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!
4 year old Rose with a sink of gold! We had just switched places and did 200 quarts of frozen corn this day 5 years ago!
5 years ago really shows me that this is a poor year for all of our usual summer activities related to farming. Normally there was a sweet corn patch that provided a dozen pails of corn to freeze and many ears to eat for a week, but we have yet to have even one ear of corn this year.
Started my morning in church praying with 7 Sisters for my dear priest friend, Fr Denny. I always look over at the 10th Station - Jesus is stripped, and think of my nun daughter, Little Sister Hallel, who is living in France this year.
The Catholic School girl picture taken shortly after we moved to our farm in 1987 - Susan would have been 2 here. I loved to have a theme or sew them matching outfits after girl #4. One of my favorite spots for pictures with Our Lady under the tall sparse pine tree, which is now gone as Ruth had a different vision of her farm place - which is beautiful in every way!
Yes, I am on a tangent today as I am caught up in my page devoted to Hallel's call to religious life... here she is being baptized by my Deacon father, Robert, who baptized all of our kids! Two years before I married he was ordained a permanent Deacon! 44 years at his death a year ago..
Susan's baptism with my dad officiating as Deacon. This was a most crazy time in my life. I had sat in the barn on a pail with my other 3 around me and cried through my entire pregnancy with Susan! My precious younger sister, Mary, newly married to her dairy farmer in Wisconsin with a new baby, had been diagnosed with 4th stage Lymphoma!
I wept and prayed through my entire pregnancy, and it is so interesting to now see Hallel and how emotions just are not entertained by her. She shrugs when you ask her how she feels about things, like it is not worth wasting her time on such things as feelings. Mary is a very important sister in my life... we shared a close bond even though we are 7 years apart in age. We resemble our mother with our dark coloring, and maybe that was part of our coming to a closeness?
On our retreat from the city to our cabin at Lake Michigan in the summers - Mary and I would walk down the beach together looking for fossils, and talking about whatever girls would talk about in that day and age. We probably discussed our siblings, and school, and how wonderfully we were blessed to be walking beside this beautiful lake in sugar sand and glorious sunshine. Happy in the bosom of our family, with loving parents that for Protestants surprised many with their openness to LIFE! Mary was number 5, and there were two brothers after her... and then we added 4 more after their parents were killed in an accident! We reached a total of 11, and actually 12 as we had a brother - a twin to Philip- who lived for 2 days, and is buried in a cemetary in New Hampshire where my dad had been called to his first church - Baptist.
Mary and I would head out for our walks often - maybe daily. She was considerably shorter than I, at this time, and I would drape my arm around her shoulders and she fit under there nicely. True closeness! Visiting, and laughing, and feeling so blessed in this gloriously beautiful peaceful place away from all the hustle and distractions of life in the world. Mary and I both developed a love of nature and of art. We both sketched, as we watched our mother draw and paint in the sand dunes. How this poured out of the two of us... in my romantic early Catholic days and beyond. Both found the farming countryside of "the farm" in Wisconsin to inspire our call to capture nature as a reflection of God's LOVE for us!
My patron saint - St Luke welcomes me from the window on the side with the 4 Evangelists as I enter the quiet church to pray while Pat is donating blood in the church basement. It is fitting and cool that his image is that of a bull! A foretaste of my farm wife status given me 43 years ago when I married my farmer, Patrick.
Why St Luke? As a new Catholic and soon to be confirmed at a huge adult confirmation in the Cathedral in St Paul. I was a nursing student in college and St Luke was a physician and also shared with us Our Lady in his Gospel! Those two reasons were huge for my decision to choose a man saint for my own. Barbara Luke became my handle in those early Catholic days, and I have been reminded that I had a grandchild named after me before Birdie Barbara - Luke!
Dad Baptizing John in 1989... It was certainly special to have him attend the baptism of Birdie Barbara last year while he lived here with me for the last 6 months of his life!
The roses still beautiful a week later! The Baptismal font where Birdie was baptized and my father witnessed. I can hardly believe that it all happened and at the time our months felt to be long in some ways, and now way too short!
Praying this morning for Fr Denny - I pray the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer of The Church as I know that I am joining Fr Denny in this way. Today this sprung forth from Psalm 35 for my sweet "daughter"/friend, Catie, who lost her mother suddenly just a day ago from a heart attack.
"My prayer was ever on my lips, * as for a brother, a friend. I went as though mourning a mother, * bowed down with grief." Psalm 35:10
There is such a deep loss when we lose our mother! My loss is still very fresh also, and I lost my mother in a day on March 16,2020. I rushed to her side and was able to say "goodbye" and to have my siblings call and say their gut wrenching farewells also. How I wept as I held the speaker phone to her ear, and listened to their words of love and thankfulness.
My sweet friend is so much on my heart, mind and soul! She and her mother, were part of our TEC - Together Encounter Christ family and although not blood we are truly family united in Christ and His Church!
The LIGHT above my head today as I prayed the rosary for Fr Denny and my sweet Catie - a friend that we share was there in each prayer said too.
Dad's markings in his prayer book left behind for me on Psalm 100, which we prayed to begin each morning prayer we shared after breakfast as we did our work of prayer. "Give thanks to him and bless his name." How dad appreciated The Name! "I circle it every time I find it. It centers my life!"
St Mother Teresa cutting to the marrow! Only sin is time for sorrow! May we take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to be washed clean and recover our JOY!
Brother Victor is so wonderful to have along for my journey thanks to dad!
Yes, I feel that total absorption sitting here each day. I am always amazed at the time that has passed and yes... the tangents and directions I am led in the process.
I am so excited to know that today is the feast of Blessed Solanus Casey - he is such a close personal friend that gave us great comfort during John's brain cancer, and there is no doubt that he was part of John's healing!
John's story continues now with wife and 2 children!
We put the word out that at the 8a mass in November of 2009 that John would be prayed over with the relic and annointed! The church was full of people!!!! Fr Paul had us come out into the aisle during mass, and all those there raised their hands in John's direction and joined us in the trusting prayers for healing. My parents said that for there to be miraculous healing that John would have all the cancer gone as well as the healing of his ataxia - he would have been running and leaping down the aisle - a living miracle. It didn't happen that way, but we do add this to the combined work of the Church, and his army of prayer warriors in his eventual healing which has lasted to this day - now over 12 years later with all cancer gone!
I had a dear Emmaus sister share with me a few years later that she had been suffering with a stomache ailment for quite sometime, and prayed for healing at that mass - "I was healed! It was gone!" So uplifting to hear this added part of the big picture of John's healing and Saints at work in real ways!
The group that gathered around John that day in October 2009.
The relic now resides here, and is used in prayer for those in need often!
The small piece of his clothing that he wore in our lifetime! And right next store in Wisconsin and Michigan!
Happy Feast Day Blessed Father Solanus Casey 1870-1957 Memorial: July 30 Father Solanus Casey was born in Wisconsin to a large Irish family, steeped in a strong Catholic faith. He was ordained in 1904 as a “Simplex” Capuchin priest because of his less than stellar, academic work. His first assignment was in Yonkers, N.Y. where he was a sacristan, doorkeeper, and porter. In 1924 he was assigned to St. Bonaventure in Detroit, MI. He was always open to the poor, sick and troubled souls. The prayer of “Thanks be to God” poured continually from his lips. “Love for God and neighbor” is another recurring theme of his writings along with obedience, trust, humility, and patience.
John with Our Lady in Lourdes - we have visited her here now 3 times beginning a few months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. There for Hallel to take her habit and change her name, her first vows in 2011, and her final vows in 2018 with 21 of her family there - "the mountain" moved through Faith!
He fell head over heels in love with Our Lady! "There is a better mother than you, mom." "I fully agree with you, John." My heart is so full today... I need to stop these crazy tangents - Jesus, we trust in you. Bless-bless, Barbara
A miraculous sight a year ago... Thank you Lord!
Danielle Rose - all so good and written in front of Jesus in Adoration!
Pat drew attention at the Wright County Fair with his Cattleman's shirt - I Outsource my plant digestion - praying the rosary at noon for rain! We are on our knees in desperation for the rain to get any kind of a crop at all... already it is so much less than it could have been if we had gotten rain regularly through the spring and summer.
This horrible heat has virtually killed corn and beans. I am amazed that the bean fields can still look green at all!
A year ago now Hallel was here on the farm for her home visit after 3 years. The crops were looking wonderful, and the rain did stop in August so that the beans did not yield as well as we hoped. But the corn had July rains and did well. This year we are suffering tremendously with virtually no rain all summer! "Rain makes grain." is my husband's famous true saying!
Joy under her Aunt's scapular - the color of the sky and the shape of the Cross - is how her founder describes the habit of the Little Sisters of The Community of the Lamb. Such a wonderful example of a wonderful option for each of our grandchildren! How I pray and encourage each of them to have being a nun, brother, or priest as a beautiful life choice option and to ask the Lord to reveal his plan for each of them!
Hallel and my father, a permanent deacon for 44 years, had not seen each other for 12 years - since Hallel had left for France to join her Community in September of 2008! One of the most precious time was when Hallel would sing The Angelus for dad while we would pray together on the porch. Dad loved The Angelus and to hear it sung with Hallel's beautiful voice in Gregorian chant - heavenly!
Sharing her prayer life, and love of her spouse, Jesus Christ, in Word and Eucharist. Deacon Robert and nun, Little Sister Hallel, grandfather and granddaughter share faith deeply after 12 years.
The Angelus - gregorian chant now in English
As a Bride of Christ, Hallel hungers for her Spouse each day - she needs to have Eucharist and Adoration! So privileged to share that deeply intimate time with my daughter!
Each time I spend any time in our glorious Church - I look over at the 10th station of the Cross - Jesus is stripped. When Susan/Hallel came home from the discernment house in 2008 confused and sad - asking the Lord to show her his plan for her. She got a key so that she could have a hour of prayer before the 7a mass each morning. She would sit by the 10th Station, and I asked her if she sat there because it signifies humility. "No, mom, I sit there because it is the last pew with a kneeler, and I don't want people to see my cry."
A few weeks later her beloved Community of The Lamb came to America to start their first foundation here in the U.S. in Kansas City, KS - in the heart of our suffering sinful country! Hallel went to help with making an old Belgian rectory into their new home - working on the chapel. It was there in front of Our Lady of Guadalupe altar that she told us she was leaving to France to join them! So powerful!
Humbly pleading for rain on our knees! "Please send us bountiful rains, Our Lady!"
As Father Tony prayed for her assistance to allow us to feed the world. We are also in a quandary in finding the grass and water for our cows and calves. Much to pray about and a lot of work ahead for the farmers!
Precious keepsakes from a year ago when we had the once every 3-4 year home visit of our nun! This year she is living in Saint Pierre, France for the year. We get occasional phone calls and know of her prayers for her family. Especially her two sisters that have life in the womb - prayers without ceasing!
Taking in the active family life we enjoy with Ruth, Paul and their 6 going on 7 have living on the farm. How we rejoice to have a young active family, who love the farm making it their own. I am sure that Hallel prays for our safety - "guardian angels watch out for each and every one!"
Hallel and Jude with Our Lady watching over...
Church cleaning last evening - I was so close to Jesus as I dust mopped the altar... The Lamb of God!
Should have been mopping on my knees, O Lord! I love and need you with every beat of my heart and every breath that I take - "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus..."
My constant loving companion - I need to shut doors between us to get anything done without him up around me neck. He did play in the clean clothes for a while...
Ready to climb up again. I am getting him used to going outside a bit now that he has been here for almost a week.
Shared today by another one of my "daughters", Catie. She suddenly lost her dear mother yesterday morning. They are part of our TEC - Together Encounter Christ family. And family, although we share no blood relations, is deeply True! They are FAMILY! We are brought together in our love of Christ Jesus and His Bride, The Church! And we are family that love to share that Truth through retreats throughout the year!
Catie shared today with her 2 wonderful parents, that put so much into sharing their Faith with all! Pam is wearing her TEC cross in this picture of happier times.
Catie's father died suddenly a number of years ago, and we still miss him so much. Yesterday, his beloved wife, Pam, joined him suddenly. I was praying for rain in church when a weeping Catie called me to say that her mother had died an hour before. "NO!!!!" So shocking and sad for all of those that are in her TEC family! My heart breaks for only child, Catie, and her now empty home except for their dogs.
Pat enjoying my first tomatoes today for breakfast!
Joy ran out to give grandma a hug! She certainly lives up to her name and brings great JOY to her grandpa and I. We love you sweet Joy!
Truly our focusing on Pam being united with her husband, and her journey now free from suffering is giving us the only comfort we can find in all this.
So very much today in the wonderful feast of St Martha, Mary and Lazarus! Venerable Madeleine Delbrel is always good! It seems to fit not only with Martha's complaints to Our Lord about Mary not helping her, but also for us in our suffering of loss this day.
And St Mother Teresa reminds us where we go for comfort in this difficult time - where we are confused and sad. "Why did my mother have to leave me?" His plan is mysterious, but find comfort in your parents being together.
Mom and Pope Benedict today - mom never writes in her daily meditation book, but today she remembers St Martha and is praying more perfectly for her namesake my sister, Marty/Martha, today. Happy Feast day, to my sister Martha!
Jesus to us today in the Gospel...
The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10
LOVE this by dad's man, Brother Victor today! There are some homes where I feel this special peace and comfort there. How I would love for my home to be that way! My inner temple is certainly a place of peace and light and I long to go there with and through my rosary beads and constant prayers!
He had a lot of beautiful words today about how Jesus loved to visit his special friends!
Lord, how I love to think that my home could give this kind of comfort to you in this world of darkness. May I die to self so that you my live here and your LIGHT may shine before men! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
"Grandma, Snowball loves you." Yes, I have to shut the door to this office while I write. I think that it is pretty evident why. Yes, he is a loving companion, but sometimes I just have to breath! Bless-bless, Barbara
"For a church is not a barber's shop or a chemist's or a market stall:
it is the dwelling of angels and of archangels;
it is the kingdom of God; it is heaven itself." -St John Chrysostom
"On entering the church,
a man must leave behind
any authority he has over other men,
for before God no man has any authority.
Again, the cares and anxieties which a man has
in regard to his home, family and business or work are good,
but they should be left at the door of the church,
except when he wants to speak to God about them."
St Louis ofGranada
“What joy ought not we men to conceive,
what hopes and what affections,
in knowing that in the midst of our land,
in our churches, near our houses, the Holy of holies,
the true God, dwells and lives
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!
He who by His presence alone
renders the saints in heaven blessed!
He who is love itself."
St AlphonsusLigouri
_____________________________________________________________________ "For nothing so much wins love as the knowledge that one's lover desires most of all to be himself loved." -St John Chrysostom
A year ago Hallel was home meeting her newest niece, Birdie Barbara.
Birdie next to the Lamb that Hallel now wears to show that she is fully professed! 21 of us, the Mountain, went to France 3 years ago to support our Hallel and hear her vows to her spouse, Jesus - "I promise unto death."
We were all touched and moved and those married knew that we are also making that vow to Jesus and our Most Cherished Cross, our spouse!
Family meals on my beautiful porch a year ago. The weather was much more pleasant than this sauna we are in the midst of today thankfully! Sweet corn has not appeared this year with the drought either.
10 years ago Pat, his mother, John and I were in Saint Pierre, France for Hallel's first vows! Pat and his mother wept the night before when 10 took their habit and changed their names. Realizing how beautiful it all is, when Hallel took her habit and changed from Susan to Little Sister Hallel 2 years before!
John and I were able to go to France 12 years ago in a day's notice when John was able to get to the bathroom on his own after his second chemo for brain cancer!
A story I never get tired of sharing - a miraculous healing of John through prayer, St JPII, Blessed Solanus Casey, Our Lady of Lourdes, and medicine at Mayo!
John's story continues - now with wife and 2 children - the new John!
Hallel with Jude a year ago - she also had the time with my father, who had not seen her for 12 years when she left for France in 2008. Such a blessed and beautiful time indeed!
The words in morning prayer of this intercession filled me with endless gratitude for the Truth and the Beauty that I am given each day in my beloved Catholic Church with Jesus, Mary and all the amazing Saints!
You had clothed yourself with Truth and Beauty:
-may we walk in ways of Truth and Beauty today. Remember your people, O Lord.
Mountains of Zucchini went with me yesterday to drop of grandkids! Nancy was gifted them and told that the kids should put them in a wagon and take them through the neighborhood giving them away. Hopefully they will not come home with twice as many as they had to start with... that's a joke too close to the truth!
It looks like Ruth has even more of a problem says Rose Again!
"It's half the size of me!" Another Joke that we smile about - "Lock your car during zucchini season, or you might come back to a back seat full of zucchini!"
Ruth had her 4H club over in their hot shop to decorate these! "They are fake for the fair booth. The doughnuts are clay and the frosting is caulking. Theme is "Donut miss out - Join 4H" and making the booth like a doughnut shop.
Amazing! She was kidded that she should keep them out of reach of those that are drawn to their realness...
Dad and St Cyril of Jerusalem - dad LOVES The Church and brought us into The Catholic Church - all 13 fifty years ago!
From a catechetical instruction by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop (Cat 18:23-25: PG 33, 1043-1047)
The Church as the assembly of the people of God
The Church is called Catholic or universal because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called Catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name Catholic is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title Catholic because it heals and cures unrestrictedly every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism.
It is most aptly called a church, which means an “assembly of those called out,” because it “calls out” all men and gathers them together, just as the Lord says in Leviticus: Assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. It is worth noting also that the word “assemble” is used for the first time in the Scriptures at this moment when the Lord appoints Aaron high priest. So in Deuteronomy God says to Moses: Assemble the people before me and let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me. There is a further mention of the assembly in the passage about the tablets of the Law: And on them were written all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly; it is as though he had said, even more clearly, “on the day when you were called out by God and gathered together.” So too the psalmist says: I will give thanks to you in the great assembly, O Lord; in the mighty throng I will praise you.
Long ago the psalmist sang: Bless God in the assembly; bless the Lord, you who are Israel’s sons. But now the Savior has built a second holy assembly, our Christian Church, from the Gentiles. It was of this that he spoke to Peter: On this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
Now that the single church which was in Judea has been rejected, the churches of Christ are already multiplying throughout the world, and of them it is said in the psalms: Sing a new song to the Lord, let his praise be sung in the assembly of the saints. Taking up the same theme the prophet says to the Jews: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts; and immediately he adds: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the nations. Of this holy Catholic Church Paul writes to Timothy: That you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
From The Office of Reading today.
St Mother Teresa today in her daily meditations = we are all called to be saints! Yes, Lord, may I die to self so that I may be your hands and feet, and voice of Truth and Beauty!
Mom and Pope Benedict XVI - True LOVE!
The first reading today from Exodus 34 is about how Moses' face glowed after facing God...
As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD. Exodus 34
LOVE this from The Magnificat today - Closeness to God makes us reflect his supremely beautiful countenance... How the face of the merchant beamed when he found the pearl of great price (the Gospel today in Matt 13)- the LOVE of Christ. In God's covenant with us through his Son we find the promise of our personal Transfiguration.
Dad loves The Holy Spirit and that truly set him aglow to his family, his wife, and the world around him! He led me to receive the Holy Spirit, and my life was transformed! He also heard the Holy Spirit speak to him through Isaiah 55:1 at the Ignatian retreat - "Come into The Church with your entire family" and so he did! Thanks dad for bringing such Truth and Beauty into my life with each new day! You truly were transfigured and carried that with you through life! Bless-bless, Barbara
Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother 1935-1981 Feast Day: July 28 Beatification: September 23, 2017
Father Stanley Rother was born into a farming family in Oklahoma. He became a priest, overcoming the struggles in the seminary, in 1963. Fr. was sent to Guatemala as a missionary, in 1968, to serve the indigenous people. There he built farm co-ops, a school, a hospital, worked with the Catholic radio station to catechize remote villages. His life was one of an ordinary man, lived with kindness, selflessness, joy, and attentive presence for his people. The violent civil war turmoil escalated and he was killed in 1981. His heart and mason jars of his blood were incorrupt 10 years after his death. He is the 1st American born martyr.
