A year ago canning tomatoes with Ruth and Nancy... now Nancy is a new wife, but I know that coming to can will be high on her priorities! (I just figured out how to add pictures from another place to my blog... from the last year including our trip to France and our journey with John and his cancer/healing)
I was moved to tears this morning when I checked John's caringbridge site... http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnverly and found this beautiful message from a friend, like many that have supported us so faithfully on this journey with prayers most of all and also shared from their hearts! How we love that and are blessed by it!
Hi John & family,
I have a few minutes to leave you a message. As I walked this morning a little later than usual, the sun was already up. The sky shone in the brightest color of blue. The tops of the trees were illuminated by the sun while the rest of the world below was still in the shadows waiting patiently for the sun's warmth. The fall colors shone even brighter reflecting back the rays of the sun. As I made my way around the park, on the top of the tallest evergreen tree was a lone bird. John, you came into my thoughts at that moment. I pondered this bird perched up in that tree. The thought of God saying to us about Jesus, "This is my beloved Son!" flowed throgh me. Then I thought how God would say that for you. "John, you are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased!" Know that you remain in my prayers, John. I have to run....
God's Blessing and Peace,
Deb
Simon likes things that turn so the colendar and the apple corer pealer are great fun for him, and he is there "helping" with a big smile on his face. Now he is gone to kindergarten every day, and misses a lot of the canning unless we do it on the weekend.
There were so many wonderful things about the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary yesterday... Here is from the hymn:
Like fountains leapt the joy that Mary knew
When first she looked upon her infant's face
And saw God's radiance there in human flesh
Bathe all the world in bright cascades of grace.
The Crown of thorns... so powerful on our journey and now I pray it every day... lilfting up the needs of all those that have been on this journey with us!
2nd verse of the hymn:
Like rivers rose the light that Mary saw
As Christ proclaimed the coming reign of God
And broke the bread of life for all whose faith
Took them along the narrow road he trod.
(see http://www.magnificat.com/ )
Ruth helping her brother walk after his left side was affected by his surgery... It brought us to a new level of closeness in which we could and were needed to physically help him! He has come a long way since this time, but still is struggling to regain...
"Mary, Mother of the Church, prays with us and for us. Through her example and intercession, we learn the lesson of faithful prayer, just as through our meditation on the mysteries of the rosary, we learn the lesson of faithful life taught by Mary and by her Son Jesus." How true this is.... I couldn't have said it better. We are so blessed to have this cord and beads to hold onto each day that allows us to leave behind the mechanics of what we are doing and to soar to the heights of our Lord's and Lady's lives!
Time spent with sweet Therese last year... She will soon be coming to live with us along with her mother and brother as her father is joining the , and will have months of training with all the training ahead of him. So we pray for his safety and for help with the time they must be separated.
One more amazing quote that I cannot just let pass by:
"It could be said that each mystery of the rosary, carefully meditated, sheds light on the mystery of man. 'Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you' (Ps 55:23). To pray the rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother. The rosary does indeed 'mark the rhythm of human life,' bringing into harmony with the 'rhythm' of God's own life, in the joyful communion of the Holy Trinity, our life's destiny and deepest longing. Through the rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer." - Venerable John Paul II
Venerable John Paul II loves our Lady and her Rosary of that there is no doubt! He instituted the new mysteries some years back and I rejoiced to have those years of his ministry now covered! I now pray every day the first decade - the Baptism of our Lord - for my 5 Godchildren... as I stood and said that I would support them with prayer at each of their Baptisms... I have seen results from those prayers and that fills me with joy!
One morning Therese and I both had in "dog ears"... my daughter asked that I remove mine before we went to mass together, but I had to get us in a picture first... sometimes there is a line that I cross with my uniqueness I guess...Oh, I forgot another amazing quote from yesterday!
http://www.medjugorjeusa.org/sisterelvira.htm I just googled Mother Elvira Petrozzi and found this site among others that tell of her ministry as a sister of Charity that works with the young lost souls... mostly drug addicts around the world in 33 fraternities! Read more if you wish...this is a quote by her about the rosary!
"The rosary is a magnificent gift of God to humanity, because through this prayer we attain extraordiary graces. For some, it is an old or monotonous prayer, but we can testify to you that it has a real efficacy of healing, liberation, peace, and reconcilliation... The rosary must articulate the dawn, the afternoon, and the sunset of life, our entire existance." That is so cool for me... she is talking about the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious and how they reflect back on our own walk through our lives!
Nancy and her neices - they were her sweet beautiful flower girls a month and a half ago at her wedding!
"The sun rise of each day is the beginning of our lives: for this we fix our gaze on the birth of Jesus and we meet him through the "yes" of Mary, so that our lives, too can be born again, can begin every day wth him and can say "yes' to his project of love for us today."
Nancy with her precious Godson, Simon... how big and proud and happy was he on her wedding day?
Knowing now what Mother Elvira works with... these next words she shares about the rosary makes us realize how powerful this could be in the hands of those in those teen years that are so hard!
"Then there is the first afternoon, adolescence, which is often the most problematic age, where we search for the deeper reason for things. When you are twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years old, you begin to see the defects of your parents, school begins to be restrictive for you, the differences between rich and poor make you suffer, you do not know whom to take sides with, and you have an indescribable struggle with your emotions. Sometimes you have a strong conflict with yourself and with all that surrounds you. It is a moment that we educators are never really prepared for, in order to give true and convincing answers to the deepest questions which the young people place upon us in their objections." How I truly feel this inadequacy for instance last week in the face of this "we support gay marriage" coming so defiantly and strongly from the 14 year olds that I am teaching... help me Lord!
What is the answer?
"For this, in the first 'afternoon' which is adolescence, when you are not given many answers, we pray the sorrowful mysteries, because the passion of Jesus heals our wounds, negative memories, and the violent and angry judgements which that age provoked false rebellion inside of us on the path of evil." Lord, I would pray the sorrowful mysteries every day for those at this age...for them to find the truth and reject the lies of Satan! Is that what you are asking of me? Show me!
My parents as they celebrate 60 years together... last year in August!
"To recite the third rosary is already to foresee the years of tiredness, of old age, of sickness; the sunset of life. With the rosary in your hand, you will not be discouraged and you will have clarity of mind and a full and extraordinary freedom in your heart. Contemplating the resurrection of Christ, you will prepare your heart for the definitive encounter with Him and you will discover that your suffering 'gives birth' to a new life, which is the concrete reality that waits for you in heaven." Mother Elvira Petrozzi
She does not touch on the Luminous mysteries... maybe this was written before they were instituted... I, personally, do find them to be very powerful in this idea of the "dawn to sunset" of our lives and walk with Him! It is also helpful for me to pray for those Godchildren of mine that are going through those formative years and beyond...
A youthful John... as he has grown up... I have been able to visualize Christ growing up at the ages I have watched John... His decade is the 5th each day... so when he was 12 years old and I was praying the 5th joyful where Jesus is found in the temple at age 12...it was very powerful for me!
Dear Lord, Thank you for all the blessings and graces we receive to help us serve you better on this exciting journey of life! How we long to serve you better and more completely! Give us the time and the energy and the wisdom to do that more! Thank you for all the help we receive from all those that are striving with all they have to listen to you and respond! Help us to do that better with our every day and breath... may each beat of our hearts be burning with love for you! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Luke 11: 11
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