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!
The end of the year - this is the picture that I must use for 2020! It graced my Christmas card as, even though I added the two missing myself, it is all of our domestic Church together around my wonderful father, who left this world for the next on October 23rd after 6 months sharing his light here with me daily on the farm!
I am soon on the road to Nancy's to help them out as they are soon to launch their Domestic Church Project. My world has been turned upside down by my Most Cherished Cross wanting to get the grandkids together. How he loves that! What was to be a quiet drive in my chapel on wheels has now become grandkids going up and coming back and Pat behind the wheel!
The Gospel today made me groan with amazement at the power and majesty and Truth!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it....
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.
Dad is rejoicing in heaven with mother... I know!
His man, Brother Victor today is amazing and dad is right there with him! "All time is God's time." while we are on the narrow path stumbling ahead dragging our Most Cherished Cross!
Read it and weep as we share in this monks life of leaving behind all earthly things and focusing on heaven forever! Hear my prayer, O Lord, and I will still cling to those beads in my crazy chapel on wheels as we head down the road to more family today! Give me the strength to be loving and caring no matter the challenges that come to me. You are my LOVE/LIFE/LIGHT given to me as I embrace my Most Cherished Cross. Bless-bless, Barbara
Six years ago Pat's mother holding 3 month old Romeo with Pat holding 6 month old Dominic. In the last 17 years we have had constant prayers for the new life in the womb for one or many of our children. Romeo marked the arrival of the 3rd of a group of grandsons all born within 10 months of each other. Following them we had 3 granddaughters within the next year.
How we love LIFE and pray for them from the moment we are aware of them in the womb. We are open to LIFE and raising them as LIGHTS for the world! This is so much a part of our family framework that when it comes to the Christ child at this Christmas season - we certainly are in awe of The Christ Child and the Truth we see there that He made our families holy by his arrival and that as he came in the form of a human infant - how He proclaimed to the world that LIFE is a gift to be cherished and protected from conception to natural death!
Our newest family member is Maria's 7th child. She appears to be peacefully gazing up at her creator in the womb assuring us that all was well after a scare of bleeding that got us all praying without ceasing for her. Maria said that she wanted our prayers and she got them indeed!
Birdie Barbara is my first namesake and also our youngest little grandchild. Many prayers for her since we were happily surprised that she was to join our family. The beauty of natural family planning is that Jesus is on control. Taking our families into our own hands is not allowing Jesus to be involved, and how we need to have Jesus in the center of our families and in our marriages!
The Psalm for today speaks loudly of how we are called to have Christ at the center of our domestic Church/family!
R. (11a) Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice! Give to the LORD, you families of nations, give to the LORD glory and praise; give to the LORD the glory due his name! R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice! Bring gifts, and enter his courts; worship the LORD in holy attire. Tremble before him, all the earth. R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
If you know me you see that I rejoice to read the holy attire part! How I love to dress up! Being a farmers wife and having farm clothes... any time I go to town or mass or any reason - I adore to dress up! Having 4 girls in a row added to that obsession and JOY of my life!
Christmas 1982... Nancy was about the age of Birdie now. So fun to see the family resemblance to her Verly aunts.
Young and in "holy attire." Dressing up to pay respect to our Lord and Savior's birth!
1983 with new baby Maria...
Many thoughts these days about our homes being the place that we share our Faith/nurture the seeds planted at Baptism.
Nancy and Bill are in the midst of a huge project called The Domestic Church project. Here are her words...
I’m terrified about the upcoming launch of the Domestic Church Project.
Like, up at night, weeping in adoration, heart palpitations, terrified. I’ve been trying very hard to keep my fear a secret, but I just can’t anymore.
I’m not worried for the reasons you might think. If no one signs up and the entire project is a flop because it wasn’t actually directed by the Holy Spirit, I’m fine with that. God’s will be done.
I’m worried that God has asked us to do this...and that we will mess it up. I’m worried that our own issues and imperfections will get in the way of building Domestic Churches.
Honestly, I’m worried that God has asked the wrong people to take on this work.
Afterall, who are we? Our prayer lives are a struggle, our kids have issues with lying and disrespect and laziness...and so do we. It doesn’t make any sense that WE should be the ones doing this work. There has to be someone better than us!
I find it especially crippling when I am reminded of just how important this work is. Catholic Parents (you) are the key to renewing our Church. If we fail to embrace the work of building our Domestic Churches, if we fail to teach the Faith in our homes, then our Church will suffer.
Friend, the stakes are very high. Nothing matters more than what happens in your home and what takes place between you and your children.
Up until today I have been trying to deal with this fear by dressing up The Domestic Church Project offering. We have been obsessing over the details and working ourselves ragged adding cool features to the app, brainstorming guest speakers, adding more resources...but this morning in adoration God pushed all of that aside.
He took away everything that I had been hiding behind and spoke plainly to my heart.
Catholic Families need a program that shows them HOW to teach the Faith at home.
Catholic Families need a program that trains them in their own homes and with their own kids.
Catholic Families need a program that requires zero prep and walks them through the entire process of building a Domestic Church.
Catholic Families needed a Domestic Church Project Bootcamp.
Through the grace of God we created this bootcamp this summer. We tested the bootcamp with over 100 families this fall. We verified that the bootcamp worked and that it was able to utterly transform families.
Now, after being reworked based on the feedback from our beta test, the bootcamp is ready for you and your family.
Yes, the DCP Bootcamp lives inside of our beautiful new app. Yes, you will have the support of a community of Catholic Parents as you go through the Bootcamp. Yes, we have created lots of other resources to support you after the Bootcamp, including liturgical studies and saint stories.
But all of that is extra.
This is about your home and your family, not an app.
My friend, I don’t know why God has put us here or why He is offering this through us. Perhaps it is simply to prove that He really can use even His lowliest servants.
But please, as you consider being part of the Domestic Church Project in 2021, forget us, and forget the app. Think about your family. Are you living out your call to be the primary educator of your children’s faith? Is your home a school of love? Are you living the sacramental life at home?
...or, are you like us, and you need a little help with all of these things?
If so, then I invite you to join us in the Domestic Church Project app on January 1. Building a Domestic Church is our calling, and it is a big responsibility, but, we don’t have to do it alone.
Thank you for your continued prayers as we attempt to leave ourselves behind and embrace the work God has given us.
In Christ,
Bill and Nancy
John and I and kitten Christmas years ago...
John's precious little girl a week ago... she resembles her daddy and his sisters a lot! Such a gift to us!
Christmas 2017
Birdie a recently in her mom's sleeper!
With Joy after mass dressed in holy attire for baby Jesus!
LOVE this baby Jesus given to me by Bernadette - so precious that our Lord showed us the beauty of human life come from the womb of a woman... a woman chosen by God to bear his Son to the world, and then given to us as our Mother at the foot of the Cross to bring into our homes and bring all our needs to her Son, who loves her so much and listens to her!
Pat wore his snowman tie picked out for him by the grandkids... love it when hubby dresses up for mass!
Maria and family dressed up "in holy attire" for Christmas Eve Mass! LOVE!
Not only did Jesus show us the beauty of human life from conception, but he also came to us in our lives in this most personal way of a perfect helpless newborn. So very personal is a new baby in a family as we all tend to their needs, which are total! In Maria's family, her oldest daughter, Therese, is a total loving and caring big sister. Probably since Patrick she has helped with dressing and changing of diapers and any other need that might happen. Maria feeds them, of course, but Therese is always there to help in any way! I am sure the two girls, including 4 years old Evangeline, are super excited to know that they will have a new baby sister on June 1st! Therese will model for Evie how to care for a new baby.
Grandpa with George over Christmas with Nancy's family! This man of mine is such a lover of LIFE and the little ones adore him and he them! He is my champion of LIFE and family. On our first date we talked about what we valued and wanted to have in our family and our spouse. #1 - our Catholic Faith - Pat shocked his sisters years before - telling them that he would only marry a Catholic! #2 Being open to life and wanting a large family - 12kids, which turned out to be 7 in heaven and 5 here with us. #3 love of nature/farming which is a way of life not just a job!
When we realized that we looked for the same thing for a spouse - the fact that I was 3 years older never bothered him, so why not? Within a year we were married!
Jesus, we are so blessed to see your hand at work in our lives! We love and adore your coming into the world of darkness with your marvelous LIGHT! LIFE is a most precious gift and we fall on our knees to adore you and you give us LOVE! Gazing upon that helpless baby in the humble manger, we are reminded of how we are personally included in your holy family if only we die to self and return that unconditional Love and forgiveness we are given to those the closest to us in our domestic Church/family. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
After mass on Sunday of Labor Day weekend - dad in his Sunday shirt, which he wore each of the 25 Sundays he was here and all other special occasions! How we loved to underline the word "glory" in his prayer books used for the last 44 years as a permanent deacon. How I thank him with each day since he brought all 13 of us into The Church 49 years ago! How I miss him, and our sharing his "religious life" at our farm monastery. Yet, I continue to be blessed by all the daily prayers he left me each day! Thank you, dad for making my life filled with "glory and praise"! Bless-bless, Barbara
Dad's special, Brother Victor in his monastery today... love to share in his LIFE of prayer and praise!
From the Magnificat today - Mother Elvira
Like Jesus, we need a mother who understands and fulfills the desires of our heart. The Mother is Mary, the humble, simple, faithful servant who smiles upon us, invites us, welcomes us, and takes us to contemplate the manger, where the splendor of LIGHT is never extinguished. Immersed in this light, we find a life that is truly eternal. Let us thank Mary, our Mother, who leads us to live in that LIGHT because, like every mother, she knows that children are afraid of the dark! Jesus, repeatedly tells us, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me does not walk in the darkness, but will have the LIGHT of LIFE." (Jn 8:12)
"He is the Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh,
molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches, and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the faithful."
St Peter Chrysologus
O beata infantia Chant for the Christmas season
O blessed Infancy,
by which the life of our race
has been restored!
O very dear and delightful cries,
by which we have escaped
eternal lamentation! O blessed swaddling clothes,
with which the defilement of our sins
has been wiped away!
O splendid manger,
in which lay not just the hay of animals,
but in which was found the Food of Angels!
__________
Sixth Day of Christmas
Christmas Gregorian Chants... LOVE - thanks, Brother Victor-Antoine! This makes me feel close to my Hallel and her Community of the Lamb and their chanting the psalms...
Oh my!!! This is our live nativity from 6 years ago with 3 month old Romeo as baby Jesus with Simon as and Mary as her namesake. We have fake plans to have a live nativity this year at our first ever Verly Christmas Camp in January! The excitement is building with the plans flying left and right! Our youngest member this year is Birdie Barbara, who is 7 months and crawling so we will see if she will be peaceful as sweet baby Romeo was for us.
I borrowed this from Fr Shawn in New Ulm of the Handmaids of Jesus. Susan discerned with them in St Paul before she left for France to join The Community of the Lamb. They have a special place in our hearts. I love that they have put straw on the floor of their chapel - as though they are truly in the presence of the baby Jesus in the stable. So powerful!!! We will need to find some in our live Nativity this year. It will be in the heated shop at the farm and a few real farm animals might have to be part of it... like one of Mary's goats, and new puppy, named Teddy and some kittens and chickens! LOVE!
The shepherds are now 6 years older... Big Dave, Gus, Rose and Bernadette.
Singing to Baby Jesus and he looks at him in LOVE!... such a special gift to have the kids live out the miraculous coming of Jesus into the world and that he is in the midst of our families giving us healing and peace!
These words today from Servant of God Adrienne von Speyr referring to the words of Simeon to Mary, and Jesus in the Gospel today from Luke 1
Because the Son suffers for everyone and because Mary's co-suffering- the physical as well as the spiritual- is part of the Son's suffering, her suffering is accomplished for everyone and is usable by everyone. In her maternal way, she takes part in the universality of her Son's crucifixion. Into the space between herself and the Son, she admits everyone for whom he will suffer, everyone for whom she already now receives the sword of the Son. And because everyone is admitted here, everyone comes through the Mother to the Lord.
Romeo was such a peaceful gentle baby Jesus!
The grandkids adoring Jesus in the nativity which was adored by their grandfather and his siblings and also their mothers and their siblings.
Joy visited baby Jesus in the Nativity on Sunday - Holy Family mass!
Jesus comes to dwell in our families and allow us to be more holy, if we die to self and allow his Spirit to work in us and our families!
Wise and "helping us drag our Cross" from a person, who is going through chemo and the harsh side effects... from dad and his man, Brother Victor- Antione...
Yes, we have celebrated the coming of Jesus with Christmas, but we still need to ask him to be with us with each new day and all that we face. Come without delay, Lord!
We always hold within us the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ - the paschal mystery that fills us with healing and truth and LIGHT/LOVE/LIFE if only we embrace our Most Cherished Cross and die to self so that the Holy Spirit can use us to be the hands and feet and voice of Christ to the world of darkness.
Somebody got a Verly's bakery apron and the promise of being a great cook like his mommy and his Uncles!
He loves to bake and cook!
So true mom and dad... still being blessed each day with almost too much to read and take to heart. All the prayers I know that are surrounding our family here on this journey is so comforting and allows me to trust in Jesus at work in our lives.
From St Thomas Beckett, whose feast day is today from dad and he... assuring us of the True Church, which dad led us into 49 years ago! We are entering our 50th year now, and each day has been a total gift!
Found in dad's Advent/Christmas prayer book this morning for the feast of St Thomas Beckett, who was a martyr of The Church. Yes, the Church/ship has been tossed by many storms, but Jesus will not abandon his ship and He is on board!
More special pictures of the handmaids thanks to Fr Shawn.
Choir in the Cathedral of New Ulm...
It allows me to see in my heart the Holy Christmas of my nun in France. So close to her spouse, Jesus Christ! Each day they receive Jesus in his Body, Blood and Word of God! They also adore Jesus on the altar in Adoration twice a day. So deeply in love are they and led so very deep in prayer and Community of the Lamb!
Jesus, we are yours and we are so blessed by your gift of your Mother to us at the foot of the Cross. How we are held close to your heart burning with love for us by her motherly arms around us and sharing in our daily journey and sufferings. May we give without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Yes, our families/domestic Church is where faith is taught and the seeds are planted to be nurtured by our mother and father trusting in our Lord and sharing with us each week at Mass. Bless-bless, Barbara
O EUCHARISTIC JESUS, my Lord, my God, as the closing of this year is at hand, I turn to you because I need help. I long to be free enough to trust that I can lean on You. But I become afraid. Help me to trust in You, Lord. Your strength and power are a gentle place of protection. Be a safe refuge when I am being trampled. I long for Your help, your protecting care this coming New Year. Help to deliver me from the cold loneliness of these dark nights, in Your most holy Name, Amen
Happy Feast Day Saint Thomas Becket 1118 - 1170 Feast day: December 29 Patronage: secular clergy; Portsmouth, England; Exeter College, Oxford, England Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, was Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict with Henry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king who split his skull with their swords as he knelt before the altar at Canterbury Cathedral.
Danielle Rose - all amazing and very Catholic!
“Rememberthen how our fathers worked out their salvation;
remember the sufferings through which the Church has grown,
and the storms the ship of Peter has weathered
because it has Christ on board. Remember how the crown was attained
by those whose sufferings gave new radiance to their faith.
The whole company of saints bear witness to the
unfailing truth that without real effort no one wins the crown.”
– St Thomas Becket
"A martyr, a saint, is always made by
the design of God, for His love of men,
to warnthem and to lead them,
tobring them backto His ways.”
~ St. Thomas Becket, homily excerpt,
Christmas morning Mass (1170), four days before he was martyred
St. Thomas Becket
Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr*
England ~ 1118-1170
Feast Day - December 29
*On December 29th, 1170, four knights from the court of King Henry II burst into Canterbury Cathedral as the Archbishop was on his way to Vespers. Just inside the cloister door, they murdered Thomas Becket, whose defense of the rights of the Church had angered the King. His last words were: 'I accept death for the name of Jesus and for the Church.'
The murder shocked the conscience of all Europe; miracles were announced immediately; the archbishop was canonized as a martyr by Alexander III in 1173; the king did public penance at his tomb, and much of what St Thomas had worked for all his life was accomplished by his death.
Thomas said this to a friend on his way to Ordination:
"Hereafter, I want you to tell me, candidly and in secret,
what people are saying about me. And if you see anything in me
that you regard as a fault, feel free to tell me in private.
For from now on, people will talk about me, but not to me.
Sweet 21 month old Hector with a lamb and santa hat... obviously someone visiting was taking pictures as Maria is at work in her kitchen with a housefull for Christmas. It certainly was a wonderful gathering as the s ALL were together! A Christmas gift supreme!
This being the difficult Feast of the Holy Innocents so close to the birth of our Lord as a helpless infant... I thought this picture of innocence and sweetness was a picture of how we long to picture those gone for the Christ child in Bethlehem peacefully arrived in heaven after such a short time in this world of darkness and pain ( if we allow ourselves to envision the horror of their murderous death at the hands of those sent to kill them - all 2 years and under.
From the Office of Reading today...
From a sermon by Saint Quodvultdeus, bishop (Sermo 2 de Symbolo: PL 40, 655)
They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.
You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.
Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace—so small, yet so great—who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God’s adopted children.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation.
But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.
How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.
Maria and and their beautiful family including our newest grandchild in the womb! So excited and so many prayers. There was a period of bleeding that got our attention and called us to prayer without ceasing! Never too many prayers for ALL LIFE!
Christmas Mass at St Maximillian Kolbe with Nancy and Bill and family!
Such a stirring altar this is... St Maximillian with his two crowns of martyrdom and purity. His feast day is on Maria's birthday, so I was called to pray for Maria and her baby in the womb here. How he loved Our Lady as he holds onto this rosary beads in the Rosary prayer!
Calling to mind the horrible time in the world history of the concentration camps where many men, women and children died! They received their crowns of glory - some at a very young age! The beauty that came from such horror!
Such a stunningly beautiful church - the Nativity window.
Our Christmas tradition to spend it with Nancy and Bill and their 5 children. It feels wonderful to have the new freedom of being able to travel to visit family with my farmer husband. New because Pat's work on the farm slows down now with harvest done and the calving still a couple months away. Also after my father living here for 6 months needing me 24/7, his "natural death" has now allowed me to be freed from his needs. Yes, I miss him so much, but on the other hand there is a certain peace and happiness at a job well done on both of our parts.
The reason for the season continues to this difficult day, yet we are reminded that our ultimate goal is heaven forever and the Holy Innocents were allowed to find that glory sooner than later. Sometimes don't we long for that to come soon?
Such a work of art! In less than 2 weeks this will happen for the Pat Verly Family - the good Lord willing! Fake plans are flying fast and furious for the first ever Verly Christmas Camp only missing our nun, who might have to appear in paper form!
Talk about sweetness and goodness and innocence... this little girl is such a wonderful baby girl!
With the passing of my parents so recently - I ponder the loss of my mother, who was having increasing issues with dementia that came to her in the form of head pressure - "I feel like I am wearing a swim cap that comes down lower and lower over my head." Her memory was very spotty - she would get off the phone and have no memory of what she had been told. For a woman, who was an intellectual giant with a Bible study of the entire Bible to her credit as well as many books and articles... this was a huge blow to her. My heart broke as I would drive away after some days with them together in their own home, and mom would stand at the door like a lost child watching me drive away. "Take me with you" she would beg me.
Here is their site where you can find all their life works - mom's religious material and dad's alcoholic chalk talks. So blessed that they did this for posterity. Mom dictated her Bible Study, so you can hear her voice there.
We are reminded over and over that we need to be childlike in our lives and journey to heaven forever!
The first reading from I John 1 is amazing today!
Beloved: This is the message that we have heard from Jesus Christ and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
We are saved and beloved by Jesus! He is our LIGHT in the darkness all around us called the Culture of Death. I know that mom and dad are working tirelessly from heaven to work more perfectly in the lives of their huge family - all 130+!
Working on a project yesterday that gave me happiness pondering the Lord at work in my life! The 3 new little ones born in 2012 - Rose again, Miracle baby Patrick, and Bernadette! Also added our time in France in 2011 for Hallel's first Vows with Pat and his mom!
Hallel's home visit with the 9 grandkids we had then. The 3 little ones from 2013 together and Hallel taking the paper Hallel out to burn... another one might have to make our family Christmas complete.
2014 - new boys... Luke, Dominic, and Romeo! All in Michigan for one of our last years. There are fake plans for getting there this next summer.. time will tell!
A special momento for me to honor the loss of both my parents in this last year. So very true is this!
Jesus, may we die to self and become like little children in our love and obedience to your will in our lives! You are in control and we give it all over to you and trust that we can die to self so that you may live in us. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Pat with the group of boys that were all born in a year... Luke is now 7 and the other 2 are 6. They are best buddies and will be zooming around on bikes... Bless-bless, Barbara
