St Paul Feast!!!/LOVE our Catholic Schools and homeschool!/"it's not bragging to say that we were always open to life." - +JMJ+

 

Me with my 4 girls in matchy jumpers and white blouses.  It might look like Catholic School uniforms, but not the case here in Marshall.  At this point I had 3 in the Catholic School, but there were no uniforms for our children there.  We tried and hoped that it could happen but never did.  

To this day there are still no uniforms, but we still love and are strong supporters of a Catholic education for our grandkids!  Ruth and Paul will have a total of 7 kids attending Holy Redeemer for 27 years!  Tom just turned 2, so he won't graduate 8th grade until 2036!  John will also have his 3 going there, and Lucy is a year younger than Tom and so she will graduate in 2037!  There could be others we are not now aware of... When you are open to life - we trust in the Lord's plan.

A gift that arrived in the mail today from our St Maximilian Kolbe kids - Nancy's children attending Catholic School in Delano!  So soft and cozy - my new kitty, Neumann, approves!  

I recently hesitated sharing my story of loss and family with a group I am in.  Hubby encouraged me to go ahead and share our story- "You are not bragging when you share that we were always open to life in our marriage."  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Our marriage stories - "The world needs LIGHTS!"  

The Church in her wisdom points out to us that each marital sharing of love should be open to life!  To interfere with God's plan by using artificial birth control is using sex in a selfish manner and taking our family planning into our own hands.  Yes, we can use natural methods of postponing a baby, but when we are not preventing in other artificial ways - God is still in the picture.  

As a result of this in our marriage - I have tremendous peace knowing that the 12 children I was to have are all here - 5 with me on earth and 7 in heaven praying for our family and for me!  

School pictures that came in the mail from Nancy too!  The do have Catholic School Uniforms!  

Augustine is the oldest and is now in 6th grade.  He is a wonderful oldest brother and very protective and concerned about his family.  He is super loving towards his youngest sister, Regina Maria - Queen Mary!  

2nd oldest is Bernadette, who is in 5th grade.  She is a big help to mom and also is kind and loving to her baby sister!  Pat says that she is so beloved by all her older siblings - "Gina knows she is very loved!"  Yes, she has her mom and grandpa Pat's beautiful dimples!  

Dominic Patrick is 9 and in 3rd grade.  He loves to read and loves his Gina, too!  

Josephine Francis is in 2nd grade and will be receiving her First Communion this year!  She is so wonderful with  her younger cousins!  

4 year old George Blaze is 4 and one of the group of 3 boys in 6 weeks.  He is attending Preschool at St Max.

And here she is - Regina Maria, who just turned 2 a month ago - so beloved by her 5 older siblings!  Yes, so true of our children in their marriages as Pat also pointed out to me - "Our children are carrying forth being open to life in their marriages and raising LIGHTS for the world!"  Yes!  

John's family Christmas Card taken by our little red barn.  John now has 2 attending Preschool at Holy Redeemer here in Marshall.  Jude is 4 and like George is in Preschool at HRS/Holy Redeemer School.  And 3 year old Birdie Barbara is attending Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on Wednesdays.

John also has an after school job at Holy Redeemer - STARS.  He is a stay at home dad while Bobbi works from home.  John is on disability since his battle against brain cancer 15 years ago left him with left sided ataxia and memory loss.  "I am blessed with the ability to send my kids to Catholic school with the disability I receive.  The Lord is generous to us!"  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: John's cancer stories  

John's Spirit Juice Video now his story continues with wife and 3 children!  

John burns to share his story of finding Faith through his battle with brain cancer 15 years ago! Much like St Paul today as we celebrate his conversion - John half-hearted prayer for Faith led to his seeing the beauty and Truth of Jesus, Mary and The Church.

'The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will,
to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;
for you will be his witness before all
to what you have seen and heard.  Acts 22 

So true of John as for St Paul - "Why did I survive and others didn't?  I am called to share my story of finding Faith in Jesus, Mary and The True Church!"  He is often up serving as reader of the Word, Eucharistic Minister, on the committee for Eucharistic Revival and any other way he can serve the Lord and fellow man.  Not only sharing his burning faith with words but also in actions!  He is a changed man and the new John!  

John would admit that Our Lady of Lourdes was huge in his falling in love with her and through her to her Son and His Bride, The Church!  

We went to France 3 times!  The first time was just days after his 2nd round of chemo!  He actually got better and within 24 hours we were on our way to France for his sister, Susan's taking her habit and changing her name to Little sister Hallel!  "When you say my name - you are giving God all the praise!" she reported.  The first part of "Hallelujah!"  

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: Susan Angela Agnes/Little Sister Hallel - the story of a Call . 

My 21 charts from 28 years of charting for Natural Family planning.  I started to understand my cycle as I did not get pregnant right away as I had hoped.  The month I took my first course - I got pregnant and discovered my pregnancy while learning how to do pregnancy tests while joining Birthright!  I was 5 months pregnant on my first Anniversary!  

A rocky start at age 27- 30 with Ruth, a miscarriage, and Nancy.

Pat and I never abstained to postpone a pregnancy, so there were hard times with losses - 2 of them were boys lost at 5 months after John.  There is a tremendous amount of peace knowing that we had all our children and will meet them someday in heaven forever.  It keeps us on the narrow path stumbling as we drag our Most Cherished Cross!  

I had 2 losses between Susan and John plus lost my sister Mary to cancer at age 28!  

After losing 2 as a family after Susan - she was so protective of her baby brother!  She is responsible for saving his life as Pat backed out a tractor and Susan asked - "Where's John?"  We saw him walking into the shed and ran to save him!  

Forgot that I lost a tube when I was almost 48.  I charted until I was 55 and my periods stopped!  I spent many hours, prayers and tears over these charts!  

My daughters have all learned Natural Family planning - now called the Creighton Model Method.  Ruth learned it after rupturing her uterus having her 2nd child, Mary.  She also became an instructor!  She went on to have 5 more children after being told no more children.  The doctor giving her a second opinion - said that if she waited a year and then was watched closely she could have more children!  

A tracing I did 50 years ago when I was an RN at HCMC working with many alcoholics.  It speaks to much to me of the sad men cast away due to their addictions.  

I also found our wedding booklet from our wedding 45 years ago at The Basilica of St Mary in Downtown Minneapolis which was my home parish.  So beautiful!  My Father and mother had brought us into The Church 52 years ago - all 13 of us!  I fell head over heels in love with The Catholic Church - All of it!!!  I also fell hard for my farmer, Patrick Verly!

Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: The amazing story of the 13 becoming Catholic!  

I knew we got married on a Thursday night but at 8:30p surprised me!  

 

Young and in love - I admit that I am 3 years older than Pat, but it never bothered him so I quickly got over it!  We dated for just 10 months after meeting at his sister, Marge's wedding!  

My parents walking me down the aisle - my dad had become a Permanent Deacon in The Church just a few years before and he married us as well as many of my siblings!  

Deacon Robert Cross, my dad, baptizing our oldest Ruth Ida in 1980

He also baptized our 5 children and did a graveside service for our 2 stillborn boys - William and Robert.  They are buried at the cemetery.  Just a short distance away is buried a 5 month loss of Nancy and Bill, Maximilian Bandzuch.  I prayed so hard that my girls would not have to experience the losses as I had, but... 

Lord and Lady, how I love you and thank you for all that we are blessed with in your glorious Church!  May I die to self so that I may love and serve without counting the cost.  Jesus, I trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many Little sisters and Little brothers 

 ..for our gospel came to you not only in word,

but also in power and in the Holy Spirit

and with full conviction. - I Thes 1:5a

 

 "The single greatest need in the world today

is the practice of prayer

before the Blessed Sacrament. 

How can we say this? Logically!

We have seen that the conversion of our country

calls for an outpouring of marvelous power from God. 
Christ promised to move mountains

at the words of a person who believes.

We conclude: there is no greater profession of faith

than during prayer before the Holy Eucharist.

 

Why should prayer before

Christ in the Eucharist be so potent

in  obtaining miracles of conversion? Because

it is prayer that is animated by extraordinary faith. ...

There is no miracle too great, and no miracle

is greater than the conversion of sinners—

provided we believe.

 

That is why we can say

and say with complete security;

the single most powerful means on earth for the

conversion of America is for Catholic Americans

to mobilize a crusade of prayer before the

Eucharist for the conversion of our nation."

 

 From The Conversion of America

Through the Eucharist - 

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. (1998)

(Undoubtedly applicable to every nation! - Ed.)

 

FEAST* of the CONVERSION of ST PAUL

January 25

 

*This feast is at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an international Christian ecumenical observance that began in 1908, which is an octave (eight day observance) spanning from January 18 (Confession of Peter) to January 25.

 

"Being converted is simply meeting yourself for the purpose of going to the very end of your being. Conversion means a willingness to see the truth of things and conform one's conduct to it" (A. Serillanges). In the Voice and the Light that Saul encounters on the road, he sees the truth of things and willingly conforms himself to Jesus Christ.  "That dear preacher Paul ... was a wolf, but he became a lamb, a gracious vessel of love - and the fire with which Christ filled his vessel he carried through the whole world" (St Catherine of Siena).  "It is clear that Paul wholly fled from himself and cast out all his own will, and that his will was active only in relation to Christ.  Since with Christ there was nothing undesirable or repugnant to his will, it follows that his was a wondrous pleasure which was always present and with which he always lived" (Nicholas Cabasilas). Excerpt from Magnificat, Vol 20, No 11, January 2019

 

"May the Lord help us to put into practice

the exhortation left to us by the Apostle in his letters:

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." -

 

Pope Benedict XVI

(As noted in Magnificat, Vol 22, No 11, January 2021)

The Hillbilly Thomists - Dominican Monks! 

Salve Regina - Hail Holy Queen as sung by Hallel's Dominican order! 

"I am so happy! My sweet family, reading the Word at Mass, looking people in the eye... giving them the Body of Christ!" John - +JMJ+

 

A special picture taken early in John's battle with brain cancer.  John was 19 and just through with his second year of college at the U of M in Ag Communications.  He had been on an internship with Centrol checking crops in South Dakota when he discovered that he was having double vision.... Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma!  

Hence this picture of a huge thunderhead surrounding his head!  This was now 15 years ago, and we are blessed with the New John since he fought the battle of his life and won!  I joined John in Adoration in the middle of the night when our hours overlap..."Mom, I have been so happy today!"  

Seminarians ready to join the March for LIFE today in St Paul, MN. on the 52nd Anniversary of the legalization of Abortion in our country!  

In John's asking the Lord why he had been spared, while many others died from brain cancer... he spent a year in the Seminary discerning if he was called to be a priest.  The answer was "no", but he loved the communal prayer that he shared with the other men, and John and I truly began sharing the Divine office when he returned home.  Family Soul Story - Choose Life!: John's cancer stories  

John went to Chicago to make a video about his story of finding Faith through brain cancer... the story now continues with wife, Bobbi, and 3 precious children in their 5 years of marriage.  "I am so happy when I look at my precious family!  When I was told that I would likely never have children, it just reminds me of the miracle we have been given!"  John last night as we shared prayer at midnight when our 2 hours of Adoration overlap... such a blessing!  

2 years ago in St Paul at the March for LIFE!  This year did not work out for us, but still many prayers as thousands gather in St Paul!  

John last night was so filled with JOY!  "I am so happy today!  First I was able to read the Word, and many people reached out to me and told me what a good job I did! I forgot that I was reading and I put inflections in the story of Jonah!  I need to do that more!"

"Then I looked at my sweet beautiful family!  Such a miracle and a blessing they are to Bobbi and I!  It just made me so happy to see what a sweet and kind young man Jude is becoming!"  

"Finally I was able to distribute The Eucharist - I looked each person in the eye with a smile and held up the host with 'The Body of Christ'  and it just made me so happy to be able to do that!  Mass was such a happy time and blessing for me!"  

John just made me giggle with great happiness and JOY to share his many blessing in word and in prayer that we shared together. 

It has been a month since I have been able to have my hour with Jesus due to the holidays and being away!  How I loved to put each one from our 2 families in the Monstrance with Jesus!  I was able to put a new baby boy now born and thriving in the Monstrance with Jesus and also a new life in the womb!  

I get so happy and filled with wonder and awe to be able to do that and now to continue!  How our families have grown - I am praying for over 250+.  Since our family of 34 are in both families - I pray for us twice!  That makes me smile too!  

John sent me this of his youngest, Lucy Marie, the kitty cat this morning.  She turned 1 on Jan 11th and is close to walking.  Grandpa Pat got to hold her most of mass as John was up lectoring.  She is such a good and sweet little girl!  Her older brother, Jude, and sister, Birdie Barbara love her so much!

Lucy standing in the middle of the room - it won't be long!  

On this anniversary of the March for LIFE - St Mother Teresa of Calcutta is my hero, and there is no doubt that she is fighting for those in danger of Abortion from heaven!

And right next to her is my other hero for LIFE and Family - St JPII!  

How I love this!  

The Collect from mass today!

God our Creator, we give thanks to you, who alone have the power to impart the breath of life as you form each of us in our mother’s womb; grant, we pray, that we, whom you have made stewards of creation, may remain faithful to this sacred trust and constant in safeguarding the dignity of every human life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Collect from mass today...
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn

Birdie and Lucy at breakfast in the church basement after the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - John was filled with JOY!  How we love Jesus, Mary and The Church!  

Mary was 4th place in Humorous over the weekend!  Congratulations!  John was overjoyed for Mary as he works with her and goes along on the bus to the meets to judge and support her hard work!  "Next year I will start working with Rose and hopefully Luke a few years after that!  Going with them up to 12th grade - then I start working with Joy and Jude!"  

John loves his speech and it is such a great gift to the kids!  

Therese and David 9 years ago - they are now 15 and 14!  They live just 7 hours away in Kansas for the year!  LOVE!  They now have 5 younger siblings!  

My dad underlining in his prayer of The Church - I am so blessed to be able to still sit at his feet!  This is what John was talking about at mass, too!  

Wow!  I LOVE the True Church!  So powerful and gloriuos!  

St Agnes yesterday - Hallel's patron Saint.  Her prayers for those put in a house of prostitution by porn and all that evils lurking - Hear our prayers St Agnes!  

She is battling for LIFE!  

St JPII in the Magnificat today!

The Gospel of LIFE!  Day of Prayer* for the Legal Protection

of Unborn Children

Day of Penance for Violations

to the Dignity of the Human Person
_____________________

 

*In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22
(or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be
observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the
dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion,
and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the
right to life. --- General Instruction of the Roman Missal (U.S.), 2003, n. 373
_________________________________________________________________

Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss.

Truth shall spring out of the earth,

and justice shall look down from heaven. - Ps 85:10,11

 “Devotion to the Eucharist leads one to a devotion to life

and a devotion to life leads one to the Eucharist….

We receive our strength for our labors for life from the 
Good News of Jesus Christ and from the Holy Eucharist.

This is the food that nourishes us for the tasks at hand….

The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith

and respect for life is our faith's first precept.”

 

Justin Cardinal Rigali

Painting above: Ultima Cena - The Last Supper - Federico Barocci 

 

"If people spent one hour per week in Eucharistic Adoration,

abortion would be ended."- St Teresa of Calcutta

______________________

"In the Bread which came down from heaven, the family will 
be able to find the support that will keep it united in the face 
of today's threats and will preserve it as a bastion of life, 
steadfast against the culture of death." - St John Paul II 
____________________________________

"Our own belief is that the renovation of the world will be

brought about only by the Holy Eucharist." - Pope Leo XIII

 

 

 

        Lord Jesus, I firmly believe that the Blessed Sacrament is Your very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. Senses cannot grasp this marvel. Faith, however, reaches beyond what the eyes can see and assures us that You are present.

        Grant, O Lord, that our faith in the Eucharist may also strengthen our ability to recognize the dignity of every human life. We know that the senses can fool us there as well. Some may not be attractive, others may seem too small, some may appear as less than human.  But we, who can see You in the Sacred Host, can certainly see you in our brothers and sisters. We can also see You, O Lord, in the children in the womb. In a day when so many have forgotten these children, and dismiss them as less valuable than those who are born, grant that we may grow all the more convinced of their dignity and worth. Then grant, O Lord, that we may act accordingly. Amen. (Priests for Life)

 

  

From The March today!

Our Lady is protecting LIFE also!  Our Lady of Guadalupe is pregnant with Jesus in her womb!  Protectress of the Unborn!  

Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barbara and the 33 plus many little sisters and little brothers!  

Danielle Rose

Dominican Salve Regina - as our nun sings at Night prayer each night before they go to their cells.