3rd day of Christmas - St John on the road

Home in our own beds sounds pretty good, but we did share on the way home about how fun and good it was to be with Nancy and her young family for Christmas in Kansas City.  It is very special to spend Christmas with young children and share with them prayer and fun and laughter and not too much of the fussing or arguing.  It was really very peaceful and we enjoyed our time away from home a lot! 

Watercoloring with Berna and Dominic is a special time that we enjoy together...

Grandma Barbara...

Gingerbread tree and house were group projects with mom and dad...

A new tradition is grandpa with candy!

Josie gets her first piece of licorice to suck on... I think she is learning that candy is yummy!

Cold enough to see your breath in KC, and we had to scrape the windows on the car covered with frost.   The roads were wonderful and we only saw a light covering of snow about an hour from home. 

John got a lot of snuggle time with his Goddaughter, Josie!  She is the sweetest little girl... we never heard her cry!   Today we celebrate the wonderful feast of St John the Evangelist!  He shares with us the simple luminous lessons of God's love! The Word became Man and dwelt among us!  Yes!!!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb and family!

The second day of Christmas - St Stephen leads us from the manger to the Cross...

The small children kneeling before the nativity icon under the altar in the beautiful Light of Christ/Lumen Christi Monastery in Kansas City!  Singing Christmas carols to Baby Jesus in the cave/stable and laying in a manger.  We are reminded today with the first martyr, St Stephen, that we don't just gaze upon the humble infant in the manger, but realize that it leads us to the Cross/the Tree of LIFE!

Grandma's rosary on grandpa's lap in the sunlight streaming in for our Christmas mass with The Community yesterday.  Another day in Kansas City and we are so amazed that we have yet to hear this little girl cry!  Such a sweet happy little girl, who we love to get to know better with our frequent visits here!

The children coming forward after mass to adore the Christ child!  I found myself feeling close to our Little Sister Hallel/Susan as we were with her Community here in the heart of our country.  Little Brother Clement gave me the gift of a hug.  He took his habit just moments  before Hallel, as the first American to join the Community and then Hallel just a short time after him.  "If I give you a hug will it help you not miss Hallel so much?" It truly was a wonderful tight embrace to help us find comfort!

A plate for a little guy only on Christmas!

It looks like a mass shared with Family! 

A camel came to visit at our community meal!

Camel making the rounds...

Away in the manger... a special family portrait.  It is very special to have Nancy and Bill just half an hour away from The Community and able to share with them.  Gus, Bernadette, Dominic, and Josephine will have such wonderful memories of their visits there and sharing mass and prayer and gazing upon the icons, which tell us about the life of Jesus.  Such a beautiful holy place!

Morgan is a young girl, who is joining The Community from Minnesota! 

Bernadette taking it all in, and feeling at home in this beautiful prayerful place!  Forming her inner temple filled with such deep humble spirituality. It brings us close to our daughter, who is not able to be with us in person, yet we always know of her prayers and her love for her family a half a world away from her.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

So wonderful to share family time with our Family of the Lamb.  "Wounded, I will not cease to love." is the motto of love they live by, and so appropriate of St Stephen, who forgave those that were stoning him to death!

The second day of Christmas!

His glory is what shines forth in our beloved Lumen Christi - Light of Christ!

Christ the Lord!

May my heart always be open!

Jesus!  May I love you with my entire heart and never waver from following after you no matter the cost of if it requires my life as a martyr of you!  May I love you with my entire LIFE, O Jesus!

"The true LIGHT, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world." John 1

I am listening to the thunder storm and pouring rain outside here in Kansas City.  We are happy that it held off as we were outside in the balmy weather while we celebrated a wonderful mass with The Community of the Lamb and a Community meal, and yes it was so warm that we could go out of the Little Monastery and enjoy the warmth in sweaters and no jackets!

It has been most wonderful to be spending this time with family.  It makes more sense for us to travel this distance than Bill and Nancy and their four... especially since they were just together with us a week ago. 

Visiting the manger at the Little Monastery/Lumen Christi/LIGHT of Christ or the lighthouse on the hill!  Pat was asking those that live in the neighborhood since the Little Sisters have come if they agree that there has been a difference - "Yes!  It used to be a dangerous place to live, but now we feel safe."  This was from a mother, who just lost her 7 year old daughter to brain cancer.  She with her husband and 4 remaining children celebrated Christmas with us today!

Matching jammies from their Pennsylvania grandma!

 A special picture that is all smiles thanks to the annual pajamas that are opened and enjoyed on Christmas eve!  It was great to watch the traditions shared thanks to facetime - making the distance melt away.

The consecration as we see the LIGHT which comes into the world each time we gather to share The Eucharist together.  Our lives are filled with LIGHT!  I was sharing with Little Sister Benedict as she shared that for those in our lives that don't know the light... that they will see Jesus and run into his arms at death... "They will recognize the LOVE!"  All I know is that I feel bad that they don't have the happiness of knowing that love in our lives   This is my prayers for this new year.  May he enlighten everyone through our sharing the LOVE!  Bless-bless, Barb

O, Holy Family heal families... O, baby Jesus reveal the Truth that ALL LIFE is Sacred!

Our family picture taken less than a week ago at CCC!  I am in the process of making out 150 cards and getting them in the mail.   Since I used a picture Ruth took with her camera and had the cards made in an hour... I did not get to add Hallel, although she is always in our hearts!  I will add her eventually for my own joy and to see with my eyes what it true for all of us.  It was just amazing to all be together at my beloved Cross family Christmas!

Another option with many of the little ones not as good, but Bill is better here.  Sorry, Bill!


I love all things Catholic and the "O Antiphons" have been popping up all over the place in my Catholic world, so I wanted to make up a few on this last day before they end with Christmas Eve.  They are used from Dec 17-23...  O, Holy Family may you be in the hearts of families and bring them healing and a small slice of heaven.  May their lights shine out into the darkness, as an example of how our families can be a domestic Church in which we share our Faith with JOY and die to self so that Jesus may live.  We long to be your hands and feet!

An example of a holy family thanks to keeping Jesus and His Bride, The Church ever first and foremost in their lives.  Open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

I really wanted to use little Em in a live nativity with my grandkids... but looking at this I think this is exactly that!  Cherishing all life!

Another example of a family, who looks to Jesus and His Bride, The Church in their lives.   They will be welcoming their 6th child in March!  They are now the full fledged farm family as they live on the farm and have the life that their parents grew up with!  Lots of excitement around there on Christmas morning!

Our Nancy's wonderful growing family!  Nancy evangelizes so powerfully in her sharing on her blog and involvement with Catholic women looking to the Truth given us to live by in The Church.  Most of all they are an example of being open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS for the world!  Faith and Family are both so sacred and what truly makes the world go round!

O, sweet baby Jesus, we pray that you reveal The Truth to the culture of death that ALL LIFE is Sacred and to protected and cherished from conception to natural death!  Your growth in Mary's immaculate womb and coming into this world in a humble stable and laid in a manger of hay... How you show the world that we must trust in You no matter what we face in the storms of LIFE, but foremost that LIFE is a gift to be always protected and cherished and nurtured and honored and valued and revered and see God in! 

How we must trust and die to self with each new child we are called to raise as a light!  Yet, our love only grows more and more with each new life and is not stretched more thin!

Basking in His LIGHT!  The world is filled with so much darkness and confusion and lies from Satan... it is so important to instill the Truth and LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/Jesus and His Bride, The Church into our children!  Sharing our Faith with JOY is huge in keeping them on the narrow path!

The Gospel today is the miraculous birth of John the Baptist!  Imagine those that looked up to this priest and his wife, who is also from a line of priests!  I am sure they never hid that this child in their old age was the result of the touch of God upon them.  Knowing this they named him "John" in the face of ridicule and then raised him as a LIGHT that left the tainted temple behind and preached the healing of sins in the wilderness!

Look to Jesus, O man, O family, O woman, O Catholic Church, O girl, O boy, O teenager, O young person, O couple, O religious Community, O Community of the Lamb, O priest, O nun, O convent, O monastery, O newborn, O unborn, O conceived in the womb, O old person in the nursing home, O person dying on hospice, O world of sin and death and darkness and see The LIGHT!

Jesus is the reason for the season!  Bless-bless, Barb and family including 7 children and 3 grandchildren in heaven rejoicing and surrounded by LIGHT/LIFE/LOVE!

The best GIFT ever!

Tomorrow we head to Kansas City to see Nancy and possibly Our Community of the Lamb!  Luke will be here holding down the farm and visiting his other grandparents just 10 miles from their farm to ours!  Patrick is in Wisconsin with Joe's entire family together and having a "fabulous time!"  John will be coming with us to see his Goddaughter, Josie, and her family!

Close to 90 of us - with about 30 missing due to the cold... 3/4ths is pretty good in my book!

Family is the best!  Thanks mom and dad for being open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS.  As the oldest of 11 - I can say that!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

And then there is this story that has filled my LIFE with The Truth!

One last one around the manger!

The O Antiphons, also known as The great Os are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They are also used as the alleluia verses on the same days in the Catholic Mass.

They are referred to as the "O Antiphons" because the title of each one begins with the interjection "O". Each antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes ment...ioned in Scripture. They are:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

May the Child Jesus be your guiding star in the desert of this present life. (Padre Pio Archives)

Love!!!

My favorite thing is to stop into Church and gaze at Jesus in the tabernacle!

O Antiphons - Gregorian chant