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!
Up early for John's annual MRI. Mayo was as usual very busy - Monday morning!
How many times have we been in this room for John's MRIs. I think he has counted about 25 plus over the last 11 years since we began our journey called brain cancer/healing/and on with the life for the new and healed John, who found his faith through brain cancer now 11 years later!
The familiar clip board with the questions to answer. He thinks that they are shorter than years ago.
It was interesting to see how covid is being handled here - the best place in the world to be if you have illness! A checkpoint where only the symptom questions are asked, no temp taken as John reminded me the sick could have a temp due to their cancer, illness or from their treatments, then we were given a Monday sticker to show that we had been through the checkpoint as we come and go.
Around 7a on the clock...
So often we have waited here and John goes back for the MRI... today they gave him a mask with no metal over his nose as there can be no metal in the machine... yes, he had to wear the mask inside the machine, and took a nap.
I was very curious about the seating - rather than shoulder to shoulder the chairs were moved so that you and the one person you are allowed to have with you could sit together, but the others were moved away from you. Still many people sitting in the waiting room at one time, so although we were wearing masks and sitting apart... still people were sharing their stories with each other... I heard 2nd hand about a husband there with his wife from Iowa who had pancreatic cancer and a father there with his 33 year old son, who has MS, who were from Kansas City.
Suddenly John called yesterday morning to ask if I could come along with him today. His wife was under the weather...
Unexpected to be here today, and the memories are strong especially knowing that tomorrow is December 1st and 11 years ago we had a week of prayer for John as he was to begin his whole brain radiation as the cancer was growing back through the chemo! We were terrified and the 168 hours of prayer - 24/7 for an entire week was brought so much peace to us, and we could, once again, give control over to Jesus and TRUST!
My Monday sticker up side down and John's tattered around the edges. We are old well seasoned warriors when it comes to this place and the amazing care and healing we have received over these 11 years! John's story continues now with wife and two sweet children!
Last week John called his cancer doctor about a woman we know that is facing cancer... she answered on the second ring and within an hour had called out to Pennsylvania to talk to this person! So blessed by the care and concern we have encountered from day 1 here!
Pat a few days ago with George! Pat was fake planning to come along with us today, but then we realized that only one person could get into Mayo with a patient.
Pat wanted to take John someplace where they had seen similar cancer in his age group... coming to Mayo, where they see it all, was what he needed for peace of mind when our 19 year old son had a very rare brain cancer!
On our trip here we were recalling how we were reassured that this was as amazing as they say... 9 years ago John had what looked to be a stroke, but nothing showed up on the MRI in the Cities! They were baffled! We called John's Dr Brian O'Neal, who got us to Rochester in the first place about this and he said right away..."That sounds like SMART syndrome. Stroke like symptoms related to radiation." Wow! We were quickly on our way to Rochester, and John was to begin taking a whole aspirin each day.
We have plans to go to St John the Evangelist for mass at noon today... the feast of St Andrew!
"Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
At oncethey(Simon Peter and Andrew)left their nets
andfollowed Him.~ Matt 4: 19(Today's Gospel)
John burns to share his story far and wide also and to carry forth as a fisher of men for The Way, the Truth, and the LIFE - Jesus!
Still aglow after our wonderful farm family sharing mass and our sweet breakfast with a happy healthy farm family!John's story continues with wife and child and the new John. We are very grateful that they continue to keep us coming back to our amazing Mayo, which was a huge part of his healing along with Our Lady of Lourdes and hundreds of prayer warriors!
John's cancer brought our family together! That is John's greatest JOY to have all his sisters around him... we have grown to 30 with a new member to join us this spring!
Anointed here in Rochester just before his biopsy by Fr Craig and Hallel back from France/Kansas City! The Church was our strength and HOPE!
France miracle - for Hallel taking her habit at the same time! Fr Craig was there for us there also! We are so blessed! Jesus, we trust in you. Bless-bless, Barbara and John in Rochester at the end of November 2020! We are leaving to attend mass at our familiar St John's at noon on this feast of St Andrew
For You have built Your Church
to stand firm on apostolic foundations,
to be a lasting sign of Your holiness on earth
and offer all humanity Your heavenly teaching.
Therefore, now and for ages unending,
with all the host of Angels,
we sing to You with all our hearts, crying out as we acclaim:
Beginning on St. Andrew's Feast Day, November 30, the following prayer is traditionally recited fifteen timesa day until Christmas. This is a beautifully meditative prayer that helps us increase our awareness ofthe real focus of Christmas and helps us prepare ourselves spiritually for His coming.
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires,[here mention your request]through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
_______________________________________________
Love this - 15 times a day would do it! Allow you to focus on the meaning of the Season - the Reason of the Season!
A parting group shot of Pat and I with part of the 8 grandkids that shared an afternoon and evening together including 2 meals, time at the park, riding bikes, and watching Home Alone 2 followed by ice cream bars. All in all a very special extension of Thanksgiving as Nancy was unable to come our way, so 2 days later we went to see them.
The entire crew as we brought the 3 middle kids from the farm... we have found that going up and back in the same day is very doable and that way we sleep in our own beds and get up and share our 8a mass followed by our wonderful Sunday brunch!
Little 1 1/2 year old George hardly ever left his grandpa's lap. He cried and reached his arms out for him when he left.
He did come over to sit on grandma's lap and show me his one year old book... Nancy makes a book for each birthday for her kids. How they love to look at them over and over. 4 year old ine is showing grandpa her 4 books - one for each new year.
Grandpa and George even painted together... very thick and covered the whole paper.
Ruth and Paul were busy while we were away... not only did they go caroling with the piano in the back of the pickup, but they did the lights all around the roofs and the porch and it was quite the sight to return home to! There plenty of Christmas lights already up on our trip and got you really in the mood for the Big First Sunday of Advent this morning!
The first candle on the Advent wreath lit with a beautiful prayer as Fr Denny lit it! So special to have him here officiating at mass this morning with Deacon Ken.
16 year old Simon has the job of placing the Sunday sweets on a big platter. They have installed a door bell that they can push when they want Simon to appear from his room up stairs. So smart and cuts down on the yelling up the stairs. I certainly recall doing that myself in this same house for his mother, her sisters and brother. Simon gives me such sweet smiles with his sweet tray, and grandma loves that soft happy look!
So stunningly beautiful!!! Joy shares the JOY of the beautiful Christmas stocking her mother did with hours of needle work back at the time of her birth... in time for her first Christmas - this is now her 3rd and the excitement is now shared by her with her 5 siblings! Behind her in the bright sun is our Sunday breakfast table with the Advent wreath lit on this first Sunday with the candle of HOPE!
Ruth's beautiful open floor plan of her old farm house! This used to be our bedroom and the kitchen on the other side of the house. Ruth knew that she wanted to be able to view the yard from her "command station" sink!
Today they arrived home to the cows out all over the yard! "Good thing I hadn't mowed for a few weeks, because they were all on my grass eating and very easy to round up and get back in the yard!"
How do you get Simon to relax and give a happy smile?... have him pose with his art work called Sweet Roll Tray. We love sharing our Love for Jesus and His Church which we join together to worship and adore... by joining as a happy family around Ruth's beautiful table!
Yes, Ruth made a work of Art for each of her 6 children. Each Christmas she also makes a nativity ornament for her children and Godchildren... a wonderful idea has come to her! She will incorporate these works of art and beauty into a tree skirt for each one to take with them into their own homes someday. Ruth is a master at thoughtful beautiful home made gifts for many over the years. She started with hundreds of afghans to all!!! Learning at the feet of her wonderful Grandma Ann, and carrying it forth!
Praying out on the porch with dad while he watched the cows around our red barn. The afghan is one the Ruth made for my parents on the lake. He used it with comfort from his home and from Ruth with love! I returned it to her now that he is gone.
Praying with the cat rubbing my toes and dad covered up with his blanket hug of Ruth's afghan.
The tree planted in their new landscaping now has Christmas lights on it... the cows back in the pasture, and trying to get out of the cold raw wind today.
Advent table set for our sharing of JOY and PEACE! Outside the pasture full of our cows.
Kids inside and cows outside as we prepare our Sunday joyful meal...
Ruth's command station with the fruit preparers... grandpa, grandma and Joy went and got fruit, yogurt, rolls, and drink and we come home and quickly the willing crew has it on the table.
The readings today on this First Sunday of Advent were great, and filled with us always "Watching and being vigilant and ready for our Lord to come! As Father was preaching and speaking about how we are to watch and not fall asleep to the task. I thought of my dad and how he prayed every day - we did our work and were good for one another to keep us at the task! Then remembering how Fr Denny came about a week and a half before he died and heard his confession and Anointed him... so powerful to have those two Sacraments so very close to his passing... he was definitely "watching and waiting with great vigilance for his leaving this world and seeing the Lord face to face.
Now the Christmas tree! The kids gathered around to put the top in place after they had moved some sections of the couch so that it could shine forth from the big huge picture window!
Oh, the joy and happiness of having a house full of siblings - so much better than things! There is on comparison from having brothers and sisters to having stuff!
One more because it is a picture of sharing in the excitement and beauty of Advent
I need to go and at least get my Advent wreath out... it looks like either Pat or I are going along with John to Rochester for his yearly MRI. His wife is unable so suddenly we are needing to be his companion. Things are so different now with covid - only one of us can go into Mayo, and it just reminds us of this messed up world we are in these days.
A picture that says a lot! Thanksgiving is stretched out this year and in many places as long as you can spend time with family and be thankful for that. Also that hubby Pat is between times on the farm - done with harvest and a while till calving. So let's go places and do things! And foremost is times with our family here and there... KC, Tacoma, Delano, and Marshall! Bless-bless, Barbara
A watercolor Joy and grandma did for Ruth and Paul's 17th anniversary last weekend. On thanksgiving Joy had to bring it over to show me our work of art for her loving parents.
How I love to share my watercoloring time with the grandkids... there are fake plans to get together for our first ever big family Christmas in January and watercolor time with grandma is on the list. So happy and excited to make fake plans for family gatherings in the midst of this uncertain world!
Love my prayer time on Fridays for Father Denny with 7 sisters! The Church with Jesus in the tabernacle and the late afternoon light cast upon him on the Cross is so intimate and powerful at the same time.
Between Ruth and Paul I placed Jesus on the Cross as we are called to die to self in our married lives and our spouse is our Most Cherished Cross that accomplishes this as we are called to place our spouse above our own needs and in that way die to self so that Christ in His Holy Spirit may dwell in our inner temples and we can be his hands and feet. As Ruth and Paul have taught me - we are then able to be "LIFE-giving" one to the other! In not only what we do for each other, but what we say to them.
The holy cards Ruth and Paul gave out at their wedding 17 years ago - blessed by St JPII in Rome!
On the other side a prayer that Pat and I are saying for our marriage and those of our 5 children and beyond! Even Hallel is a bride of Christ and that is so powerful and at times very difficult also. Join us in this prayer as we know marriage is a very hard daily Sacrament we are called upon to embrace our Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!
Jesus aglow with unconditional LOVE and forgiveness for us... which we are asked to give to all those around us in return. So very hard to do- most especially to those the closest to us that we knee jerk and treat the worst.
"My man Brother Victor-Antione" as dad used to call him had some wonderful things to say today in his sharing and dad underlined the words just to make them come from him too! Yes, we need to be first of all united with God and from there we are given the ability as the Spirit works within us to do our "work" in this world, in our domestic Church/family! This calls me to prayer without ceasing!
Today we have plans to do a quick up and back in the same day trip to see our Nancy and her family. We are taking along some "day-trippers"/cousins from the farm to share in the crazy times! Although the van will be filled with family... my rosary will be in my fingers and the prayers in my chapel on wheels will fill me with Joy and Peace!
Morning prayer this morning was a powerful one for my father and therefore with me and then I share it with my brother, Dan and his wonderful wife!
The name of the Lord and Jesus meant so much to my wonderful Deacon Robert Cross father! He shared this with us in his own words, and we see it pointed out to us in his well worn prayer book!
Words – certain words –
have gained great significance for me. Reading the scriptures, these
words have leapt from the page; I have even taken to underlining
every time I find them. They center my life. The first is NAME.
How
many times the scriptures tell us to honor the Name. In the Old
Testament when God reveals His Name to Moses, the very ground where
it occurs is declared holy, and God’s holy name is so sacred that
the Old Testament substitutes “Lord” for every occurrence of the
NAME – YAHWEH. He is Our Father, ABBA.
In
the New Covenant, the Name is JESUS. “There of Jesus taken in vain.
I
desire GLORY be given to the NAME. Glory is the way we praise GOD in
the Highest. This is to enter the radiance, the magnificence, the
awesome presence of the NAME. GLORY
BE TO YOU, O LORD!
We
are not to be shy or timid about our praise of the GLORY, we are to
SHOUT WITH JOY TO THE LORD! If within our spirits we feel this
exuberant shout when we contemplate the Holy Name, our spirits are
lifted up and we are filled with joy, and the temptations that beset
us fall apart like the walls of Jericho which came down at the SHOUT
of the people of God. These words – when placed in the context of
the Catholic Church of Jesus – become radiant with life and, in
this context, I bequeath them to the next generation of this family
and to those many others that I have loved in this life. is no other
Name under heaven by which we are to be saved.” JESUS!
When God’s name is treated lightly, when used coarsely as in the
exclamation, “O God!” it’s painful, as it is when I hear the
Name
Yes, Lord, "our very existence is a gift from you; to you we offer all that we have and are!!" We rejoice and give you Thanksgiving with this new day and an opportunity to spend time with our family in Delano. R. (1 Cor 16: 22b, see Rev. 22: 20c) Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus! Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalms to him. R. Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus! For the LORD is a great God, and a great king above all gods; In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the tops of the mountains are his. His is the sea, for he has made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. R. Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus! Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. R. Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus! Psalm 95 from mass today is wonderful and lead us into Advent which begins tomorrow! Very excited to be entering this most special holy season of The Church! Come, Lord Jesus, we need you and long to be totally yours in all that we say and do - bringing LIFE into our homes and families and our domestic Church! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Time with the ducks... Pat and I are now duck farmers. "I never thought I would be a duck farmer." From my hubby! Of course, he is also a beef farmer, corn farmer, bean farmer, strong farmer, feeder of the world farmer, plus he loves to can our produce with us to feed our 7 families - well, maybe 6 now that my parents are gone...
Today we bring a car load up for Nancy and Bill and their 5 kids! There is a a long list of soup, sauce, apple and spaghetti, and pie filling and hamburger... Our farm feeds many families and we love to do the work and see how it is appreciated! In a few weeks Pat and I will be taking a loaded truck to our Community of the Lamb in KC! We receive back from them 100 fold with the prayers and sacraments we share in their glorious holy chapel! Bless-bless, Barbara
John's story...Little Brother David in France tells us the story of his name!
