Returning to Lourdes in 2011 for Hallel's first vows with The Community of the Lamb... John was in love with Our Lady of Lourdes!
If I were to look at a real moment when John's prayer for Faith was answered... his encounter with Mary at Lourdes in August of 2009, when we miraculously arrived in France after his second chemo! His heart was touched by her LOVE and the water poured over his head "because that is where I need the healing" felt like a warm shower of her love for him. She led him to Christ and His Bride, The Church, as that is the only place where Mary is loved and honored!
In love!!!!
August 2009 with Fr Craig!
On one of our final days in France - we took a trip to Lourdes which is also located in Southern France! This was a huge intention for John's healing. This is the location where St Bernadette met Our Lady and when she was asked to dig in the mud a miraculous spring came forth in which there have been many healings! John was helped through the baths by Fr Craig, as he entered into the area set aside for the men that are sick. John asked them to pour water over his head - "That is where I need the healing."
Fr Craig also had mass for us up in the church surrounded by plaques of many who had been healed over the last 150 years. The entire inside of the church is filled with the witness of the work of Our Lady interceding for the sick! John said of the day that it was "GOOD!" And when we returned to France 2 years later for Hallel to take her first vows - he returned there healed and thankful to her. He was in love with our humble loving Mother of God!
In Lourdes...Such a powerful image of united in our support of John and battle for his life!
John discovered that with the help of his two sisters - he could walk much quicker with their support. From behind it just looks like Christ on the Cross! Cancer was certainly John's Cross, and through it he found LIFE and LOVE everlasting - the Faith that he had longed and prayed for! His family, although distressed to have him suffer, yet we supported him in any way we could and rejoiced with him at his seeing the LIGHT and the Truth of Jesus, and his Bride, the Church!
His love for Mary brought him to find the faith he had asked for! This is a powerful witness of how a mother's love comforts and allows us to go forth and face Goliath in our lives!
She shared with him on the occasion of his proposing to her, about 5 months later, that she had been praying for her future husband and knew that it would be John for 10 years!!!
Her amazing story!
After being classmates for all 13 years for them to come together 10 years after graduating is kind of special. She shared to the 300 family and friends gathered at the reception in her sweet humble way about how John Verly popped into her head and heart when they were seniors in HS as her future husband. Time and time again the same answer came to her through prayer and roses from St Therese and opening her eyes to see him right in front of her at WYD in Australia... When we consider what John experienced over those 10 years... brain cancer, seminary, girl friends, ups and downs and how disheartening it probably was and how powerful her prayers were for him!!!! Amazing!!! And how patient and trusting and prayerful and waiting and praying for John, this sweet girl was!
Down the narrow path following our Lord, Jesus Christ as we take up our most Cherished Cross and follow Jesus!
I know that I am on a tangent, but such a glorious one that I want to hold so tightly to!
Jesus, I love you and am so blessed that you gave me your Mother at the foot of your Cross to bring into my home! Each time we go to France we are called to spend some time with your Mother in Lourdes! How we rejoice in being able to share in such a powerful and beautiful Truth! Your Mother's LOVE for us and how she brings us to You, my Jesus, and your Bride, The Church! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
From the Psalm at mass today... how I love to be with you, O Lord, and to share it with my domestic Church/family is my Heaven here on earth!
Responsorial Psalm 84:3, 4, 5 and 10, 11
R. (2) How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My discerning a call to religious life, which opened the door for me to enter the Church as the oldest of 11 with my entire family - "I want to be a nun, so I want to be Catholic." I now have my nun, and can share in her JOY! Bless-bless, Barb
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
Feast: February 11th
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“Let the storm rage and the sky darken not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.”
– Pope St. Pius X
“All the shrines of Mary,
scattered throughout the world,
have become above all
centers of devotion to the Eucharist,
as if the Mother of Jesus had appeared,
here or there,
in order to lead the faithful to the
adoration and love of her blessed Son.”
Pope St John XXIII
.
*Lourdes, France, has become a place of pilgrimage and healing, but even more of faith.
It is a continuation of Jesus’ healing miracles. Many who visit Lourdes return
home with renewed faith and a readiness to more generously serve God.
There still may be people who doubt the apparitions of Lourdes. Perhaps
the best that can be said are the words that introduce the film, Song of Bernadette:
"For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary.
For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible."
Only known picture of St Bernadette at the Grotto
(taken after the apparitions of 1858)
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