The 4H flavor day to day.

Mary (age 6) took this picture the other night with entering photography in 4H in the back of her mind the other night!  She also took a "cloud" picture of her brothers as they were in the constant state of motion on top of the van...

She is discovering the challange of capturing a shot with the activity going on and the time it takes the camera to snap a picture.  It is funny to see the kids already thinking about their 4H projects when both Simon and Mary are in Cloverbuds or preschool 4H!  Mary is thinking that she will follow her Aunt Nancy into Geology, and really that goes back another generation to her grandma Verly - me!  I collected fossils on Lake Michigan as a young girl and actually know quite a bit about them, and took Mary and siblings on fossil hunts this last summer at our cabin on the shores of Lake Michigan -Upper Penninsula!  Mary really got excited to see the fossilized snails and sponges and corals from the bottom of an ancient sea!  We had great fun, and another generation of fossil hunters and geology buff was born!  Nancy got purple champion ribbons and state fair trip in an area where there is not much competition, and she has a lot of knowledge she learned to this day....  We can talk about honeycomb coral or petosky fossils and about stromataporide sponges... yes, we really understand the preshistoric seas from the silurian or devonian periods of millions of years ago.  It is very interesting to us, and I forsee some great geology 4H projects in Mary's future going all the way to the State Fair!  She also has taken the photography baton - already winning a first place in open class last year.  Go Mary!  4H is great and really teaches you things that you carry forth into your life!  We are better for having had 4H in our family growing up and now with our grandkids!  A great thing for a family to share, and definitely enters into our daily lives as the kids get into school and find life interesting and full of new and exciting things to learn!  Bless-bless, Barb

John is home tonight and out with his dad farming... rain is forcasted so they are getting as much corn in the ground until the rain stops them.  Jesus, thank you for the rain, and the good planting conditions.  Keep the farmers safe, and bless their efforts to feed the world.  Amen and Halleluia!

Cross Beauty

Thinking of the farmers as we are entering our 3rd day of planting.  So far things are going well, with wonderful weather, and that wonderful rain that finally started to come and break the drought since July 1st of last year.  We still don't have any subsoil moisture, so the rain must continue to come, and come, and come all summer, but it just feels like it can rain again... thank you, St Isidore and all you saints in heaven!  It sure is nice to have you to come to with our needs.  Speaking of heaven today is a continuation of John 6 in the Gospel - John 6:44-51 And Jesus is telling us about sending us our Bread from heaven...

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world." 

And the first reading is that beautiful story from Acts about Philip and the Eunuch on the road from Jerusalem.  How he tells this man about the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah of Jesus... "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  In his humiliation justice was denied him..." Acts 8  So much power and Cross Beauty!  By Cross Beauty, I mean that it is the beautiful necessity of suffering and death so that we could find freedom from sin and death... it is the taking up of the Cross and following HIM that we are called to do.  His Bread of LIFE comes to us from that Cross and his sacrifice - just as the unblemished Lamb that was slain - after the blood was put on the doorposts in the Passover of the Angel of Death in Exodus was roasted and eaten with bitter herbs!  It fed them, but with food that was merely food - not miraculous heavenly food of LIFE!  Each time... every day in the Catholic Church... we are revisiting the sacrifice on the Cross of the Lamb in the celebration of the mass... and His Body and Blood are there for us to eat of HIM and carry HIM forth into our world!  True Food and Drink for the Journey!

It was very touching to look up and see Mary and David holding hands as they walked along over the uneven ground on a beautiful summerlike day.  Sharing the moment in this physical bond, and helping each other over the rough ground as they talked and walked.  There is something so spontaneous and special in this human closeness and comfortable feeling of sharing.  "What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light to the human race."  John 1:3-4 Wow! This is such a great verse from John!  If only we can embrace that LIFE that He holds out to us daily!  I always smile when I think of a story that John shared with me about an experience at his Faternity the first year he lived there.  There was a young man, who was so excited about his faith.  He burst out with this comment one day;  "Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a church service everyday that you could gather and worship?"   John and his best friend, Brad, looked at each other with amazement and told him..."But there is that available in the Catholic Church!"  Too amazing and great for words!  Come here to the Catholic Church... I have felt from the beginning of my journey into the Catholic Church and every day since - "It has everything figured out, and I can trust every single part of it!"  I have not been disappointed by this ever! 

Off to work today...  Jesus, go with me as I serve with a smile those that have found their final home to be the nursing home.  May I be a true and willing servant of yours, and may your Light and Love touch those around me.  I am  nothing without you, and I truly need to come to embrace my Most Cherished Cross, and see the Cross Beauty of it!   See that it is truly the Tree of LIFE and has brought your eternal feast for us to eat and find LIFE!  May we come to you often to eat of your Body and Blood "for the life of the world."  May we become more and more yours and less and less selfish and confused by all that pulls at us in our lives.  We are yours!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia, Halleluia, Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"I wish for my food to be the doing of your will, O my Jesus; that adorable will which is to constitute my whole life.  I wish, O Lord, your will to be a Paradise for me, in spite of the sacrificces I am called upon to make.  But what matters if I endure them for love of you?  O Jesus, here present with me in the Sacred Host!  I need that life of intimacy with you, that constant presence of the Beloved One.  I want to live and breathe in your most Sacred Heart.  I have need of you, O my Jesus, to live, to be pure, to sanctify myself.  I wish for no other bead than the bread of life which takes away all hunger and thirst: the immortal bread; which opens the gates of heaven to those who partake of it.  ... and this food which is the bread of the soul is yourself, my beloved Savior, whom I ardently desire to receive each moment,at every respiration, and at every pulsation of my heart." 

Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (1937)

Wow!  She has the words that I don't!  Thank you, Lord!  I am yours!

Girl thoughts...

I am acting rashly, I suppose!  I was walking through Wallmart yesterday, and the baby clothes called to me... after having 4 girls before I finally had a boy - I am being drawn to the girl clothes.  Ruth is due to have her baby in just 6 days, and she never finds out what she is having.  Two of her kids are thinking girl and one boy, but we do not know until May 1st at 9a!  I figure that with 3 grandchildren coming that I will have a girl at some point, so I took the plunge and picked out 2 things for a girl and they are displayed on a chair, so when I walk though the house I see them and smile!  I have told Ruth that I have been praying for "rosebud" since we first found out she was expecting, so this is just ingrained in me.  I have a 50-50 chance of being right... time will tell.  No matter what we are all getting super excited for the arrival of baby Lanoue! 

Butterflies, flowers and sunny - now those are bright and sweet summer baby girl clothes.  The baby girls are so much a part of my life... it's a habit and a beloved habit.  But those baby boys are the greatest thing too!  WE are just getting ready and waiting for the arrival of our newest member, and then wait patiently for the other two!  These girl clothes might have to wait for a later arrival...  Praying, hoping and loving LIFE whether boy or girl.  Jesus, thank you for LIFE and we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

Sunrise this morning - so beautiful!  Each new day dawns filled with hope and love of LIFE!

For the family and friends of Gage...

Reading your sharing this morning on caringbridge - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gagedriver... I have read it and reread it over and over with fresh tears each time.  Especially how Gage's little brother, Ben, has been taught "how to care" by the Cross of cancer/loss of Gage from this earth.  It brought back to me these two crosses that I have seen in the last two days... One was this one in the sky as we had just started planting the crop - my husband, Pat, is a farmer in Southwest Minnesota.  It reminds me of the very hard and powerful lesson we learned on our brain cancer journey with our son, John, almost 3 years ago... that Jesus is in control of ALL we face on our journey of life.  Now looking at this with your pain and loss in mind.... I just thought that it could give you hope and comfort and assurance that little sweet Gage is truly at Peace with Christ! 

This is the second Cross that I was blessed with the day before, as we were out on a hill overlooking the creek in the back pasture fixing fence.  I looked down to see that the place where we cross to get from one side to the other with the 4 wheeler had formed a cross with the glistening gurgling creek running through it.  I was able to spend some time with my shoes off walking in the cool water and reflecting on how lifegiving is the Cross in our lives.  It is through the Cross that we come to the Resurrection.  And for Gage that is certainly true!  It sounds from your sharing that it has brought your family into deeper ways "to care" for one another in love.  May this hard time only strengthen your faith, and I know already that you are ministering to others through your compassion caused by such deep pain! 

Jesus, the pain hurts so bad, we need you to hold us and carry us, because we are weak.  Jesus, hold Gage and his family and friends in the palm of your hand.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

Bless-bless, Pat, Barb and John Verly and family

St Mark - the Diaconate

What do you think of this?  Quite something to look up and see in the sky.  Yes, we know that it was two jet streams crossing each other, but it still makes one pause and reflect on the fact that Jesus is over all and in all and with all of us... right?  In the last year I have grown to love and honor St Mark, and it was very wonderful to see that today is his feastday!  Why the new love and appreciation of this one of the 4 evangelists... writer of the Gospels?  I had always been predjudiced in favor of St Luke - I chose him as my patron saint as a new convert to the Catholic Church at age 20.  I was in nursing school and thought that there was a tie to him being a physician.  I also loved his first few chapters about Mary and just women in general.  So since he was the best in my eyes... I just wasn't open to the others as much - of course, there is the ever amazing St John's Gospel all about LOVE and then there is the out-of-this-world John 6!  But Mark was lesser in my mind... no longer!  I was very struck by how Mark sees the world that surrounded Jesus - filled with people reaching out to him, and basically swarmed by crowds looking to HIM for healing and for knowledge of the Kingdom of God!  I grew to love his short and concise vision of Christ in his love for us and his compassion for those around him.  Maybe this is the difference that I saw in the words of the prologue in my TEC Bible - Good News Bible - "Mark presents the story of Jesus in a straightforward, vigorous way, with emphasis on what Jesus did, rather than on his words and teachings."  I guess that I was really drawn to that as we followed Mark in the readings of the Church this winter...  I was drawn into the crowd that came rushing to HIM when ever they discovered that he was in a certain place.  The word would get out, and he would discover huge crowds so pressing and seeking that he would have to climb into a boat and sit out on the water to teach them!  Wouldn't that be wonderful now?  For people to run to HIM wherever he might be found, knowing that HE has the ability to heal and to forgive!  What a beautiful glorious world this would be... if we would constantly be seeking HIM in all the ways that He is truly present in this world!  Firstly within our domestic church/family, within the Church and its life-giving Sacraments, in His Word, and in each of our fellow men!  He is everywhere, and He loves us with an unconditional LOVE, and yearns to heal us, and give us LIFE everlasting! 

Up early this morning to help Pat out the door, and into the tractor for the day... the sky was wonderul to behold, but the apple blossoms were stunning... I couldn't get them both in focus at the same time, but I think that you get the idea...  Glorious banners of beauty unfurled to greet the day and our Lord, creator of heaven and earth!  A reminder on FB today that there was an ordination of 11 new deacons in our diocese on Saturday in Sleepy Eye!  How I had wanted to attend that, but overnight shift at the NH made it impossible.  What an amazing gift that is for our diocese... My father was in the first diaconate program in the Archdiocese and was ordained in 1974! It was such a powerful step in our journey as Catholics!  We had just all converted to the Catholic Church in 1971... we just celebrated our 40th anniversary of becoming Catholic - all 13 of us - after my dad had been led by the Holy Spirit to give up his being a Protestant minister, and come into the Church!  As I have shared many times - he was on an Ignatious retreat, and was praying over the scripture Isaiah 55: 1-2, which is very Eucharistic!  He heard the Holy Spirit telling him to become Catholic, and when he told my mother - she was thrilled as she had yearned for this to happen for years!  She had a devotion to Mary years before this, and there is no place to be but the Catholic Church when you love and respect for her!  Mary brings us to her Son!  I was the oldest of 11 children, and my dad told me that I and the two under me could decide for ourselves, but that the younger 8 would be joining with them.  I had been considering a call to religious life - a long story that I have shared many times in the past - so I was excited to become Catholic!  My other two sisters also decided to become Catholic - so we all 13 joined together!  Within a few years of that, as a permanent Deacon - my dad was now doing everything in the Catholic Church that he had done as a Protestant Minister!  He was able to marry us, baptize our children, preach, visit the sick and homebound and those in prison... he used his "chalktalks" for alcoholics, and visited the prisons!  The Diaconate has been a hugely powerful ministry for my dad, his family, and all the varying diocese where he has served the Church!  My mom cried with joy... she had yearned for The Church for years, but had no hope that it could happen as dad was very content with his ministry as a Protestant Minister and working with alcoholics.  Now, within the first years of his becoming a Deacon, she was sitting in the St Paul Cathedral watching my dad on the altar assisting the Archbishop!  "Pinch me!  I must be in a dream!"  She told us.

The dark, fertile, and now moistened by rain, soil...awaits the seeds to be planted and grow.  Bless all farmers, Lord!  In honor of St Mark, my dad, and all the new deacons today... Psalm 19 of how we are all called to proclaim the Gospel in our worlds... "the small circle of home and workplace to proclaim the good news in word and deed." 

"The heavens proclaim the glory of God

and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.

Day unto day takes up the story

and night unto night makes known the message.

No speech, no word, no voice is heard

yet their span extends through all the earth,

their words to the utmost bounds of the world.

At the end of the sky is the rising of the sun;

to the furthest end of the sky is its course. 

There is nothing concealed from its burning heat."

"Our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction."  I Thes 1:5

Jesus, each day brings with it the beauty of YOU... we feed on you in your Word and the Gospels, which give us healing and truth!  You are present for us in your Body and Blood on the altar of every Catholic Church... "My Lord and My God!"  We recognize you in the breaking of the Bread, and our hearts are burning within us as you reveal to us the Truth that will set us free!  We embrace our Most Cherished Cross with each new day, and go forward into the LIGHT.  The door is open ahead of us, and we walk through into LIFE, and LOVE, and LIGHT!  Bless and protect all the unborn in the womb this day.  May those that are thinking about abortion - come to realize that this is a most cherished LIFE!  Jesus, we especially ask that you be with our 3 daughters, who are expecting.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia, Halleluia, Halleluia! 

Bless-bless, Barb   Our Lady of Lourdes, may healings abound in your healing springs in France this day!  Thank you, for circling John with your warm embrace of a MOTHER, and carrying him to your Son, Jesus Christ, for his healing! 

"In order to kindle a great love of God in yourself by entering deeply into the heavenly sacrament of the blood and flesh of Christ, turn your thought to the contemplation of the love which God has shown you personally in this sacrament.  For this great and almighty God was not content with creating you in his likeness and image, and when you sinned and offended him and so fell from your high rank, he was not satisfied with sending his Only-begotten Son to live 33 years on earth to deliver you, and, by terrible torment and painful death on the cross, to redeem and snatch you out of the hands of the devil, to whom you became enslaved through sin, and again to restore you to your former rank; no, he also deigned to establish the sacrament of his flesh and blood as food for you, so that the whole power of his incarnated dispensation might imbue your nature most essentially.  Make this last token of God's strong love for you the object of your constant contemplation and deep pondering, so that, seeing its manifold fullness and richness, you should thereby feed and inflame your heart with undivided love and longing for God."

Fr Lorenzo Scupoli (1610)

"Simon and Mary! They are planting daddy's field!"

Fair weather clouds- good planting!

Yes, we went to tracks this year!  All the grandsons are very excited about it, and I think that their grandpa, great-uncle and daddy think that it is pretty nice too!  This is Paul's field close to town - the first one dry enough to start on today... the clouds add a beautiful backdrop!  I was here to pick up Pat and take him to get the water truck - needed to put on the chemical.

On the way home I looked up to see this cross in the sky - yes, I know that it is two jets whose streams have crossed each other, but it still is kind of cool to see it up there blessing our farm and our fields on this glorious day of the beginning of planting!  Jesus, we thank you for the rain, for the sun, for the nice black soil that is working up so nicely, and for the warmth surrounding those corn seeds as they go into the earth.  Keep the farmers safe as they go late tonight!

A blesssing over our farm as I drove up to it this morning... then to sit in the Church and hear the babbling and gurgling of the baptismal font... it was the exact sound of the creek rushing down the banks as I stood in it yesterday in the pasture - at the foot of the cross!  The sound of lifegiving water - "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink."  John 7:37  How my thirst is quenched as I sit there in the ocean of LOVE! 

A beautiful new tree in full bloom where my old rose bush used to be made a glorious banner beneath the steeple of the huge Church!  We praise you to the highest heavens our Lord and our King!  Your beautiful creation salutes YOU! 

 Some time with dad on the grass by his field... the attack of the dandylion! 

Daddy jungle gym... while the field is getting close to being planted...

Landmark day - first day of planting April 24, 2012!  Bless-bless,Barb and the farming Verlys and Lanoues!