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!
Reading the Gospel just as I was going to bed for the night... I was pondering and racking my brain to try to visualize 5,000 gathered in one place outside on the "green grass" listening to Jesus preach the Kingdom of God and heal... and then to feed them all!!!! I went to bed thinking - where have I ever been in a group of 5,000 people? Being a poor sports fan - I have only been to a Twins game a very few times in my life, and I asked Pat this morning how many would have been there - 15,000 or so. The memory is vague to say the least and you are all spread out and gazing at this huge open field to watch the game... it just didn't satisfy me. Then I thought of a graduation from college - but generally they have you spread out watching a monitor and the impact of the 5,000 people is not to the extent of the picture we get from the Gospel in Mark 6:34-44 today - "So he gave them orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows of hundreds and fifties." Feeling compelled to get a visual of this scene of the miracle - I got a long sheet of paper this morning with the intention of making 5,000 sitting on a grassy hill. As I was beginning with my groups of 100 and 50 adding as I went I asked my wise husband where I would have ever been in a group of 5,000. In no time he suggested the square at St Peters! My heart soared with eagle's wings! That was a the perfect place for my picture to take place, and it was the experience of Truth I was longing to find!
It was so powerful and fun for me! I even put St Barbara up on the columns looking down on the scene, and soon I had the Pope saying mass - this is all very powerful for me as I just had watched him presiding over the Epiphany mass yesterday morning on EWTN! The beauty and glory of the Church shone though and reminded me very strongly of the time we were there. We stood shoulder to shoulder with those attending the audiences and masses of John Paul II in February of 2003 when we visited while Maria was studying there! Many times in the years since we have been watching with tremendous feelings and emotions many times the square has been filled to overflowing! The funeral of JPII, the election of Pope Benedict XVI, and all the occasions related to that, The beatification of JPII - Hallel was there but the crowd was so great that she had to go to the Colosium and watch it on a big screen there, and then Benedict's stepping aside, and the election of Francis! So many occasions that the square was shoulder to shoulder with thousands!!! And there is always a Mass!!!! And the people are always fed with JESUS!!! As Pat was giving me direction this morning in this heavenly way! He could see my excitement building, and soon I said to him - "The only way you could begin to feed this many people with the 5 loaves - I know that Jesus performed a miracle and multiplied the loaves and fishes - but if you made them into tiny see through wafers!" Pat chimed in - "We are fed by Jesus in the Eucharist shared!" It is quite amazing to see a million kids gathered for a mass at World Youth Day and know that there are thousands of priests there to see that they can receive the Body and Blood of Christ!
Entering St Peter's Square I found so many beautiful images!!!! It is just a most awe inspiring place that's all! And that miracle of Jesus feeding us happens there every time there is a big gathering, because I can say, without hesitation that Mass is always the focal point of every gathering! Receiving Jesus in His Body and Blood is always the center and summit of our coming together to celebrate CHURCH! "Then taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up at heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and so he divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men." Mark 6 Jesus feeds our deepest hunger for the Way, the Truth and the LIFE!
Looking for St Peter's pictures - I found this!!! So amazing and fitting for what is in my heart today!
Jesus, how marvelous is your LOVE for us - how can YOU find so much LOVE for us when we are such messes - "His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like a sheep without a shepherd." Mark 6 Then in the first reading today we are told by St John in I John 4 - " Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. " There was no leaving any of it out! It was all too wonderful for us to take total heart in! (Every time I write about the heart - I think of Pope Francis. I read early on that the Jesuits, which is what he embraced and where he heard his call to the priesthood, look to the heart and conversion of the heart!) Jesus, may we live through YOU, and see YOU in all those that we encounter in our domestic Church/family, work and play. May all of these places reflect your LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! Jesus, we are yours and long to leave behind all that comes between YOU and us. May we die to self and give without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
A picture taken with Susan/Hallel taking the place of my sister, Mary. We used to walk down the beach together - she was smaller so I would put my arm over her shoulder as we would walk, share, look for fossils, look at nature, and share what was on our hearts. Mary died of lymphoma cancer in 1986 - I cried through my entire pregnancy with Susan, and now I see the fruits of those tears in her call to the contemplative LIFE as the Bride of Christ and lover of His Church!
"God will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb." Dt 7:13
Time spent in Kansas City in the chapel - So powerful!!!
Fun old pictures I just found - watch out my heart!!!
That's love from the heart!!!
Be still my heart!!!
John's first Communion! Now it has taken flame in his heart through his battle with brain cancer!
While looking for family pictures of times in St Peter's square - I have come the realization in my heart that The Church is with us everywhere - Faith/Family/Farm it is there that we find the LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT of Christ and His Bride, The Church!
While looking for family pictures of times in St Peter's square - I have come the realization in my heart that The Church is with us everywhere - Faith/Family/Farm it is there that we find the LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT of Christ and His Bride, The Church!
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