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!
Patrick is now healthy and happy and healed!!! He loves to be St Patrick as they dress up as Saints for All Saints day tomorrow! St Patrick was so huge in Patrick's prayers for recovery as St Patricks Cathedral was just a few blocks from his NICU and the two grandmas and his two sibs spent a lot of time there praying for him!
St Patrick held our hand and interceded for his sweet innocent namesake!
John and I on Halloween in Kindergarten days! This would be 1995 I think.
Pre John... Halloween 1987 with popcorn balls from Grandma Verly at her home on the farm. The year we left a mess at every home with our corn leaf Hawiian skirts!
Good thing I took this picture at home before we left, because we left a mess every where we went including the car rides... and came home with only a waistband...
Ruth's amazing year of The Wizard of Oz! LOVE
One day away from having...
her sweet pumpkin... Luke Paul!
Luke two years ago was the crocodile, who wanted more of Hook as they were Peter Pan... another of Ruth's wonderful costume themes! Happy 5th birthday tomorrow Lukey!
Another Birthday tomorrow is our Evangeline Mary! She will be 2 and is St Agnes in the Saints... She is a wonderful Saint to pray to these days of impurity and how porn is so easily found by all ages with the click of a mouse. St Agnes was put in a house of prostitution to rob her of her purity, but the only man to try to touch her was struck blind and she left there pure and untouched. Ask her to help keep us pure!
Evangeline on her Baptism day... not even a week old yet! Wearing the Baptismal gown Pat's mother sewed for our girls to wear!
Therese with her first sister after 3 boys... in March she will have a new baby to love and care for! She is the best big sister ever was!
A line from the Hallel Psalm of total praise/Psalm 145 from mass today really spoke to me...
"Your Kingdom is a Kingdom of all ages"
With the 7 of our children there and now 5 grandchildren to meet there in heaven forever with Jesus, Mary and all the Saints... and on the other end to now have our beloved Grandma Ann Verly there as she lived and shared in our lives so fully for her 97 years... The Kingdom is truly for all ages and filled with those that we look forward to and long to meet someday... looking them in the eye face to face for the first time, although they were life in my womb (the 7) for some up to 20 weeks!
LIFE from conception is so true for me! I also think of my sister, Mary, who died at age 28 from cancer... she was so close to me and how I know of her prayers for me and mine for her! The KINGDOM has come so close through all our dead, and my beloved Saints in heaven and my Jesus and His Mother, Mary Queen of Heaven and earth! "Thy Kingdom come" is so true!!!!!
My sister Mary visiting me when I was pregnant with #1 Ruth Ida!
Visiting her grave with her Goddaughters, Susan and Nancy in 1986 Christmas... she died on July 3, 1986, and is forever missed.
Jesus how we love you and long to be with you always. May I die to self so that you may live and work in my life! "The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down." Psalm 145
Lord, I am so filled with your Truth and guidance down the narrow path each day as your Word/Jesus is in my day to day life! You lift me up! Jesus, I trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
The year of the witches... 1984 Yes, I would also have a theme, but Ruth has gone way beyond me... a taste of this year's theme...
Circus!!! Rose is wearing a costume that Susan wore in 1991 blizzard! Memories are so fun to relive with the next generation..."your dominion endures through all generations." So true my Lord! How I pray that my family from generation to generation may know and love you and your glorious Bride, The Church!
Prayer of Abandonment~ Bl Charles de Foucauld
Father, I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.
Lauren Daigle - Still Rolling Stones
His time was to continue here! Burning to share his story for finding faith through brain cancer!
Grandpa eating his lunch with a little girl happily on his lap is so wonderfully familiar from these past 40 years of marriage! Joy has just stuck her fingers in grandpa's whipped topping and added that to his sandwich. Who knows maybe she will come up with a wonderful new taste sensation?
Grandpa is an extraordinary lover of life and always welcomes the little ones to share time with him on his lap! Joy's mom would climb there and share meals with her dad and her growing number of sisters... 4 girls in a row and then John, so girls on his lap is more familiar and takes me back to the nest years!
The black and white kitten and the black and white rosary...
I had the strangest experience with this kitten from Ruth's spring litters... he chose me to love! He purrs and rubs on my legs and climbs in my lap to get petted and as Ruth said; "He doesn't do that to me or the kids." So... he came home to live with Pat, I, and the other cat, Johosephat/Fatty for short. Pat says that he is one lucky kitten as his days were numbered at the farm with a dog and equipment. He is settling in nicely and is a companion to me while Pat is away for his long work days. I think my guardian angel is instrumental in sending this purry sweet kitty to me.
Discovering the back of the couch view of the yard with the sun setting in the West so early already. I currently have him on my keyboard and then playing with my toes in the socks . Where I am he is soon to follow... Now I have a purry head rest behind me on the back of the couch. No longer alone and happy to have a loving companion... although he is learning to know the porch from time to time.
His name... the kids named him Cookie after a female cat they had while they lived here. She had many kittens and got her name because when David got her for his 6th birthday she ate a cookie at the party! It will be fun for the kids to come over and see their cat grow big and nice and spoiled by grandma!
I got a kick out of this sign on the door of the bathroom in our shop... yes, family is what we love to promote and is what we are all about! I think of the wonderful parties we had there this summer... John's groom supper with all 15 of our grandkids having a wonderful time and many other families brought their children to be a part of the family celebration.
We also had a neighborhood party for families there a few weeks later and Ruth and Paul used the clean decorated shop to host their Teams of Our Lady family party for a couple that was moving away. How we love to share our wonderful farm life and our love of family along with the Faith that we share as a domestic Church/family!
The readings today are amazing... the first one reminds me of Nancy and Bill's wedding as they used this for their second reading! They had just gone through Theology of the Body and it spoke so powerfully to them of how we are to be loving in a marriage!
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his Body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
Ephesians 5:21-33
Nancy and Bills wedding day - The Feast of St Augustine/August 28,2010!
Nancy has become my girl that Loves Our Lady!!! She is promoting her daily now with her planner...
Nearly every day I get an email from one of you lovely ladies wondering when the Marian Themed Liturgical Planners (December '18-December '19) will be available.
The answer: ALL SAINT'S DAY! Yup, in just a few days!
The beautiful Marian Planner to has been updated to run through the entire calendar year of 2019 and will be ready for you on November 1st!
The planner will be available on the very same day as the Jesse Tree Booklet. I did this deliberately so that if you want both books, you can pay less in shipping by combining your order.
ALSO, just like I did with the Academic version of the planner, I will be offering a FREE GOSPEL REFLECTION COLORING JOURNAL for those that grab a planner on the first day they are available--November 1st!
The Gospel Reflection Coloring Journal is a simple booklet with a verse taken from each week's Sunday Gospel reading. I designed it so that you can color the verses as well as some floral elements around the verse. For each verse there is also an opposing page with lines so that you can take homily notes, keep a prayer journal or rewrite the verse to aid in memorization.
This book, once again, is FREE and included with your planner as long as you are able to purchase your planner on November 1st!
After that date, the Gospel Reflection Coloring Journal will be available for $7...so mark your calendars!
I have been using the Marian Themed Planner since August and I can't wait to share it with more of you. The designer did a really great job this year, and it is such an easy, beautiful way to get to know Mary.
Look for an email from me with links to grab a planner once they are live!
Your sister in the small things,
Nancy
Archbishop Naumann is who I have to thank for bringing The Community of the Lamb to the U.S. and that Hallel lived there last year and now this year!
He will be officiating at the dedication of The Little Brother's monastery this next weekend in KC just down the hill from Lumen Christi/Light of Christ which is the Little Sister's monastery! I am either driving down there alone or with Pat if he can get away! The Little Brother's Monastery is devoted to Mary, the Mother of God! Love that!
Beautiful bride, Nancy Anna Joan of Arc! She will be a new mom probably in late February with #5 after having 2 losses in the last year. From my own experience... that makes the life that is here to share this journey that much more precious! Yet, all life is a gift from conception to natural death!
The hours we spent waiting for Maximilian to be delivered were some of the darkest I have experienced. I wept until I was completely dehydrated and numb, and yet, in those moments I also received one of the most profound gifts of my life.
I was allowed to experience Mary.
Thanks to all I had been taught growing up Catholic, I knew to call on Mary in my pain. I began to pray the ‘Hail Mary’, aloud and silently, and when that seemed too much, I fell into simply saying her name. “Mary, Mary, Mary,” and as I did, I could feel her presence in that room. She did not come gradually, but suddenly and all at once, as if she had been just waiting for me to call.
Thinking back on those moments I can visualize exactly where she was standing in the room, just to the right of my bed, looking directly at me. I never doubted that she was really there, right there. But more than anything I remember feeling a deep stillness emanating from where she stood. I knew she was there gazing on me with love.
My experience of Mary was really quite simple. There were no bright lights or premonitions or words from heaven. Just a feeling of peace and love, and the comfort of knowing that she was there and she loved me.
The weeks and months following the loss of our little Maximilian have been difficult, and I expect more struggles as we attempt to get pregnant and once more open ourselves up to the pain of loss. But the gift Mary gave me in that hospital room has endured. I no longer feel her presence as strongly as I did that day, but I am left with the knowledge of who she is.
And I can honestly say that I know Mary now. I tasted her love for me. I was able to touch, for just a few minutes, her tender hand and I know now that those same hands are holding my little Maximilian up in heaven.
The knowledge that Mary is really there has changed everything. I cling to my Rosary and attempt to carry her with me everywhere.
And not just that, it has set me on a mission.
It breaks my heart to think that so many people face pain and suffering without Mary at their side, especially when she is so willing to fly to their side, if only they call. So, I am on a mission to increase Marian devotion through the Rosary.
The mission has begun with me. I have committed to a daily Rosary for the rest of my life.
Next, I’m working to build Marian devotion in my family. This will be a central focus for us during Lent.
Nancy
Learning at the feet of my daughters is beyond amazing! Yesterday I mentioned that Ruth and Paul model for me how to be life-giving in their marriage. Nancy and Bill also are sharing their light they have found through St JPII and his Theology of the Body, and much more including Nancy's love of Mary and how she is with us daily and is so wonderful to have sharing our journeys! Hallel and her Community are such a lesson on humility and prayer and dishes! Maria and
Joseph share how important it is to be a faithfilled Catholic family in the ! John shares how we find Faith through The Cross... i am one lucky mom to share my faith with my children and they TEACH me!
Our 5 that we share this journey with at Ruth's wedding in 2003 November... Maria entered the Poor Clares 2 months later on Jan 1st!
Yes, Pat and I thought we would have 12 kids! We do but 7 are in heaven keeping our eyes focused on meeting them someday in heaven forever with Jesus, Mary and all the Saints and now we have added 5 grandchildren to their number.
Jesus, we love you and long to follow you down the narrow path with heaven/eternal life at the end. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Just back from a glorious hour of Adoration! The best hour that I spend all week! Jesus, Mary and Joseph save souls! Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke
Ruth with her 6 and lilacs over a year ago... a total picture that sets my heart singing with the beauty of one who is open to life and raising lights ...
Sweet Joy is now 1 1/2 years old and a delight to all of us. She lives up to her name in her cheerful happy self.
Joy is the youngest of 6 and seems to be very happy to be here in the midst of her big wonderful farm family. She mirrors back to us that she is loved and cared for and gets all kinds of attention from her family and her grandpa Pat whenever he can "hold my Joy." Her beautiful loving home in the midst of a very active farm filled with all the animals and equipment and hard work that calls for... many times in family jobs shared by all...
Yes, she is happy!
St Paul blows me away each day with his letter to the Ephesians which has been the first reading for a few weeks now. I can't help but recall how he hated the Christians and was hunting them down to have them put to death. But after being knocked down and blinded... he could see the LIGHT and the Truth and was transformed to the point that he preaches these words to us today! "Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma... For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. " So beautiful and powerful and so deeply felt is Christ to ST Paul and his words are pearls of wisdom to be held close to our hearts!
We share our faith as a family and that is the best! It is passed on lovingly with JOY! "Our glory is to mirror back in loving praise to the God who made us the beauty we glimpse dimly in all that comes from his hand." see www.magnificat.com
There is something very close to God that comes to those that live off the land and have the job of feeding the world!
It is so sweet to hear the love in Paul's voice and message when he shares the hard willing worker Ruth is in the midst of her crazy life as a mother of 6...
"This lady does it all! Today Ruth tried her hand at running the tillage equipment. She ran a 535 horsepower tractor down the field with beauty and grace!" One of my friends wrote this truth; "Love the teamwork these two have and the appreciation Paul has for what Ruth does." So true indeed to see the respect and love they have for each other. I am learning at their feet the key to this... be life-giving in all that you do and say one to the other! Life-giving!!!!
I thought that I could be on my way to my parents this morning as dad had another reason to go the the ER last night. But I can tell they have shifted gears... knowing that I will not be available for quite a while after my knee replacement next week. "We are managing and there are others here that can help out if we have a need." was mom's wisdom this morning. It seems that the path leading to my dreaded knee replacement on the 7th is being laid out before me step by step. Or should i say limp by limp? The woman in the Gospel today bent over for 18 years! Pain my knees started in 1968 when I went downhill skiing for the only time in my life! The original knee injury was my left with a torn cartilage, and after 40+ years to have it pain free is a blessing, now after hobbling all those years.. the other one is due. I am ready to be over the knee pain, but to get there there will be a lot of terrific knee pain for a few months. Lord, help me but it will be worth it in the long run for sure. Your words, O Lord...When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity." He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
Luke 13
Yes, Lord, it will not be at once, but I do need to give you the praise and the glory at all times! Mirroring back to you all that is beautiful and LIGHT filled around me and that is a whole lot indeed!
I was kind of sad to think that I would miss the circus.... Ruth's bunch who always come over trick or treating at our home on Halloween! Now it looks like I will be able to do my photo shoot for this year!
Another ringing message of Truth from the Psalm for today - Psalm 1
"But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. R. Behave like God as his very dear children. He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers."
Yes, I am somewhat excited about the job I have for myself while I am laid up... scanning some old pictures that I took out of albums from years past. I have stacks of them so beware of old pictures cropping up, because my blog will be another daily job/joy/delight/and call me out if I get too negative and forget to be mirroring back his beauty and praise HIM with my all!
With Bernadette for Halloween 2 years ago! Her dad had gotten her this outfit on his world travels with work and grandma had done her hair! This was actually taken in a mirror... "mirror back in loving praise!"
Jesus, may we be your light without fail in this world of sin and darkness! Your world is a masterpiece of beauty as the seasons come and go around us. Thank you for this wonderful time of good weather in which we have accomplished most of getting the crop out and feeding the world. Thank you for keeping the farmers safe, and for sharing LIfe-giving respect amongst us. May we give without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you. amen and Hallelujah
Ruth's bunch 2 years ago... the old woman, me, who swallowed the fly complete with the doctor, Simon, who saved her life! Ruth is so creative! LOVE! Bless-bless, Barbara Mary Luke
Last year.. The Village People do YMCA along with baby JOY! Can't wait for this year!
Maria's saints from last All Saints Day!
Baby St Mother Teresa of Calcutta/Evangeline Mary a year ago!!
St Kateri/Bernadette last year before they went over to the Little Monastery on All Saints Day!
Maria's bunch this year...
Therese - St Clare
David - St Lawrence
Patrick - his beloved St Patrick!
Romeo - St JPII
Evangeline - St Agnes
Be still my heart!!! LIGHT up your world!
"We are given graces to overcome our fears
and to accomplish great things in Adoration." -Fr John Hardon
"I strongly recommend
that each of usmake a resolution
- no matter how much
the decision may cost us -
to make a Holy Hour...
once a week."
Fr John Hardon I have been blessed with another one thanks to Seven Sisters! LOVE!
Prolife breakfast... John and Bobbi working side by side filling the plates of Luke, Rose and David after mass this morning!
It brought flooding back how many of my friends came up to me last year very excited to know that John and Bobbi were dating. Bobbi got involved with Birthright years ago when she returned to the area after college. So all our fellow Birthright ladies knew of John's journey and Bobbi, and were very happy to see the two of them together. "And they are quite serious." I would tell them...
What a difference a year makes! They are now married and expecting their first child in March!
It was special to share the joy with our mutual friends of the ladies of Birthright, who have fought the battle to protect all life in the womb for years.. actually my entire marriage as I decided to get involved with Birthright shortly after we were married. I found out I was pregnant with Ruth when I was learning to do the pregnancy tests on myself! LIFE is s gift!
The new school pictures are in and up on the wall already and very nice this year! Luke's is last year's preschool picture and Joy's is one I took on the swing a month ago. Joy loves to swing, and it's a good one indeed! LOVE this!
I appreciated Father's homily today and the story of Bartimaeus is a wonderful one! I was especially struck with Father Mark pointing out that Jesus wanted his followers to bring the blind man to him and they spoke these words to him..."Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you." Yes, Jesus is calling you!
Ruth and Pat are getting the last hundred bales picked up today... we had a great system including Pat, John, Paul, Ruth and I with Bobbi and Mary in the house and hauling kids to activities! Talk about a family day on the farm! I love the way that Bartimaeus jumped up and threw his old clothing aside as if he were to be made new and different... Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see." Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Yes, he followed him on the way.. Finding Jesus, led there by those that love him and bring others to the Faith... my dad and mother bringing us into The Church! http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
Knowing in our heart of hearts that "Jesus is calling you, and that personal encounter with him in our lives as we embrace the Cross and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! That healing and that newness of life with which we follow him down the narrow path to eternal life at the end! The Way, the Truth, and the LIFE!
Pat's dad with John and Brad almost 28 years ago. John and Brad are 6 weeks apart and grew up together on the farm! Today I got pretty emotional holding Brad's new son, William. It was the first time that I saw him and to see Brad a father was very moving for me.
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Brad mentioned that John and he will be dad's within months of each other and that is special indeed! LIFE is a gift!
Jesus, may we answer your call by running to you even in the darkness as Bartimaeus did in the Gospel today. Following the sound of your voice and being led to you by those that love and serve you. May we also be those that help others know that you are calling them to leave the world behind and the darkness of sin and death that fills the world. May we serve you without counting the cost and be saved by faith... following you on the way! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
The bale pyramid... 58 rows of 6 bales = 348 of the 600 in one long row.. a good windbreak for the cows and nice soft bedding through the winter months and calving time. Bless-bless, Barbara Mark Luke
