Real options/St Paul showing us the meaning of coversion

Visiting Maria as she discerned her call to the Poor Clares in 2004.  She was behind the enclosure for 5 months and discerned out.  We encouraged all our children to consider the amazing option of religious life or priesthood... how did we?


This question arose last night in the form of Nancy's question... "With all the professions out there how do you help your children also consider the priesthood and religious life as real options?"  The thought of trying to answer it on FB with a paragraph just was impossible, so I am bringing it here!

With our nun, Little Sister Hallel, in KC on Christmas!


Yes, two of our daughters entered the convent or monastery to discern their call, and our son spent a year on seminary discerning the priesthood, and our other two girls also knew that it was a option that they needed to consider along with other vocations!


Why?  It stemmed from my entry into the Catholic Church... influenced by the Charismatic nuns we met when moving to Minneapolis, and through them my seeing the beauty of their lives and The Church, and so in love with Jesus that I too considered being called to be his bride, a nun!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
I am just overflowing with it all and there is too much to go into here.. so I would ask that you take some time to read my conversion story here!  Yes, just as St Paul saw the LIGHT... we also... all 13 of us came into The Church 46 years ago!  I am no St Paul, but I am filled with so much ZEAL for The Church!!!  I love, love, love it with all my heart, mind and soul!

the 4 girls when Susan was born... Nancy made all of them crowns!  LOVE!!

There are now many religious in our lives... that are obvious because they wear habits and live in community.  But when the girls were growing up here on the farm that was not the case.  So when they were old enough to go to Schoenstatt camp in Sleepy Eye... I would send them to be exposed to nuns living joyfully the life of a Bride set apart for Christ.  They loved their weeks there and it was on the way home with Susan at about 10 that she told me she was feeling that she would be a nun!

Now my grandchildren have a nun for an Aunt, and we are so happy that she is here in the U.S. for the year!  We had her home on the farm in May for a home visit on the farm!  Now we can visit her and join in their life of prayer in KC from time to time!  I have heard from the older two granddaughters and their mothers that in a few years they plan to go and spend some time with them.  Granddaughter, Mary, went to Schoenstatt camp this last summer and loved it as much as her mom and her Aunts did!  Such a powerful witness to them of this awesome option!

Ruth and her wonderful family spent some time with Hallel in KC for New Years!  Witnessing the JOY of the Community as they represent Christ knocking on the door of the poor!  Our lives are forever changed and enriched by the beauty of their lives!

How I love to witness the light that is pouring forth from our children to all those around them!  Their faith is deep and personal and powerful and REAL and they, like St Paul, are sharing the LIGHT with conviction to all those they encounter.. most especially with those in their domestic Church/family as that is where the seed is planted, nurtured and grows to yield 100 fold!

Our youngest newest granddaughter, Joy, does not know how rare and lucky she is to spend some time with her Aunt Hallel!  We know that Hallel loves her little ones and what a gift it is for her to have this time sharing more in our lives!

When the Lord touches our lives and we respond to the conversion of our soul with zeal and gusto... these words for Jesus to Ananias today ring true...

"Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine
to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel,
and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name."

Yes, to follow Christ is not easy... the Cross/suffering is through which we find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

John in seminary about 5 years ago... how I hoped and prayed he would find this to be his call!  But not to be...  "Why was my life spared?   Maybe he is telling me to be a priest and share what I have been given through the priesthood?"  In his heart, after a year of amazing prayer and community life with wonderful young men, he heard the answer was "no." 

This was his call to find Bobbi and to marry on June 2nd! 

Pat and I have been sharing how happy he is, joy filled, and how healthy he has been trough the winter!  The trust they have both had that the plan would be revealed to them, and after many years of asking they have their answer.  The path was hard and lonely a lot, but when you find that special person just for you it is all the more wonderful!

Many twists and turns in life to find Faith and Bobbi!

John's story - he burns to share it with the world!

Jesus, the option of being yours totally as a religious or a priest is certainly a wonderful one.  May our hearts be open to your call and plan for us on our journey in life.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/now-stories-of-johns-4-sistersruth.html

Easter with Maria in the Monastery of the Poor Clares... the enclosure was powerful in showing us how important it is to keep the world and all it's distractions away from us!  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

Maria's true call to be a wife and mother to Joseph!  But the time spent with the Poor Clares helped form her faith and enrich is powerfully... she came home and made me a stations of the Cross in our grove!  Touched by Jesus as St Paul..."I will show him/her what he/she will have to suffer for my name." Acts 9 from mass today!  St Paul, pray for the conversion of our world of the culture of death and darkness into His Marvelous LIGHT!

Open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS including the option of a call to be a priest of a religious!  Yes!!!

Danielle Rose - Pursue Me

We fail to love as we should every day. But God, His love is constant and unfailing and eternal. Look to him for strength to love properly.





"For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live.'"
-Saint Paul to The Romans 1:16-17







Kind of true...

Danielle Rose - See you in the Eucharist

The seed... planted with purpose in our fertile soil!

9 year old Dave home with grandma while he fights a virus.  He has a history of getting very sick with lung related illnesses over the years including a yearly stay in the hospital for the early years.  We take his colds seriously!

Altered plans to go along with my husband to a farm show today and quietly tending to Dave... I feel that I have been gifted with some special time.  The Gospel from Mark 4 - the sower and the seed always reminds me that we are at the time that John had his stem cells/seeds returned to his body "after he had the bomb dropped on his system" wiping all clean and fertile for the seeds/cells to take root and grow healthily and give him a fresh start!  It was January 27th and will mark his 8th birthday this year!  The seed planted in fertile soil was the reading that day, too!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html

Dave with Aunt Hallel and his big sister, Mary, whom he looks up to a lot!  How lucky are they to have a nun for an aunt and to have this wonderful religious community in their lives!  They certainly know that this is a wonderful option to consider as they ask the Lord to show the path her has for each one of them!

In our home we shared our Catholic Faith with excitement and JOY!  We see that carried forth in the domestic Church/family of our children! 

Our grandchildren are protected from evil influences that could come from all those outside forces around them.  There is no TV in their homes and only Netflix, which is supervised by their parents.  In this way they are attempting to keep them away from things that may damage their purity.  The seed needs to have fertile rich soil free of weeds and thorns and rocks in order for the seed to bear fruit!

They attend Catholic school and are taken to mass weekly and days of obligation as well as the weekly mass at school.  They pray at meals and before they go to bed each night with as a family.  They say the rosary at school with their classmates and teachers, and learn about their faith in school.  But we know that it must begin in the HOME!

Praying as a family with Nancy and Bill around the advent wreath a month ago.


Yes, the battle to keep their children pure will become more of a challenge as they grow older, and we hope and pray and are vigilant to be aware of what they are being exposed to.  Along with that we have filled them with the love of Our Lord and His Bride, The Church and have made their faith their own! 

Maria's 5 at Christmas...  They are homeschooled with a Catholic program.  They are certainly rich soil and wonderful seeds planted! 


In the parable Jesus speaks of seed that accidentally "fell" on rocky ground, on the hardly packed path, among thorns...  or were they planted there?  I know from being married to farmer for 40 years that generally you don't purposely plant those precious seeds in these places and that it would be literally "dropped" there accidentally.  Sometimes, however, there will be weeds that don't die and do affect the crop.  And that the rocks need to be picked after the seeds are in the ground, and that is a hard and hated job, but for the sake of the crop and the machinery we use to plant, spray, weed and harvest it... it must be done!

My dad with the 3 oldest girls in our family of 13!  I am forever grateful for the fertile soil I was blessed with thanks to my parents and the seed planted... How I pray that it is yielding at least twenty fold!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html


Yes, I faced plenty of hard times and my purity was challenged by this world, but even after my first crazy year of college and my hippy years of hitchhiking out to Colorado... the Lord, grabbed me out of my darkness and called me in a very personal way.... I considered religious life and was led into my "nun years" and most importantly said "Yes!" to becoming Catholic with my parents and 10 siblings because "I want to be a nun, so yes I want to become Catholic."   I have seen how my life could have gone down the wide path of sin and death, but I felt the personal touch of his love on me so many times over my life!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html


Lord, may I take your seed and bare much fruit!  Jesus, I trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

St Francis de Sales, pray for us!  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

LOVE!!!

“Let each father make his home a church. Are you not responsible for the salvation of your children? Are you not likely to give an account for their upbringing? Just as clergy will give an account for their flocks, so fathers of families will have to answer before God for all the people in their homes.” — St. John Chrysostom

Taken deeper by my children - John's cancer and conversion and Hallel's answering the call - "you have your nun because of your call."

John's promo video - so powerful!!!

Holy Now - Peter Mayer

Recognizing God/King of Glory...doing our Lord's will/we his family!

My husband and Our Lady at work... she is very much with us all through our days! 


John and I counted the images of Jesus and Mary we had in our living space a few years back... a couple dozen of each!  I am sitting here late in the day trying to share a bit and I look up at a picture and two statues gazing back at me! 

Statue of Mary given my parents when they left Manistique, MI about 7 years ago.  My brother made this special spot for her. 


She is truly with me through each day.  I had the delight of just spending an hour and a half with Jesus in Adoration chapel, and much of the time is praying the 10 decades of my rosary - so to Jesus through Mary!

Hallel and Luke surrounded by icons in the chapel of Lumen Christi/Light of Christ!

Just as I am obsessed with photos, and have them all around my home to cherish my loved ones.... I also love my images and pictures of Mary, Jesus and many of the Saints all over my home.  As John likes to say; "It is pretty obvious when someone walks into our home that we are Catholic." 

On Christmas day with Nancy and Hallel/Susan gathered around the icon of the nativity in front of the altar!  Sitting in the straw of the stable.


My day has flown by... just as I was sitting down to share I got a call from Ruth that her 5 year old, Rose, needed to come home due to a gunky eye.  So I went to pick her up, then a visit with Ruth, then back to town for the best time of my week in Adoration, a call from my farmer husband that was home in the middle of the day just as I was saying my last prayers!!! 

Love to see these sisters together!  It is hard for Ruth to get there with her family of 8, but she managed over New Years.  Hallel isn't able to visit her family.  We are limited on visiting her during Advent of Lent, and are blessed with those windows we can share in their lives!


I loved to see the picture of King David dancing "before the Lord with abandon."  He definitely recognized his presence in the ark of the Lord!  I, too, feel that way when I am before him in the monstrance!  Psalm 24 today in the mass..." Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord!"
"Who is this king of glory?
The LORD of hosts; he is the king of glory."

Rose - #4 in her family with her Aunt Little Sister Hallel , who was my #4.  She looks a lot like her Aunt did!


Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel that we, who have been adopted into his family are doing His Will!  "Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."  Mark 3

These two are close!!!  Simon has been surrounded by many prayers from his Aunt Hallel.  She is a beautiful example to him of a wonderful LOVE for Jesus and he for her!  And with that love comes the longing to do His Will!  Obeying him in all things.


Jesus, we know you and love you with our all!!!  May we die to self and enter more fully into your Family/domestic Church.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke

Praying hard for my Big Dave... he is struggling with temp and sore throat and "a bad hacky cough."
Jesus, watch over our little ones during this illness season.







Love!!!
Love is sacrificial and it saves lives. This is #WhyWeMarch

Photo Credit: Emily Green

#SaintoftheDay St. Marianne Cope (1838–1918), also known as St. Marianne of Molokai, was a German-born American immigrant. She worked in a New York factory before entering the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse. She spent her early years serving as a leader in health care and education. When the Hawaiian government was searching for a religious order to run a station for vict...ims of leprosy, the Syracuse sisters volunteered immediately. Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii in 1883. She devoted 35 years to caring for those afflicted with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) in Molokai, Hawaii. She also opened a hospital and a school for girls on the island of Maui, and took charge of the home St. Damien of Molokai established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, dignity, and fun into the colony. Despite her direct contact with leprosy patients over many years, she was not afflicted by the disease, which some consider miraculous. She was canonized in 2012 and her feast day is January 23.

“America you are beautiful…and blessed…. The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life.”

– Pope St. John Paul II

Danielle Rose - Holy Family

Danielle Rose - A mother's song - the Crucifixion

The Right to LIFE... not to take a life!

January 4th, 1980... My first beautiful baby, Ruth Ida!


 How I had yearned with each month to be pregnant after we married on August 3, 1978.  It took 7 long months for it to happen, and in that time I had learned to do NFP charting to use reversely... I wanted to be pregnant and not prevent!


 We never used it to prevent, and the charts became a habit for me... I have my entire fertile years charted minus the first few months, and each one is filled with hope for another pregnancy/child.  Much journaling sharing the joys and the horrific pains of loss!  So many prayers in between the lines and the temps and the mucus! 
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html


If you take the time to read the sharing on our fertility years... you will discover that I have always had a very deep sense of the beauty of LIFE and had trouble in even preventing with natural means.  I had such a profound sense of God's work in my life and felt so deeply that I would never get in the way of a LIFE... whether it be with me here on earth or waiting for me in heaven!

Beautiful Ruth Ida with her two youngest daughters, Rose Ida and Joy Jean, last spring.  Joy was Ruth's 6th child! 


Ruth, as is true of all our children, has followed our example of being open to life and raising lights!  She has also been led deeper by her own history of rupturing her uterus on her attempting to Vback on her second child, Mary.  She was told no more children, and after getting a second opinion from the surgeon, who saved her uterus.. she was told to wait a good year to allow things to heal.  She then went to learn Creighton Model NFP, and then went on to become a Creighton Model Instructor!  Helping women to use natural means to wait or work on infertility...
https://www.creightonmodel.com/
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/now-stories-of-johns-4-sistersruth.html

Our 5 in May... Susan/Hallel had her first home visit in 4 years!!  The 3 married daughters with the new baby girls each had in the last year!  Jesus in the Tabernacle in the heart of our family!  John now to be married on June 2nd!  Hallel will not be able to come for the wedding, but she got to spend some good time with John and Bobbi this last weekend! 


I love to imagine the 7 siblings all around them, which they truly are in Spirit!  Who could ever call those innocent souls evil?  Just as Jesus was outraged today in the Gospel when they called him possessed of an evil spirit, so it is unfathomable that the innocent that are lost naturally or killed through abortion could be anything but sweet innocent LIFE!   I know that they are forever with Jesus, Mary and the Saints!  They keep our eyes on heaven!

The 5 with our 15 grandchildren!  On Thanksgiving Nancy lost her 20 week old son, Maximilian.  We now have 4 grandchildren in heaven joining our 7 children!


Today is the 45 anniversary of the legalization of abortion... millions of shining lights/lives have been lost, and millions of women hurt and broken and misled to think that they have a right to take that innocent life within them to make life easier/to erase a mistake.  How did it ever come to this point?  I am saddened and sick by the whole mess!


John and I prayed at breakfast as did Pat and I at morning prayer... to end this horrible massacre of life in the name of having a right to choose! We asked our little ones in heaven at the foot of Jesus by name... Christopher, Thomas, Joseph, Paul, William, Robert, Mary, Hector, Ida, Peter and Maximilian to intercede and end the taking of innocent life!   God is the only one that can take a life, where did it ever come to being our right?  From conception we have a God given right to LIFE!

Grandma Barb and Aunt Hallel with the 15!  Life is an amazing and beautiful gift!!!


Dearest Lord!!!  I know that my hero for LIFE, marriage and family, Saint John Paul II, is working hard from heaven to save LIFE and end the horror of killing the innocents in the womb!  I also know that St Teresa of Calcutta is showering down much graces and Truth to end the lies of Satan that are misleading so many down the wide path to death!  The Saints are rallying and fighting hard to end this culture of death that has filled our country.  May your LIGHT shine into the darkness and may LIFE be valued from conception to natural death.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

There they stand... Saints in heaven and at work to save all LIFE!

MOTHER TERESA’S 15 TIPS TO HELP YOU BECOME MORE HUMBLE

1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.

2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others....

3. Avoid curiosity (she is referring to wanting to know things that should not concern you.)

4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.

5. Accept small irritations with good humor.

6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.

7. Accept censures even if unmerited.

8. Give in to the will of others.

9. Accept insults and injuries.

10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.

11. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.

12. Do not seek to be admired and loved.

13. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.

14. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.

15. Choose always the more difficult task.

These are also shared in the Litany of Humility!

I am yours, Lord, may we save a life one at a time!  Working for Birthright... we work one on one with the girls!

http://birthright.org/en/

                  

Danielle Rose - Wonderfully made - Psalm 139

#Today we pray for all victims of #abortion, especially the 60+ million babies in the U.S. aborted since 1973 and the tens of millions worldwide who die each day. We also pray for healing for women who have had abortions and those contemplating it. #prolife #whywemarch #defundPP

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