY when sharing that faith!  This is so true of my husband, Patrick!  He shares his Faith with great JOY and there is no greater JOY to be found than to worship together as a family!

This is a very typical sight of his large hands holding a couple grandkids at mass on Sunday.  Often people comment on how much they enjoy seeing the joy we share at mass as a family.  We are very much a domestic Church/family.  Our sharing of faith is foremost in our home on a daily basis with shared prayer, work and relaxation on the farm.  Farming is not just a job - it is a way of life!  Ruth, our oldest, lives just 3 miles away from us and they are starting to farm with Pat.   So we have their family including 5 kids that are the same 9 years apart our 5 kids were... very much involved in our lives on a daily basis!  It is a blessing for us, and they know us so well that they are going from one set of arms to the other as we share mass together each week.  It does bring smiles to our faces as well as those around us at mass.  So often we are told this by others.  Thank you, Lord!

Funny farm time!

Today in the Gospel we are told that The Advocate - The Holy Spirit will come to dwell within us to keep us on the right path - Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The LIFE!  "I will send him to you" - The Holy Spirit had come to the jailer and his family and filled them with great rejoicing!  How this is true of our family also thanks to Pat's listening to the Holy Spirits direction in our marriage/LIFE together!  When I asked him if we were being selfish to want to have a large family, he did not hesitate one minute - "The world needs lights."  made all of the lies and falsehood of the world evaporate into thin air.  For the truth is that on the contrary - being open to life leads to giving up our selfishness and dying to self so that we may tend to the needs of those we are given to care for.  The Church in her wisdom is leading us to eternal LIFE!  The Church is showing us the path to heaven.  The Holy Spirit is revealing the Truth in what the Church teaches us in her unchanging dogmas!  We are blessed with each new day!

I call this a photo story of the family kind.  Pat showing us a new calf born overnight... a young bull comes up to be petted by Mary, Luke is falling asleep in his daddy's arms, Rose wants to go to the house for a nap so she is trying to start up the 4 wheeler, David is playing with the umbrella and Simon is off on  his bike.  I love these jam packed with LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT moments captured. 

Jesus, so much joy is filling me at the scene presented in Acts first reading this morning... An entire household/family/domestic church sharing the Truth and allowing the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in each heart and in the heart of their home!  Sharing that Faith as a family is a small slice of what we can look forward to in heaven here on earth!  There is nothing better in all this world!  Lord, use us this day to bring families into your marvelous light, and leaving all the lies of sin and death behind them.  May your Truth come to dwell in us and may we then share it with all we meet - seeing your face in them.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

 Missing Maria's 3 and the two we expect - one in June  and one in September!  The world needs LIGHTS!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"All around we hear the tidings of the Paraclete coming to people and of his longing to dwell in their hearts.  Let us not allow him to pass by, but constrain him to visit and comfort us that we may serve him the better.  He will need little entreaty; ask him in the Lord's name, for the Father sends him through Jesus Christ his Son.  It is our Savior who obtained for us poor mortal creatures, frail, impure, and subject to many evils though we be, the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is higher above us than the firmament is from the earth...  Our Redeemer, the Only-begotten of his Father in heaven, abased himself to become Man on earth, and taking our weakness on himself, suffered, toiled, and gave his life, that the Paraclete, the Creator of all things, might deign to come to us, poor vessels of clay...  We should go forth with love, to meet him who comes with love; we should feel an ardent longing to receive him, for where he is much longed for, he gladly stays."  St John of Avila (1569)
Come Holy Spirit - I long for YOU!

Lights to the world!

This Psalm from mass today is too great to pass up - Psalm 138!

"I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart,

for you have heard the words of my mouth;

in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;

and give thanks to your name.

Your right hand saves me, O Lord.  Hallelujah

 

Because of your kindness and your truth,

you have made great above all things

your name and your promise.

When I called you answered me;

you built up strength within me.

Your right hand saves me, O Lord.  Hallelujah."

 

Truly expressing our JOY!

 

Chris Rice - Light your world

Kathy Torcolli - Light your world again and again and again!

 

How we pray for peace and forgiveness in this world!

The three I am missing in Texas - with their little cousin from Oregon at Easter!  Therese has lost both of her top front teeth!  Soon adult ones will be there! 

Grandma loves you "T"!

Big sister teaching little sister

 Mary was 8 on April 19th and Rose was 2 on May 1st... it has been fun to have them 6 years apart and born in the same season as Rose can wear the clothes that Mary wore at her age.  This is true of these two second hand dresses I found and Mary wore 6 springs ago.  Today big sister taught little sister how to give Our Lady a smell of the beautiful lilacs, and...

 Give Mother Mary a kiss - Mary had to lean over to kiss her and Rose couldn't reach her face - she had to give her a kiss on the chest.

We love you, Our Lady!  May these two girls always love and adore her and find hope with her at their sides.  Bringing them to her Son, Jesus!

 Luke and heifers in the pasture - a few raindrops on the lens

 Snowing apple blossom petals!

 Rubber boots and pink striped sailor dress in the beauty of full bloom spring!

Umbrella in the apple blossoms and rain drops.

 Rose with the umbrella

 Now the other dress for some...

 Bye grandma - I'm with grandpa now!

 Safe in those big hands

Let me keep you dry, grandpa!  They picked rocks in the rain this afternoon.

 Special times

 Bear has a cute bull calf today!

Family time out to see the new calf - so fun to watch  the story unfold.   Mary had a visitor of one of the young bulls wanting some pats on the head.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

"These honored dead shall not have died in vain..." Abraham Lincoln

Mary does not realize all the live that have been lost for the freedom and prosperity we enjoy in our country... as she learns more about history she might get a small idea of all the wars of the past. As her grandmother... I am still getting grips on the horror of all the young men lost in the World Wars... last night on the news a 90 something man was in tears remembering it all.  How do you ever forget that, and may we never take it for granted!?!

With Christ's suffering in the center of it all... how I pray that our country may come to a place of LIGHT.  There is so much of the lies of the devil that is accepted as truth.  It breaks my heart to think of all the innocent lives taken in abortion. 

A friend shared this today on Facebook and it is so true!  How much Truth these words hold when we consider how the freedom of LIFE has been deprived of those little ones that cannot speak for nor protect themselves.  How can this be tolerated in our God-fearing country? 

I believe President Lincoln summarized what Memorial Day is about in the Gettysburg Address, "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here t...o the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." May they rest in peace.

I see that they take many of my pictures and make them move together... enjoy and smile.  This is appropriate for today - the Feast of St Philip Neri.  Why?  Because he was a man who "was noted for his ability to be cheerful and to laugh from the depths of his burning love for the crucified Christ and to win other hearts for Christ by the quality of his joy."    Think about it - you certainly win more over with sugar than vinegar!
How I hope and pray that my grandchildren always hold dear their freedoms in America, yet be aware of the Truth compared to the lies of Satan.
"The Holy Spirit inflames everything he fills with the desire of invisible things.  And because worldly hearts love only visible things, the world does not receive him, because it does not rise to the love of what is invisible.  For worldly minds, the more they widen their desires, the more they narrow the core of their hearts to the Spirit." St Gregory the Great
"Worldly love does not have invisible eyes which alone can see the invisible Holy Spirit.'  St Augustine

I am quite certain that Abraham Lincoln was a man of Faith- evident in his words and his actions for freedom for ALL!  I think he would be mortified at all the morals and values that have been trampled under foot.  May our prayers join with his that "these honored dead shall not have died in vain."  The blatant taking of life by abortion, the embracing of homosexuality as a norm and lifestyle lived out, the thought that cohabitating is a part of approaching marriage, the use of artificial birth control preventing God's plan for LIFE... leading to the small families of this day and age... depriving children of siblings that show them how to give without counting the cost and suffer less with selfishness sinfulness.  There is so much darkness that is accepted as the truth... leading many down the path of destruction!

May our families be united in the Truth of Jesus and His Bride, The Church! 
Jesus, today in the Gospel you remind us that no matter what we face that the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father... will show us the narrow path to take as we follow after You carrying Our Most Cherished Cross!  We are forever grateful for sharing your Truth without hesitation in the midst of our domestic Church/family.  How is that best shared?  With JOY!  May we joyfully reveal your unconditional LOVE for us with all those in our lives - especially those most close to us in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in YOU, and honor all those that sacrificed their lives for all we take for granted - our freedom to love and follow YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

My Most Cherished Cross, Patrick, doesn't have these two in his arms today, but he has two grandchildren on the 4 Wheeler with him watching for rocks on both sides so grandpa doesn't have to get off so much.  Happy Memorial day!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"Persons who live in the world should persevere in coming to church to hear sermons, and remember to read spiritual books, especially the lives of the saints.... The things of this world do not remain constantly with us, for if we do not leave them before we actually die, in death at least we infallibly depart as empty handed as we came.
To pray well requires the whole man."  St Philip Neri, pray for us, and show us how to share the Truth with JOY!

Luke is not happy, so I am remembering this time!

Holy Now - Peter Mayer!

Sweet Gus is 3!!!

I was so happy to have some nice weather so that we could have pool time.  Gus was very happy to help with the water... he even watered grandma's garden - my flowers should be beautiful thanks to Gus. 

The sweetest little guy ever.  How we have learned to love him and shared a lot of good time with him over the last year.  It is wonderful that his mommy loved her life on the farm and now can share that with her children for a nice stay.  Now that the weather is so wonderful we are out a lot.  I leave the patio door open and the kids run in and out as does the cat...

Luke enjoying the fresh air in his swing with the patio door open.

Bernadette escapes out into the wonderful springtime!  How we have waited for this weather to arrive. 

Luke and Rose enjoying a beautiful evening under the apple blossoms.

Apple blossom sweetness - Happy Birthday, Gus!  Bless-bless

 

The Spirit of Truth- Happy 3rd birthday Augustine!

Borrowing from Nancy's blog today... http://thegreatgusadventure.blogspot.com/2014/05/our-last-days-at-farm.html  They are happily home with Bill back from his traveling for business. It is great to know that they are all together, and awaiting the safe arrival of their little boy.  We had such a great 2 weeks and will miss them so much.  It is wonderful to have little ones around and their special outlook on the world as they grow and open up their hearts, minds and souls to life on the farm and sweetly share their faith and love with these old folks and the big bald guy.

Two May birthdays a year apart...  Rose was 2 on May 1st and today is Augustine's 3rd birthday!  Happy Birthday dear sweet little Gus!  It makes grandpa so happy to have you there farming with him, loving him and praying for him and baby Luke first every night!  You are a very lucky farmboy, who fills our lives with much JOY!

I love kids holding their blankets on the clothesline pictures!  Gus found his and Nancy captured it...

The best!  Finding comfort and love in the form of a drying piece of cloth - notice Paula Boerboom... your blankets are famous in our family and well loved! 
Today in the Gospel Jesus shares that we are never alone , but have The Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Truth with us - don't we see that we look at LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT differently armed with the Truth? 
Lord, we long to share your LIGHT with all those we come in contact with.  May we pour forth your Truth and may it make a difference.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
"For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.  There was great joy in that city."  Acts 8 - the first reading today on the 6th Sunday of Easter!   May people know our love and the Truth from our works and may great JOY abound!

That is JOY shared!

Casting Crowns - Oh Glorious day!