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!
Cows and calved moved into a new pasture for the first time ! Loved the perspective of them on the hill above me with the beauty of the clouds overhead! I call them silhouette pictures as it they are set against the clouds.
Another calf reaches the clouds!
Yesterday was a big day in which we moved 3 sets of cows and calves into different pastures, and did a lot of 4 wheeling up and down huge hills to accomplish our work. I am in fear a lot of the times we are steeply climbing or going straight down!
Psalm 34 today gives me comfort and reminds me to offer it up for the poor souls and hold on tight to my strong and hard working hubby! Come, children, hear me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Which of you desires life, and takes delight in prosperous days? R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Psalm 34
Checking to see how deep the moisture is in the bean field after the 8 tenths of rain... he was impressed! Thank you, Lord and Lady!
The last of the calves going into the next pasture...
The ground is hard after this early drought, so a big stone was needed to pound the post in by the manmade pond, which is needed for water this year.
Trump hat for keeping the sun out of my eyes in the bright sunny day...
People in our families applaud this... so many prayers for our country!
Pat running the camera - recording the Trump hat still appreciated by me and the cows!
I was saddle weary last night after 4 wheeler riding a big part of the day.
Pat and his cows and calves - he cares for them from birth to death. Feeding the world - "the 4th is a good time for beef - people like their steaks on the grill!"
On his knees often throughout his day of moving pastures and checking fences by a refreshed bean field after almost an inch of rain!
In his office on wheels...
The clouds were so beautiful! I had to stop just down the road from our place to take some pictures of the sky! A taste of heaven!
Pat made a path down the ditch to get them into a pasture we haven't used before. It worked well!
Found this yesterday of a rainbow in the Boundary waters - an eye! So many thoughts and prayers for the farm family with their last night on the waters tonight. Tomorrow at some point they need to leave it behind - so excited to hear about their time there, and so many prayers to their guardian angels for safety.
I must admit that I will not miss taking care of David's ducks, Mary's goats, and checking pastures... this old lady is a poor replacement for the young ones!
6 years ago we had just arrived in Michigan! I find that I am quite sad and down and I know that a lot of it is because these were our fabulous weeks in Michigan over the 4th of July. It is no more in our lives, and there were some fake plans for Rose, David and I going at some point, but summer is quickly filling up. I know offer it up and TRUST!
I went for the shade of a lone tree while I waited for Pat to walk a fence... suddenly all the cows and calves decided that they wanted to find some shade, too! Soon I had very close to me adorable calves, and...
Eating the leaves off the tree I was sitting under. Pat says that they love leaves the most of anything!
Quite a sensation to be sitting under a branch that is being eaten very near to where you are sitting.
My close personal companions seemed to lose all fear of me so that they could eat their wonderful leaves in the shade.
A minute before they were out of sight over the hill and then they all came pouring down the hill and all around me in the shade.
Looking sleek and healthy and doing well on the pastures.
A cow in the clouds nursing her calf.
A refreshed corn field - today Pat continues to pray for "bountiful rains. dear Lord." Hear our prayer.
The end of a week of family 5 years ago... many prayers that we can come together this summer, too!
July is tomorrow, and summer is definitely here with heat and sun and not much rain. It keeps us on our knees in our inner temple. There is nothing you can do about mother nature except for prayer!
John and the kids out for lunch and naps here... Birdie loves her thumb like her 4 Aunts! It made for wonderful naptime - which they all adored to have their blankets and thumbs and this mom loved the peace and rest time too! I think John likes her loving her blanket and thumb, too!
The best picture ever from 1992 Easter - Easter hat and John falling down picture
The cows and calves streaming into a new lush pasture - it went much better than we thought it would!
A kitten visiting the goats this morning. All gathered around the feeders.
Brother Victor today out in the summer jobs and caring for food and animals looks on the positive side of things! A good reminder that we are always with God - the clouds bring my thoughts heaven ward as I have my rosary beads as my companion for the times I am waiting in the shade for Pat!
Lord and Lady how I love you and am lifted up in prayer throughout my day. Praying for safety and good family times. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Michigan? No the creek full about 8 years ago. This year there are many places with no water. Lord, we need rain!
Hallel on my mind and heart - knowing of her prayers for her family from France! And my parents now in heaven together after 7 months apart - praying more perfectly for their family!
Offer it up... so good to pray together this morning to start our day together. Bless-bless, Barbara
"My mission in heaven will be to draw souls,
helping themto go out of themselves to cling to God,
with a spontaneous, love-filled action,
and to keep them in that great interior silence
which enables God to make His mark on them,
to transform them to Himself." - St Elizabeth of the Trinity
"To contemplate Christ
involves being able to recognize Him
whenever He manifests Himself,
in His many forms of presence,
but above all in the living sacrament
of His body and His blood.
The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist;
"The farm" in Milltown, WI about 50+ years ago just after we bought a building site which the farmer thought would tear down the house and maybe use the nice dairy barn for something. Surprise! My parents bought it as a project to get the 11 kids out of the inner city of Minneapolis, make it livable and spend weeks in the summer gardening and getting out of the city.
I found this as a memory from facebook, where my mother had just joined on this day in 2015 and this was her first post!
She also shared this picture of the farm finished and cute - her words which give me much JOY!
"I've been remembering summers for 10 years when we packed the trailer with bikes and took all 11 kids to the farm away from the city and friends. They played and worked; eventually making this dilapidated farmhouse into a friendly place (If you don't mind being without running water). Was this cruel and unusual punishment?" NO! It was great for us to learn a good work ethic and probably kept many of us out of trouble a bit longer in our lives!
2 year ago we had all our grandkids together on the farm! Pat with the 3 little 2 year old girls!
Grandma with the 3 little girls in their matching outfits 2 years ago. I had just been butchering chickens so it is good that the 3 cuties are in front of me!
We had rain 2 years ago and lots of smiles and giggles this day!
Ruth's beautiful playhouse 2 years ago!
yes, they are attached to our heart - how can this be allowed to happen?
Maria 7 years ago in Michigan - my heart aches for the inland sea at this time of summer every year - I feel sad and down, as I have such a deep love for Lake Michigan since growing up there each summer as a girl. Bless-bless, Barbara
Great news - Nancy's baby is healthy and moving all around in her ultrasound this morning! Looks like it is floating on a cloud in her womb. Many prayers for Ruth and Nancy due about a month apart towards the end of the year!
I found myself thanking both Our Lord and Our Lady for this good news as so many prayers surround the girls and the new life in their wombs! The main prayer that is with me without ceasing is the "Hail Mary " while meditating on the life of Christ, so thanks to both just seems so right! To say "thank you, Lord." just doesn't seem to cover it properly!
Mass in the beautiful church that Bill and Nancy attend in Delano - St Maximilian Kolbe!
John and I praying into Monday morning together this morning - such a blessing to come before Our Lord through Our Lady! I than do my litany of our 2 families - 250+ including our new little ones in the womb! Often I smile thinking about dad with his family litany each Monday that we prayed together - first and middle names!
Baby goats using the hay feeder as a bed this morning.
Moving out so that I could feed them hay.
My job this morning to help out hubby was to check the fences and the cows. The sun was bright, the winds were cool and wonderful, and the wild flowers along the road and in the pastures beckoned! I saw a blue heron fly up from what was left of the pasture pond, a morning dove sitting on the wire, and so many rabbits seem to be everywhere this year and my poor beets show that they love the greens as do I!
Wild roses, clovers, which remind me of the senior pictures I took of Maria laying in a huge patch of purple clovers, ... beyond a still dry corn field behind Ruth and Paul's - we only got a couple tenths over the weekend. So many prayers for rain, O Lord and Lady!
Having some fun with nature all around me!
More clovers and black eyed susans at another pasture - in all I visited 5 pastures and thankfully there was water and the electric fence was working everywhere except for around the goats - but thankfully that was a quick fix!
Out to water Ruth's hanging baskets and found more wildlife - a toad...
Daisies just about done, but her coneflowers are opening - all different colors! I am so impressed by her beautiful yard and all the hard work she does to keep it so beautiful! As I say, she has the life she grew up with but does it so much more wonderfully!
Mary and Therese dressing up baby Josephine 5 years ago... from my memories I am starting to see that this is when we tend to gather as a family. It would be our 2 weeks in Michigan over the 4th, so it looks like it is true here on the farm now that Michigan is a memory from the past.
Many prayers for us to get together this summer too!
My chariot awaits!
Lonesome Teddy by Ruth's beautiful begonias! No kids around to take pictures of as they are day #3 on the boundary waters today! So many prayers for safety and many thoughts of how they are doing.
St Irenaeus today! Dad and his words from the Office of Readings today
I am gaining so much appreciation and amazement at the wisdom of The Church Fathers! I know for many this brought about conversion to The True Church!
Words from St Mother Teresa of Calcutta today. This goes along with the motto of The Community of the Lamb - "Wounded, I will never cease to love." The Lamb shows us how...
Mom and Pope Benedict XVI today! He teaches me so much and really ties it all together with The Perfect Plan of God!
The Psalm today is filled with Praise and JOY and Truth - the Lord is kind and merciful! I want to add - The Lord and The Lady are kind and Merciful! They are together for me, and we cannot love her more than Jesus does!
R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
The Lord and The Lady are kind and merciful!
I have set you an example
that you should do
as I have done for you.
John 13:15
In May 1941, Fr Jean Bernard was arrested for denouncing the Nazis and sent to Dachua’s “Priest Block,” a barracks that housed more than 3,000 clergymen of various denominations (the vast majority Roman Catholic priests). Priestblock 25487 tells the gripping true story of his survival amid inhumane brutality, degradation and torture. Later this book was adapted by director Volker Schlondorff into the award-winning film, The Ninth Day.(Both book and film highly recommended.)
FOLLOWING: an excerpt from
Priestblock 25487, A Memoir of Dachua by Fr Jean Bernard
“Mass is always celebrated by the same priest, a former chaplain in the Polish army, the only one who has been given permission. … The sacred rite commences. It proceeds in haste, and the gathering is uneasy and nervous. Everyone knows that the Mass is tolerated rather than really allowed, and each time it could be disrupted. …
The celebrant speaks the prayers of the Mass in a loud voice, and the others whisper them in accompaniment. At the offering we raise our hands with the tiny bit of Host. Before the transubstantiation someone plucks my sleeve. “Prosze,” he says in Polish, “please.” Then he puts his particle of host in my hand, next to my own. I gather that he is not a priest, perhaps only a seminarian or monk, for the celebrant’s intention is to consecrate all the pieces of Host that are being held by priests.
“Hoc est corpus meum.”I look at the two bits of Host in my hand, and as the One for Whom we are suffering all this comes into our midst, as in their hearts hundreds of priests join their offering with that of the Savior, tears roll down my cheeks.It becomes a single offering that certainly creates new ties between heaven and earth.
For Holy Communion the priests gather the pieces together; the communicants are the non-priests who entrusted a small bit of the Host to them.
It is a sea of comfort that pours out over the gathering. Comfort and hope and strength for new suffering joyfully accepted.”
