The Pat and Barb Verly family and their 5 children, in laws and grandkids along with many prayer warriors have been drawn together by John's cancer... sharing daily for 8 months started this blog- Family Soul Story - Our faith, family, farm and now our cancer journey called HEALING have colored and deepened our world. WE continue to share and depend on the support of our prayer warrior community, that has lowered us into the Lord's presence for His healing!
5 weeks ago with our 3 youngest grandchildren togethr for the first time for our family Chtistmas gathering! Adding them to our grandchildren in the last year has brought our total up to 22 grandchildren! Tom Tom was not happy here. Maggie looks concerned.
#2 not much has changed - newborn Regina was just 3 weeks old, Tommy was 2 months, and Magdalene was 7 months. Pat and I are now married 43 years and half way through our 44th. The Gospel today reminds us that we are joined together for better and for worse til death does us part!
Tom Tom is looking for his pretty pretty mommy and instead finds his grandpa Farmer Pat.
4 pictures to capture openness to LIFE and raising LIGHTS! The motto our family lives by since our Engagement weekend 44 years ago in St Paul. We shared with the other couples that we wanted to have 12 kids! Not one couple agreed with us that a large family would be a wonderful way to live our married life. At most 2 children, some even questioned that..."The world is too much of a mess to bring children into."
I even began to question if we were being selfish to have a large family. When I asked Pat what he thought - His immediate answer to me - "The world needs lights." Yes! So true and my doubts evaporated into thin air. Of course, now with the ability to look back on how it all played out - I have 5 here with me and 7 in heaven. The Lord's ways are mysterious.
The 4 girls came first - snowsuit picture before we moved to our new farm in 1987.
Susan/Hallel's letter to Nancy on the occasion of her engagement to Bill in 2010 - our spouse is our Most Cherished Cross - Tree of LIFE!
Nancy, Look I am writing you a letter... aren't you impressed? Well, you better be because both you and I know how often this happens. I am writing to tell you now extremely excited I am about your engagement to Bill. I have to admit, when I got the news I wasn't really shocked but that night as it sunk in during adoration and the next day during mass I was so happy. My heart overflowed with joy for you. How beautiful to know that you have found your... most cherished cross. While I have never had the experience of being married, from what I hear is that he will truly be your cross. But not your cross as human eyes look at it, as a thing to run away from, as a thing of torture but rather as that which is truly the tree of life. It is only when clinging to the cross that one can truly live, it is the source of all life and of all love. Your marriage to Bill will be this, not something to run away from when it gets hard and when it hurts, but something to hold tight to, especially when it hurts because it is in this that you will find life and love. Know that it is through your marriage that Jesus wants to show you his great love for you and also that the best example that you can give to the world of Christ's love is a marriage lived in truth. So, in other words, know that I am so happy for you and that I love you a whole lot. Know that you are in my prayers during this crazy time of wedding planning; that you may not go crazy but rather learn to love each other better and that you may both have great joy and great peace. Remember to pray for me too! God Bless, Your little Sister Hallel
John was the last one to wear the little green jacket of the 5. No, we were not done having children because we had that boy! We had 2 boys I carried for 5 months that were stillbirths, and are buried at the cemetery, and a miscarriage after that. Our losses made us all appreciate each other so very much, as we suffered the losses together. We also LOVE all LIFE as a result of our shared experiences of loving LIFE in the womb, and then sadly losing it.
I saw this especially in Susan, who was before John with 2 miscarriages between them. She was so in LOVE with her baby brother and always watching out for him. We have a beautiful story in our family of her saving his life... as we were out in the yard - she looked around asking ;"Where's John?" Looking around we spotted him toddling into the barn while Pat was starting to back out the tractor! He was scooped up and saved!
9 years ago we had our first calf - Snow Crystal born to Mary's pet cow, Snowball.
Overnight we had calf #5 which hubby carried out of the barn for a trip a mile away to a horse barn with some warmer stalls where mom and baby can bond in comfort.
Now calf #6 getting a lift...
Pat and Ruth taking them to their new location. Ruth said that they went right into their new stalls. After a snow overnight the landscape was white and beautiful in the bright February Sunshine.
Grandma and Thomas by the big picture windows...
Smiling for grandma on the new alfghan that mom is working on in her spare time. Ruth always to have busy hands creating beauty.
I say you are going to have blue eyes like your dad, Mary and David.
Always need 3 of everything... especially when you are smiling for grandma.
Peaceful cow TV, rosary nap time with my arm full of 3 month old baby boy.
Grandpa came in to make him smile big with his big fingers on his chubby cheeks, "and get some hay on him." According to mom and true.
Marriage is what I am called to - now 43 going on 44 years in August. There is plenty of JOY to help me embrace my Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! I find the marital embrace to be a huge positive and I see the Lord's hand in helping us to get past the hard times and the wounds and the hurts. Through our daughter's joining The Community of the Lamb - we have words to describe how we are to live out our marriage - "Wounded, I will never cease to love."
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Luke 10
The Gospel today describes how we are united in marriage, so I guess I am not out of line to speak about the way it unites us despite our faults and disappointments one with the other. I know that it is how I know that I am loved and desired by my husband and that is a huge need that I have knowing too well the weak and sinful person that I am in many ways.
Getting to know and love his grandpa Pat! Give him a year and he will be running up to him for his hug and kiss each morning like his older siblings did before him. Big sister, Joy, still does give her grandpa a huge hug each morning when he steps in the house in the morning. Well, maybe every other morning as she now goes to preschool Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
It is always special to have Fr Denny come into The Church while I am praying for him with 7 Sisters on Friday. Today he had a funeral so there was activity going on. It is such an honor to pray for our dear friend's ministry and for TEC seems to be part of it too! How we long for this wonderful retreat to return for our diocese. Such a wonderful evangelization tool for sharing the Faith we love so much!
My day has escaped me, but marriage is something that I cannot just let pass me by without allowing my voice to unite with Jesus in the Gospel today - For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Add to that that marriage can only be between a man and a woman! No doubt! Jesus, we are so blessed by your clear words of Truth. May we die to self so that we may LOVE as you love without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you. Bless-bless, Barbara married to my Most Cherished Cross, Patrick, for LIFE and now 33 here on earth and 13 in heaven = 46!
Hallel helping her brother, John, walk through Saint Pierre August 2009 as he was in the midst of his battle with brain cancer and she had just taken her habit and changed her name. He was unable to walk alone after a brain biopsy that left him with ataxia on his left side.
A picture of the Truth of how they are devoted to each other and share huge LIFE experiences together. 9 years later John was married to Bobbi on June 2nd - The Feast of Corpus Christi, and 2 months later Hallel took her final vows - "I promise unto death." in Saint Pierre married to her spouse, Jesus Christ! There were 25 of us there for her including 3 in the womb!
An old picture of Pat and I working a retreat together. How we long to return to those days of sharing our Faith and love for Jesus and His Bride, The Church, through Together Encounter Christ - TEC retreats.
Our 3 oldest girls made their retreat around 2000 and each asked us to go - after the 3rd one we could no longer say that we were good with our Faith. Prayer became powerful and REAL! We have worked numerous retreats in the last 22 years, so it has been a long dry spell now with covid. Lord, may we share our Faith once again in this wonderful way!
3 month old Thomas with cow TV and his pretty pretty mommy. They had 2 calves overnight..."It was the first night we had cow TV in our room, so we will see if Tommy continues to sleep all night." Ruth might be up nursing him once again during the night thanks to cow TV - the light and the sound disturbing their sleep.
Tommy's first calving season has begun, and it is so very cold! Please Lord, give us nicer weather for our newborn baby calves.
Two new moms - one had hers in the evening and the other at 2:30a - Paul sacrifices sleep this time of year and we are so grateful that the older man can get his night's rest. He has put in his years of getting up night after night, right honey?
4 different camera angles so that we can have eyes on Pat's 160+ cows - all due to calf in the next months. So far we have 5 calves and we aren't supposed to start for a week. Pat calls these the "early birds."
Tommy looks lovingly at his big strong baby loving grandpa Pat. Pat is talking about moving the pairs of cows and calves over to a horse barn a mile away where they can be together and warm in this cold weather.
They like the idea as does little Tom Tom.
We are spoiled by our Cow TV - watching them from the warm house covertly. If you walk out there they all get nervous and stand up. This way they are acting natural and we can help them calf if they need help.
Overnight guest, granddaughter Joy, in the jacuzzi with Ignatius watching her. She came to see "the kitty". He was one of their wild barn cats, but he is now very tame and spoiled. Grandpa told her that she should add "fat cat" to his Iggy.
She keeps her swimsuit hanging on the doorknob so that each time she visits she can "swim in the big tub."
We have certain things we do when she visits... swim, water color - this time she drew her own picture of Joy with her baby brother. Pink became very much loved and used, she runs around the circle and this time with a belt that Iggy chased and she laughed with glee, go to the freezer in the garage and get her "ice cream treat".
The last time she was here - she opened a drawer and found a tea set that I had totally forgotten about. So a new tradition has begun - the tea party! Grandpa shared that this was his first ever tea party! Grandma on the other hand has had many with her mom and aunts and also with her sisters and cousins!
Even Iggy came and wanted to join as he smelled yummy milk in the creamer.
Joy will be 5 in a little over a month! She will be going to Kindergarten next year, and is now a big sister for the first time with baby Thomas. It was very special and right that she would give grandpa his first taste of going to a tea party! We even toasted with clinking our tea cups together!
Joy and grandpa have a very special relationship - he steps in the house each morning when he goes over to the farm to get a hug from his sweet JoyJoy! She comes running with the hugest smile and arms wide for a big hug as grandpa lifts her up in his huge arms and hands! "She is such a sweet happy girl!" says grandpa and it is so true! Her name is the Truth about Joy Jean Jellybean!
I would say that grandpa and grandma have many tea parties in our future, and that is a special time we will spend with our Joy!
Give Tommy another year and he will more than likely have tea with his sister and grandparents! Our Lady approves too!
Jude and Birdie on Super Bowl Sunday playing in grandma's warm bubbly tub for the first time after running around the circle with the kitties. Tea parties with Joy after water coloring will certainly be a new event for them at grandma's too!
Cousin friends - Joy and Josephine are both going to be 5 in a month! Joy talked about her cousins while she was here and how they share and play - tea party will now be part of that fun!
Two weeks ago Thomas was baptized after his oldest brother, Simon, was confirmed into The Church! That allowed him to be Godfather to his baby brother, along with his oldest sister, Mary, who will be confirmed next year! Double blessing that continues to make me smile with great delight at the Lord's blessings and graces that are poured down upon us!
Almost 5 years ago as Joy was just a few weeks old - Fr Paul baptized Joy in the midst of the First Communion mass of 50+ kids including her brother, David! His point - "I baptized your child 8 years ago, where have they been? Bring your children to church as a family to receive Jesus in His Body and Blood. He loves you and longs to witness your love for him by coming to mass each Sunday."
Ruth and Paul with 2 double blessings as their children share The Sacraments in The Church! Our greatest JOY in our domestic Church/family is sharing our Faith/Family/Farm! Nothing can compare to Jesus and His Bride, The True Church!
Our family Christmas - even Hallel is there! All 33! A friend wrote "you fill up the church!" Yes! United in our love for Jesus, Mary, and The Church!
The fun one with love on both ends, goats and nerf guns and a whole lot of crazy!
Mom left me behind a daily meditation with Pope Benedict XVI - so good today and always so rich in wisdom and Truth. Thanks, Mom
Now dad's man, Brother Victor, shares the beauty of their prayer throughout the day. Dad and I shared this for the 6 months he lived here with me on hospice. We did The Prayer of The Church - morning and evening prayer and at 3p we would go out on the porch for an entire growing season on the farm and pray the rosary and chaplet of divine Mercy! Such a blessing to me to share in my dad's religious life! A Permanent Deacon for 44 years!
Happy are those who live in your house/ever singing your praise. Yes, Lord! How I love you and long to dwell close to your altar gazing upon your beauty and LOVE for me! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
"For myself, I believe that were it not for holy Mass,
the worldwould at this moment be in the abyss,
unable to bear up under the load of its iniquities."
- St Leonard of Port Maurice
Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass
“O Jesus, present in the Sacrament of the altar,
teach all the nations to serve you with willing hearts,
knowing that to serve God is to reign.
May your sacrament, O Jesus,
be light to the mind,
strength to the will,
joy to the heart.
May it be the support of the weak,
the comfort of the suffering,
the wayfaring bread of salvation for the dying
and for all
the pledge of future glory. Amen.”
Pope St John XXIII
I borrowed this from another article from The Leaven.... the first day that The Little Sisters came to the US! Looking out at a nest of baby robins in the old rectory they lived in for their first years.
This was 2008, and at the same time they were making this old Belgian Rectory into their Monastery complete with chapel, which Hallel helped to construct... she told us that she would be joining The Community of the Lamb in front of Our Lady of Guadalupe there. A couple months later she flew to France...
From the article...It was in June of 2008, and this Little Sister is standing in the dilapidated former rectory of St. Benedict Church, her new home, gazing at a nest of baby robins in the eave above the balcony.
There is nothing remarkable about this photograph; but for me, it is an extraordinary image because it captures the first step on a journey of faith that has produced fruits beyond measure.
The robins are long gone now; the building is gone, too. But in its place is a sacred monastery and beautiful chapel built solely on trust in divine providence.
July 2008 in Kansas City! Little Sister Marie and Fr Jean Claude were there to witness our JOY at Susan's answering the call with "Yes!" to Jesus calling her to enter The Community of the Lamb!
The Community of the Lamb is a mendicant order. They came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a mission to share the Gospel as they went begging in the streets.
I have taken hundreds of pictures of the community since that day. I’ve followed them through their journey of faith that has transformed this broken neighborhood into a place of welcome and love.
I’ve chronicled the building of two monasteries and a beautiful muraled grotto known as a place of miracles.
The article continues... I too have taken hundreds of pictures as our journey has started with their arrival up to this day!
This was left behind in her room along with all her earthly possessions as she left for France in 9-11-2008! It caused me to weep for JOY to see the True LOVE that Susan had for her spouse! What an amazing wonderful calling is this deep personal call to be his spouse/beloved!!
I wanted all my children to consider a call to religious life as it is so very special to be his beloved in such a special sweet way! I had considered that the Lord could be calling me and it led me to coming with great anticipation into The Church 50 years ago with my entire family! Unknowing that my husband, most Cherished Cross, was praying for his Catholic wife...me! As a result of hearing my call - I now have my nun. I made sure that my daughters and son could witness nuns in habits and their Joy!
Susan listened to this over and over before she left - leaving her car and keys behind and this in the CD player - how I wept at the LOVE for Jesus her spouse and his Most Cherished Cross!
A letter from Hallel to her sister, Nancy, at the occasion of her engagement to Bill in 2010
Nancy, Look I am writing you a letter... aren't you impressed? Well, you better be because both you and I know how often this happens. I am writing to tell you now extremely excited I am about your engagement to Bill. I have to admit, when I got the news I wasn't really shocked but that night as it sunk in during adoration and the next day during mass I was so happy. My heart overflowed with joy for you. How beautiful to know that you have found your... most cherished cross. While I have never had the experience of being married, from what I hear is that he will truly be your cross. But not your cross as human eyes look at it, as a thing to run away from, as a thing of torture but rather as that which is truly the tree of life. It is only when clinging to the cross that one can truly live, it is the source of all life and of all love. Your marriage to Bill will be this, not something to run away from when it gets hard and when it hurts, but something to hold tight to, especially when it hurts because it is in this that you will find life and love. Know that it is through your marriage that Jesus wants to show you his great love for you and also that the best example that you can give to the world of Christ's love is a marriage lived in truth. So, in other words, know that I am so happy for you and that I love you a whole lot. Know that you are in my prayers during this crazy time of wedding planning; that you may not go crazy but rather learn to love each other better and that you may both have great joy and great peace. Remember to pray for me too! God Bless, Your little Sister Hallel
So wise and taking me deeper and deeper are my children! Bless-bless, Barbara
The wool cape is worn during the winter months. The hood allows the Little Sisters to go inward where they can encounter the Lord in His Word! Blanketed in His Word and allows them to feel His warmth and love all around them. Also they admit that it allows them to rest in the Lord or sleep a bit during long vigils.
My own version feels like I am for a short time allowed to join in the LIFE that I discerned and which was instrumental in allowing me to jubilantly enter The Church with my family - all 13! I feel very spoiled by the Lord as we are allowed to live right there with them, and be so close to Jesus as He is on the altar morning and evening in Adoration!
We also have him in the tabernacle in the chapel just down the hall from where we sleep! Pat and I shared night prayer together each night. Ending our day with Jesus, and then beginning it with Him in Adoration!
I find that returning from my time of close encounter with Jesus - each day with "chewing" on the Word beginning the night before, mass each day and receiving Jesus' Body, and adoration after morning prayer and evening prayer... I am longing to put aside distractions and rid myself of things that I allow to come between us. Knowing that Ash Wednesday is still a week from today makes me a bit restless - in many ways I have begun Lent since returning from Kansas City.
The Lamb has been gifted to us in the form of a plaque, which was blessed in front of the Grotto of the Nativity. We received teachings from Little Brother Isaac...
Some notes I took while he taught us on Sunday. It was his desire to help the parents understand within the spiritual journey of our children - 1.Lamb and 2.Word of God;
Joy! Experience the Joy of discovering the beauty of the mystery of the Lamb - Mendication and keeping of the Word. Living the same encounter with God/Lamb. If there is No LOVE - there is No LIFE.
In the Homeless we find the wound of love in their stories. LOVE that grants us LIFE. Why the Lamb? This is I am - the Lamb looks at us. The Lamb lets us touch God's heart - wounded. The call to be the keeping of the Word - the strength and power of God's Word- He speaks to us! The power of LIFE in the Word!
Any verse of the scriptures as well as the Gospel. The practice of repeating the verse over and over to ask God to speak. Illumination of the heart- like the rising of the sun. LIGHT of visualization - here He is! I am in his presence.
Mary at the foot of the Cross understood many things through the Word she kept in her heart. Keep the Word under the gaze of the Lamb.
3 years ago Hallel was living in KC! Yes, we were spoiled to have real hugs. She is now in France, and through a recent family crisis we received many phone calls from her that were very clear and filled with love and wisdom. "It is as though she is above looking down on us, and giving heavenly advise." said one of her sisters. Her deep love and study of Jesus in The Word ministers to us and makes us marvel at the Truth we are blessed with!
The LIGHT of the Lamb - Lumen Christi/LIGHT of Christ Monastery in the heart of the poor in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Lamb shows us - "Wounded, I will never cease to LOVE." Very hard to live out in our lives yet we are asked to die to self so that Jesus may dwell in us and we may be his hands and feet!
The words of St James today in the first reading from James 4 remind us that we need to give the control in our lives over to Jesus, and trust!
"...you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” James 4:13
How often we see that suddenly the rug is pulled out from under us! When we are the Lord's we take it one day at as time as it comes to us. We truly do not know what tomorrow holds!
Hallel some time ago in a Detention Center for Youth listening to an inmate shaing deeply - this article is so powerful that I will once again share it here. What I love about my work as a hospice nurse is that it took all the superficial out of the way, and I see that being a nun also gets you quickly to what really matters at the heart of a person, that is suffering and longing for a glimmer of Faith!
A memory from 6 years ago when Ruth and family made the farmhouse she grew up in into their own! The over 100 year old stairway was one thing she did not change! Otherwise it has been totally opened up and changed - she has welcomed 2 more children born on the farm! Just 3 months ago they had #7 child, Thomas Robert! A true sign of new LIFE for their wonderful farm family!
Luke is now 8, so this was that many years ago - this was grandma's bed on the south side of the house! Ruth now has her command center/kitchen sink here so that she can keep an eye on the farm yard! She now is watching cow TV in the house as we have our first 2 calves born - calving has begun for our 160+ cows. Many prayers for a good year! This cold is brutal - -10 below this morning after a blizzard yesterday. Lord, give us good calving weather!
Now 9 years ago memory of Rose Again in my sink. No longer the bathroom this is now part of Ruth's huge canning kitchen. We can for 6 families including our Little Sisters and Brothers, so Ruth knew that this would be important for us on the farm according to Ruth Ida. LOVE how her heart is centered on the farm, and how willing she is to do the work! I learn at her feet - I never quite get passed that I am a city girl come to the farm - even though it has been over 43 years now.
Another little one that is now 9 years old! Miracle boy Patrick, who was born dead and brought back to life! Patrick along with John taught all the power of prayer!
A year ago with Jude and Birdie Barbara... how we love to have John and his family close by here in Marshall!
The Lamb being blessed at the Grotto of the Nativity behind the Little Brother's Monastery - the LIGHT of Mary the Mother of God! We each went forward as couples to kiss and touch with our hands and our faces - once again so close to this sacred place - may nothing come between us, Lord and Lady!
I am so ready for Lent to begin that I am already stepping away from distractions... maybe permanently. I am longing to be changed! Or maybe I am changed and long for it to be Truth in my life!
I attempted to encourage my kids to play the piano... they took lessons for a few years and then just as their mother before them - we all quit! This is my piano - left behind at the farm when we switched places 6 years ago, but now it has found a home in John and Bobbi's! How I would love for their children to play!
Joy a year ago at grandma's - tonight she is coming for an overnight - "she wants to come and see the kitties". I am sure that we will water color, swim in the jacuzzi, and watch movies in grandma's bed. Joy lives up to her name!
I am baffled by the callous taking of innocent human LIFE! How did it ever come to this? How can animals be protected and not human babies? Lord, help us to end the horror of abortion! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
9 years ago! They are now farm kids - Mary has her own goats and is a farmer at age 15! David is 13 and helps along with 17 year old Simon. Rose has bottle calves and has a very sharp memory for which cow has which calf over the years! We are very blessed by our young farm family that now lives and works on the farm! They have added 3 more siblings since this was taken and so many years of growing up on the farm ahead!
A famliy classic - Easter Hat and John falling down picture taken at Easter 1992 where my parents were living in Taylors Falls, MN! We had just gotten through Lent and Holy Week! Now it lies ahead and begins a week from today! Such a powerful and needed time of concentrating on our Faith journey and getting the distractions out of the way. Bless-bless, Barbara with the 46 - 33 here and 13 in heaven!
Jude and Birdie now have begun swimming in the tub at grandma's - I am sure that they will come and want to continue with this tradition! Joy's swim suit stays here hanging on the door knob of the tub room! Warm and cozy on these frigid days! Oh, and they love to run aorund the circle, too!
My dad's prayer book makes me smile as he continues to teach me and share with me his JOY and excitement in what the Lord through His Church will show him! How he loved to memorize special prayers! Not only does he continue to teach after his death, but I was so blessd to share in his religious life for the 6 months he lived with me here on the farm on hospice modeling a "natural death." A death that was peaceful as he was SOOOOO Ready to meet his Lord and join mom. Married 70 years and only apart for 7 months!
Dad and I would do the Morning and Evening prayer that as a Permanent Deacon in The Church for 44 years he was asked to do. We also shared The Rosary and Chaplet at 3p on the porch watching an entire growing season in front of us! Now his prayer books left behind contintue to bless me richly!
Next I have mom's gift to me from heaven - A daily meditations with Pope Benedict XVI! She read it 10 years over and over - I am beginning my second! Todays' was rich as we are called to not be self-sufficient - rather allow God to create us! We are nothing without Jesus - the Lamb!
Yes, Satan is attempting to destroy the family and LIFE! Faith begins in the Domestic Church/family!
One week from today is Ash Wednesday!
Yes, how can you leave Jesus when you leave the Church?
Danielle Rose - so many songs written in front of Jesus in adoration! She wrote a song for every decade of the rosary - all 20!
