"Let there be LIGHT" Genesis 1 and "Come to the water!" Isaiah 55:1

John and Godson, David in the glowing LIGHT of this Easter day through the 8 foot patio door which brings in the outdoors into Ruth and Paul's newly remodeled farmhouse!  This is a day overflowing with bright sunlight - with the white snow covering this morning it just seemed so much brighter almost to the point of making you squint at the brightness!  As we prepared our wonderful Easter feast in Ruth's open and window filled kitchen we could watch the robins in the snow and the snow melting and cascading out of the trees.  The yard was filled with streams as the snow melted and the water ran towards the pasture.  Reminding me of the two of the parts of the Vigil last night - the one speaking of the wonder of LIGHT entering the world at creation and then sharing the presence of God among his people.  And I had to nudge Pat when they read the verse from Isaiah 55:1-2 which my dad read and The Holy Spirit told him to come into The True Catholic Church 44 years ago!  The life-giving waters which wash us clean and give us life! 
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

Ruth and I feel like we accomplished our fake plan to have a wonderful family Easter dinner at her place and the official family picture in their new home!  We had just shared our meal and the bunny cakes (a special Verly tradition in which grandpa Gerry would steal the tail) are awaiting their turn at dessert.  Ruth and I said that we hope to never switch places ever again, but we are glad that Easter 2016 is marked by the changing of the guard to the young family on the farm! 

Mid feast - 10 of us gathered to share a wonderful homegrown chicken - surrounded by the LIGHT and sharing Easter JOY!

My rosary is calling me, but I just wanted to share some of the happiness I had to share a wonderful holiday with our new farm family in their new home.  The men were able to come in and share in the meal and that is always a special treat!  The sight and sound of running water as the snow melts in the bright warm spring sun... Reminding us of the beautiful words and sights of the Vigil last night as  the candles lit up the church from darkness, and the waters baptized and we were sprinkled with renewing waters of Baptism!  How I love my Church, and the beauty of last night really is so spectacular! 

There were some special small things that really made this a happy special feast day for me... I was able to Bernadette braids/French braids in Mary and Rose's hair.  Nothing makes it feel more like a holiday for me than to be able to do some girls' hair! 

Rose with her Bernadette braids and the bunny cakes in the sun!

David helped with the bunny cakes and posed so nicely for grandma with them.  David is always willing to help out in the kitchen!

Mary and John checking out the bunny cake or is it the other way around?  I think the bunny wants to help with the crescent rolls...

The table is set... yes, that is a giant bowl of mashed potatoes and there were some left over.

Eating in the glorious Easter sun light!

More cuteness all around!

 

Jesus, we place our cows and calves into your hands and ask that you continue to keep them healthy and safe.  Thank for the LIFE that entered this world with the Vigil we kept at your tomb- "Jesus Rose!" as Rose has started saying since we shared the Vigil last night.  Too cute!  She has gone from Rose again to Jesus Rose and how we celebrate that Truth with all we hold in our hearts, minds and souls!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah!

This is one genuine farm boy here!  All he talks about is tractors and bales - he even calls tator tots bales.  Luke you sure warm your grandpa's heart!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Godfather John with David and blessed waters for home.  Luke drank one when we went out to eat - blessing him inside and out!

Luke loves water to drink!

Keeping Rose out of the candy bowl - Official farm family now!  Grandma has retired from the farm! 

Mary waiting outside the tomb with us

My new home the morning after our snow a few days ago.  No, Ruth and I have not exchanged our Mary statues and more than likely never will.  We both have them displayed in a place of honor outside, and inside our homes.  No, Ruth does not have over 40 of them in her family room - John and I counted them a few months back, and recently added Our Lady statue from Medjugorji to them.  How we love Our Lady!  My heart is filled with so much that I yearn to share concerning my Spiritual Mother that it will probably all come out poorly, but I am burning to share!

John's special Christmas gift to me along with the hope and wish that we go to Medjugorje together sometime in the not too distant future.  I do not travel internationally with any kind of joy or ease and it is a lot of hard work, so I am not so sure if that is in the future for us, but I do appreciate the sentiment a lot!  I love that we love Our Lady so much together, and as John's mother I do not feel slighted but rather feel that it reflects on my own motherhood to him.  There is no better love than for our children and to share that glorious loving care and concern our Mary Mother of God has for us is the best!  The daisy plant was a sweet Valentine's gift from our granddaughter, Mary!

Our sweet red barn after the snow... behind is a chicken house with laying hens and Mary's two bunnies to care for.  It looks like grandma's chores are starting, too.  I think I can manage the small livestock better than the super big ones!

How I love this!  The tears well up in my eyes and heart at this sight, which is out of this world amazing!  Along with this is this sharing about how yesterday was both the Feast of Annunciation and Good Friday - this picture says it all!  John walked in just as I put it on, and he marveled with me at this sight.  It says so much!  
"March 25 is usually the celebration of the Annunciation - when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she gave her fiat, her "yes" to bearing the Son of Man. Today, this date also falls on Good Friday - the day where the Son of Man dies for ALL of humanity. This won't happen again in our lifetime - the next time it'll happen is in 2157.

"This Friday the Church will kneel before the cross and thank God that this day that marks the beginning and ending of Jesus’ brief life on earth — and the beginning of our eternity in heaven." Ali Hoffman


 Mother Mary, teach me to say "yes", even when that yes is tied with suffering."
Wow!  This is The Truth which I have discovered over my years of LIFE - The Cross that comes to us with life brings with it LIFE!

Our new home - 2428 240th Street just 3 miles from our farm home where Ruth and Paul with Simon, Mary, David, Rose and Luke live... thank goodness the snow is almost gone now and we are looking for Spring to come once and for all.  Ruth has built us a wonderful canning kitchen on the farm and we are primed and ready to get the gardens in at our new homes and can our hearts out!

I am with Pat's mom this morning and John has stopped in for a mother-son breakfast and a warm visit over mom's egg mcmuffins.  I had to make John 2 as he has not had them for so long - "absence makes the heart grow stronger."  True for mom's cooking too!  I am so enjoying this island of peace - able to rest and collect my thoughts, and really savor the powerful times we are in the midst of with Good Friday like no other, and hopefully will not be repeated again with the move of all moves!  Savoring this day the image of Mary both saying "yes" to Jesus in her womb and then standing at the foot of the Cross... they meet and collide and remind us of the deepest Truth - being open to LIFE and finding it LIFE eternal through The Cross!

The dog has a new home now, too, and our little Roger might have to leave Lilly behind and come and be our dog... the cats, too, might have to relocate here.

In my quiet time here this morning I read this stirring blog post by Nancy's friend, Laura.  I hope that you take a few minutes to read her heartfelt words after suffering the loss of her twin girls and seeing so clearly that being open to LIFE and suffering and loss are tied together no matter what!
http://www.motheringspirit.com/2016/03/the-yes-that-breaks-your-heart/
"There will never be another coincidence like today in our lifetimes. Never another Annunciation that lands within Good Friday.
So today is a time to pause and pray into what this might mean. That an angel’s announcement could lead to the cross. That a day of pain could be a day of joy. That what looks like death is deeper life.
And that all who say yes to walk this way of faith together are bound up in the same story. The story that leads Beyond." Laura writes in the yes that breaks your heart

Cow TV follows us on the laptop and a new calf greeted us this morning.  Our bed is back where a kingsize had been before it.  It felt like warm loving arms around us, and strengthened us to face a new day ahead with all that we need to face the ups and downs of life.   We will be spending the next two nights away from our bed here with Pat's mom... an Easter weekend like no others and we are grateful for our special time with this great woman of Faith and Farm and Family!

Jesus we stand with Mary outside your tomb with numb and hearts filled with so much pain after experiencing your cruel suffering and death. Jesus/God is dead and in the ground and is traveling through death to conquer it once and for all. Yes, we will continue to face the suffering and hardships that come with saying "yes" to all the life you want us to bring into this world (and heaven with you).  Why do I yearn to come to Heaven and what keeps my eyes, heart, and soul focused on Heaven forever? - Your LOVE for me and your Sacrifice for me, my 7 angels in heaven watching out for me and praying for me, My Spiritual Mother showing me a mother's love and interceding for this weak selfish old lady, and all the Saints and Angels!  So much HOPE fills us as we wait outside your tomb this day... Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

John and I a few years back with our Hallel... we were just talking about her this morning.  Actually John gets calls from her and talks to her more than some of his other sisters.  How cool is that?  She lives in Rome.  I also have yet to get her Easter package done or sent..."She has to know that we are moving."  John  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

John with his 4 older loving sisters are Ruth's wedding!  Now Ruth has 5 and is living on the farm!

So much to love this day!

We are the reason - Listen and weep as I have done so many times !

John in for a nice visit on this Holy Saturday.... sitting on either side of mom's bed we were able to share morning prayer and sing "Were you there when they laid him in the tomb."  Powerful and beautiful to share prayer together on this prayerful day waiting for Jesus to rise from the dead and conquer death once and for all!

John sharing with his grandma Anna that he was saved from death to LOVE and bring positive forces at work into this world - "If you are angry and unloving that causes others to feel that way and so it spreads out.  I want to love and spread that far and wide... that is why I am still here!"  Of course, grandma agrees whole heartedly!
 

A hard day - able to kiss The Cross- Good Friday 2016

Transferring the Eucharist at Holy Thursday mass last evening - The Knights show their love and respect for our Lord!

Such a hard day with two families moving into each other's homes. Exhaustion has overtaken me, and we are moved in enough to have a bed to sleep in and our clothes in the closet.  Now for the day to day unpacking of the two rooms Ruth has filled with my stuff.  STUFF is drowning me, and I am determined to sort it out and have much less when I am done. 

The carpeting in the bedroom yesterday, and our bed had one night there and now is moved in here. 

 A pair of Rose's socks and a child's glove were all that I left behind.  Now for a young family to now live on the farm and be true farm kids!  It will take a while to get all settled and make it their home and their life as a farm family.

Good Friday sunrise filled me with some sadness and dread at the day that lay ahead.  I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, and we got through with minimal arguments thankfully and only a couple calves came in the midst of our big move.

Our antique poster double bed looks small where Ruth and Paul's king was before, but it feels like home to us.  Yes, this room is so big that we have a couch on the end of our bed.  Now to bed..  I am so thankful that, although late, we were able to make it to Good Friday service and kiss the Cross that is the source of my salvation and through which I have found LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  Jesus, I love you and long to be with you forever in heaven.  This stuff that is drowning me is nothing compared to YOU in my life.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Triduum begins and holds The Big Change!

Tomorrow this will be home!  Today I am here early, and driving up to it with the white cover of winter... it struck me that this is really happening and Good Friday will be like none other!

A welcoming sight on this early spring morn...  Paul has been good about putting signs on the barn.  I will probably have to be really nice to him, so that he will continue to announce happy times here. 

The day is almost half over due to this and that.  It is nearly impossible for me to find a small island of peace in the midst of LIFE, but I try to share bits and pieces here on my blog.  As the girls tell me - "Your blog is your therapy mom."  Well, I like to think that I am sharing a bit of the Truth, too.  That is what really burns in me each day as I read the readings over and over morning and night... Jesus wants me to share His LIGHT with all those that care to listen.  Yes, I am flawed and weak and poor at it all, but I do feel that thanks to the Crosses in my life and my coming into the True Church with my family of 13 over 45 years ago... I do have a burning message to share far and wide!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

Their beautiful wonderful wrap around porch where many family meals have happened over the years... now they wish to add one to the farm house this summer!  I have Mary here with me, too!

Such powerful readings today - The Passover from Exodus 12... the spotless Lamb's blood saved them!  I Corinthians 11....as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.  That death that brought LIFE into the world and gave us food for the journey down the narrow path carrying/dragging our most Cherished Cross... the Eucharist!  And finally John 13:1-15 in which Jesus institutes the Eucharist , and shows us how we are to love and serve by washing the feet of the disciples gathered there.  "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."  We are called to love and serve without counting the cost and certainly with heartfelt humility knowing that God washes our feet with his endless love and mercy no matter how sinful we are!

A view of the porch on my home starting tomorrow!  The dog will come with the family as will her ball.

Jesus, you give us boundless amounts of help each day for this journey we are making.  We are filled with gratitude and long to die more and more to our selfishness so that we may give and give and give some more, and get down on our knees and lovingly wash the feet of all those we encounter... most especially those the closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we gather to worship and travel with you down the way of the Cross in this Triduum starting today.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

Longing for peaceful times and so in love with Mary, who is always walking with me each moment of each day.  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Bright and filled with LIGHT... soon it will be an ocean of green with spring soon to be here!

Love!

Simon embraces the cross

Just back from the Passion Drama/Stations of the Cross put on my Simon's 5th grade class for the entire school and all those able to attend.  It was so powerfully done, and the meditations read while we went through them really made you take it to heart this Wednesday of Holy Week.  I just read that it is called Spy Wednesday for how Judas secretly went and was paid to turn Jesus over to be tortured and killed on the Cross.  Simon was able to experience one of his namesakes- Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross - the 5th station!  So true of all of our lives - we are called to embrace the crosses that come to us in life, and through them we find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT eternal!

Bowing to the Cross and all that Christ suffered for us to receive LIFE eternal.  After the stations we all reverently crossed ourselves in the name of The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit and then said 'The Our Father" together, and then crossed ourselves again.  The sign of the Cross held such meaning and power after watching the stations put on by Simon and his class!  We are to recall this each time we cross ourselves, and sadly it becomes a routine motion with little thought of the meaning of our signing ourselves with the Cross of our Lord, which we are asked to share with him.  As Simon the Cyrene answered the call to carry the cross with the suffering Jesus, we are also asked to carry our cross!

Jesus falls the second time - the 7th station.  Yes, the Cross can cause us to fall and makes us weak and humble - this is how we die to self so that we are more and more Christ's! 

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus carries his cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets his mother
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
15. Although not traditionally part of the Stations, the Resurrection of Jesus is sometimes included as a fifteenth station.^[11][12

A wonderful experience to have just as the Triddium is to begin tomorrow night!

The Easter tree starting to bud out lilacs while the snow flies outside.

Today in the first reading we are given what we need on our weary journey - The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.  Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.  I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.  Isaiah 50  Life can knock us around a bit, and we need to be brave and strong armed with the armor of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will dwell in us.

A spring storm makes life challenging with our calves to care for.

Jesus, we long to love and serve you and we know that it calls for us to be humbled and made small by all that comes to us each day - reminding us that we are nothing without you and that Jesus is in control in the midst of the storms of life.  "Wounded, I will not cease to love."  is the motto we should embrace each day in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

I love this!  This requires the Holy Spirit alive and well within us!

wow! 

My friend, Scott Hahn, loves the Church as I do, and that makes us brother and sister in Christ!  The best!

Danielle Rose - True love - The Cross

Francesca Batistelli - Lead me to the Cross

"Oh, my God, through the

precious Blood of Jesus and His five wounds,  

grant me today five graces:  

the conversion of a sinner,

the conversion of an unbeliever,

the salvation of someone 

dying in peril of everlasting death; 

a vocation to the priesthood 

or to the religious life; 

and, for some new soul, the grace

of entering into and savoring the mystery of the Eucharist."

Prayer of Elisabeth Leseur (+1914)