The Holy Land

The last week of March, in the middle of lent, myself, Margaret and 150 strangers (pilgrims) saw the Holy Land...in persona! What a magnificent trip...what an enlightening experience...what a beautiful place, where Jesus walked.

We visited the Church of the Transfiguration...on top of a mountain...in thunder, hail and lightening. We were very nearly TRANSFIGURED!

The Annunciation...saw the church which has been built over the spot; the miracle at Cana..the first miracle...had mass there and renewed the wedding vows of all the married couples on the pilgrimage; Mount of Beatitudes...BEAUTIFUL...not surprising, eh? Floating on the Sea of Galilee..fishing on the sea of Galilee...doesn't get too much more beautiful...until Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross); beautiful, emotional, and intensely REAL!

I will have to continue later with all the many many blessings of this pilgrimage.

Stay tuned-I am blogging once again.

God Bless you All

Okay...not quite a year and I'm already back to the blog!

What a year it's been!

Nonna arrived...more later

Danny & Doris arrived...more later

Morgan went from 8 to 9 to 15 all in a matter of months!...more later

April is expecting the 1st grandbaby in May!!...more later.

All in all it's been another wonderful year, with pitfalls here and there, but none the less, a wonderful year for the Biagioni family...more later. TEE HEE

Thank the dear Lord for all our blessings.

I am feeling a tad under the weather so I thought I'd get started before I lie down for another nap. If I start, I actually may continue later!

Never too late!

Okay, so it is now April 2009 and I have not updated since Feb., 2008. Life just gets in the way, ya know?

2008 was magnificent and 2009 is going well so far, albeit the recession can put a damper on things.

Morgan rec'd her 1st Holy Communion at St. Andrew Catholic Church in May. What a beautiful day...we had a lovely...lively party here at our house afterward.

Our annulment was finally approved, recognized...whatever. ALLELUJAH!!!!!!!! On Sat., August 23rd I rec'd baptism, 1st Holy Communion, confirmation and Bob and I remarried in the church. The graces were dripping that Sat. afternoon. It was absolutely gorgeous!!

This year I will turn 50 and Bob 60. Boy...my Mom must be old.....teehee.

This has been a beautiful year of prayer and spiritual learning. When it is not so late here on the east coast I will share some of that with you.

For know:

Be still and know that He is God

Be still and know that He is Holy

Be still, O restless soul of mine

Bow before the Prince of Peace

Let the noise and clamor cease

Be still

Amen

How to blog????!!!!

Today is the 3rd Sunday of Lent...part of my lenten promise is to figure out how to manage this blog! I read my dear friend Rachel's blog and realize how lacking I am. We are humbled in many ways, many times, ALL the time.

My family and I returned home from Durango, CO. recently where we visited my dear friend (and personal Catholic Evangelizer) Jennifer, and her family. It was a beautiful, fun and reverent visit. To our dismay Jenn's husband, Steve, chose to for-go alcohol for lent...what was our gift to him upon arrival, but a bottle of extremely expensive (& very alcoholic) tequila. Bad choice #1! Jenn had supplied the guest house with a bottle of beautiful red wine...which I had decided to give up while visiting as she is 8+ mos. pregnant and would not be enjoying a glass with me. Bad choice #2-sort of! My lovely 7 yr. old daughter gave up sweets of any kind...yet we were to celebrate 2 birthdays at the Kallahers, cupcakes and dessert included. Bad choice #3! All in all, each of us broke our lenten promises, except for Jenn, at least once during the 3 1/2 days in Durango. Oh Heavenly Father, please forgive us our total weakness and lack of respect for the Passion of Christ and Christ's 40 days of fasting and temptations...for I could not make it even 20 days, if that!!

The Gospel today was refreshing after such a discouraging week of trying to follow in Christ's path. John 4:5-42; the story of Christ at Jacob's well with the Samaritan woman. What I love about this particular Gospel is that by asking the Samaritan woman to give him water I am reminded that we are all asked to respond to God. God is always asking us for something; our love for him. We are constantly asking God for His forgiveness and graces, yet I tend to forget that He is asking something of me too. He has given me the free will to answer, and whether I have had 5 husbands and living with yet another man, He still asks for my love...he does not demand this of me. How wonderful is our God that he has given us free will, for with free will we are able to love...without it we would simply be His robots. So today I asked for his forgiveness.

Like the Samaritan woman, I have, and still do, live a life of sin. No, I have not had 5 husbands, nor am I living with a man who is not my husband, but, truth be told, my life has probably been much more sin-filled than that of this unenlightened Samaritan woman. But, His light shone through her and the people of her town, who had previuosly shunned her, listened to her tale of the Son of God at the well and many were drawn to conversion...from the tale of a sinner. Hope?...yes there is hope for all of us sinners, even me, if we take to heart the Word of God. The fact that Jesus would ask a favor of a broken woman should give all of us sinners hope for eternal life. REPENT REPENT REPENT Lent is the perfect time to not only to repent, but to begin a life-long practice of adoration and repent.

In my mafnificat the evening hymn especially spoke to me:

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

"Come unto me and rest;

Lay down, thy weary one lay down

Thy head upon my breast."

I came to Jesus as I was,

So weary worn and sad;

I found in him a resting place,

and He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

"Behold I freely give

The living water; thirsty one,

Stoop down and drink and live."

I came to Jesus and I drank

Of that life-giving stream;

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,

And now I live in Him.

AMEN

February

Morgan, Bob and I are currently vacationing in Colorado. All was fine until our dear friend Robert informed us that we must bring him something edible and indicative of Colorado. That is posing much angst amongst the Biagioni clan! He did waffle a bit on the edible artifact wish and asked for something even rarer and more difficult to find...the rarest of all things in the rugged countryside of Colorado (or anywhere for that matter)...a photo of Steve Kallaher laughing and/or smiling!!! Can you imagine the gall of this request?!
Even so , this is truly God's country here and we are enjoying it thoroughly.
Thank you Heavenly Father for this beautiful earth and all it's majesty!

It's a New Year

Okay...so I am not very efficient when it comes to keeping up my blog. Our halo's ARE busted though, so don't expect too much.
I get it...the pictures suck and I have not even put the entire family up for "blog review". The signature does not connect anyone to my blog either...but as my dear friend Robert (aka Luscious) points out, that is entirely my computer geek husband's fault - I'm sticking with that story for now, until a later date!
The holidays here at the Biagioni's were certainly wonderful as we were blessed with family, lots of friends and a beautiful turn-out for the Epiphany celebration on the 5th of Jan. Alas, Christmas is over, the tree is at the curb, the decorations are packed away, and life moves forward.
We have had two days of snow...just a bit of snow...but enough to have made a snowman, snowcat and 3 snow "critters"?? I'll need to consult with Morgan on just what these creatures are supposed to be.
Here's the "not-so-good news" of 2008-
Sister Suki (Morgan's kitten of 1 1/2 years) has been missing since Jan. 4.
Buttercup (Morgan's guinea pig-via Santa) has a broken leg. A very expensive broken leg.
Now for the "much better news" of 2008-
Mister Lovey has joined our household from St. Andrew Cath. Church. Mister Lovey is a feral kitten who loves our home, our food and our daughter (hence the name!).
Buttercup will live, hopefully to the ripe old age of 5 or six (barring any cat incidents!).
Morgan is preparing for her first reconciliation-very exciting and very emotional.
I have discerned to be a sacrisant in our next renewal weekend at St. Andrew.
Bob has finished the entire process for the annulment of his previous marriage...an answer should be forthcoming in the next 3 to 6 months...FINALLY!

Ther is so much more to say, but I am so very tired. I'll fill in the blanks soon...or maybe not!
God Bless You All!!!!!

Our Family Blog

I've got a blog now. Watch out world!