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!
Maria asked me to burn a disc with the pictures I took while we were together for about 10 days. I ended up with more than 400, and that is with picking only the very best of some! Going through them was a walk through the primo family time we had blending our extended family together in the melting pot of gathering between Ruth's and the farm for big meals and lots of visiting and sharing.
Therese sure knows how to handle babies and bigger babies too!
The three from Texas are loving siblings!
Wheels in the snow... make for a interesting action photo
the 3 one year olds!
Texas Therese looks surprised by the cold Minnesota winter
John and Patrick with the tabernacle behind them - the source of all LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!
The two five year olds will grow up together and share all that is Truth in our Family!
Anna - the most cherished doll of T
Miss the big meals with all the little ones eating so well and enjoying each other's company.
A mother's arm keeping one under control - a fairly good one!
The three one year olds in jammies
Sweet Patrick is loving hanging out with Ruth and Luke
Just for a picture but not for a ride
Odd couple on the bales
Out with the cows and grandpa
Tomato soup feast!
YUM!!!!
The three one year olds like to get together a lot!
Patricks unite!
Catholic school time was super great!
Making birthday braided bread for CCC!
Such an amazing family rosary filled with LIFE in all its beauty!
Pat, girls and active little ones!
John and his little miracle, Patrick Joseph
The two Daves are good friends and share a moment as they say goodbye
One of the goodbyes - it was great sisters time that we all cherish
Gus will miss his little Dave - it was so good to gather together and build those family bonds that will last a lifetime. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Seeing this picture of my champion for LIFE and Family in the beautiful snowy mountains just gave this early cold winter a new face of JOY and gladness! This Pope was with me for most of our marriage - from just two months of marriage/newly weds til 2005 - 27 of our 35 years! My husband is also my champion for LIFE and raising LIGHTS in our domestic Church/family, and to have these two great men guiding and directing me in the Truth has given me so much! They are the wind beneath my wings! Just yesterday my husband stood up for the raising of LIGHTS in facing down a desire to not attend the First Holy Day of Obligation - The Solemnity of Mary on New Year's Day! Those that were schooled on not allowing this lax attitude to enter into their family worship - reported after that they were filled with "joy and gladness" after going through the effort to be at Church for this glorious feast day! "It is always good to be here, and it is always worth the effort to come and receive the blessings." My husband has seen too often that this letting the days of obligation pass by without the effort to get the family there lays the groundwork for not instilling the Truth of - We love Jesus and His Bride, The Church, and long to be at Church to show our LOVE and JOY at receiving HIM in the Eucharist!
Here is a glorious video we came across that shows all the wonders of our amazing Church - it covers the sacraments in pictures and when you get to the 7 minute mark - be prepared to receive the tearful JOY that we discovered there! Adoramus Te Domine
Two weeks ago we were in the midst of a most wonderful family gathering! With the arrival of Maria and her 3 from El Paso, TX we had all of our grandchildren together! Maria's oldest, Therese, is a total baby lover and adored her new little cousin, Luke! Just give her a baby in the house and she finds JOY and gladness abounding! When she finally welcomed home her new brother, Patrick, 14 months ago after 2 1/2 weeks in NICU after being born dead, and revived... for the entire story I have a page devoted to this miraculous story of healing - http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-story-of-little-lamb-grandson.html... Therese was so wanting to do everything at mommy's side for her new brother that finally Maria told her to get her dolly, Anna, and do it all to her dolly as mom was doing it for Patrick! A girl who truly LOVES LIFE! She has spoken that she wishes to be a sister, yet also loves the thought of being the mother to many! This has been so true of my girls in their listening to their calls - Susan/Hallel would always say to me, when I asked her if she thought she was getting/answering a call to be His Bride - "I am either going to be a sister or be the mother of 10 kids." That about covers it! I know that little Sister Hallel loves little ones and that it is a sacrifice for her to give up having a family - yet, she describes how she ministers to the little ones she comes in contact with on her journys of begging for her food from the poor. I can imagine her reaching out to them, and some are not receiving the LOVE they need in their homes... Hallel can give them some of that LOVE fueled from her time in prayer and study each day of Jesus in His Word and receiving HIM in His Body and Blood!
I came across this lately and it is so true of my Hallel!!! Finding so much LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT in her life of contemplation - these Brides have so much "JOY and Gladness" to bring to this world of suffering!
Jesus, with Your Bride, little Sister Hallel, and many that have sacrificed their own families to be available to the world and the needs they encounter. The world cannot understand the giving up of the earthly selfish needs, yet I learned from this unmarried girl/postulant in The Community of the Lamb... the beautiful Truth of The Most Cherished Cross! STs Basil and Gregory, you show us the path to Truth, and the beauty of wisdom gained through study and prayer... How blessed are we to have little Sister Hallel along with her Community of the Lamb - the time we can spend with them and the ways we are blessed by their prayers for us in our lives. How important were those prayers as we faced John and Patrick! Now we are filled with JOY and gladness as we see the power of Prayer! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
The two Davids on little Dave's baptism day 1-1-10! Talk about Joy and gladness!!!!
"All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God."
Psalm 98 - A grand Hallel psalm from mass today
My Most Cherished Cross - Champion for LIFE and Family on our wedding day! August 3, 1978
"The world needs LIGHTS!" Patrick Verly to me when I asked if we were being selfish to have a large family - and the answer to all those that wonder why the Church asks us to be open to LIFE/family!
4th daughter, Susan now Little Sister Hallel, being welcomed by her two older sisters - Maria and Nancy. Life is a Gift!
Hallel with her nieces and nephews on her home visit in April - Luke has joined us since, and in June we will welcome #11! Thank you, Lord!
Danielle Rose - Pursue Me - her song for Vocation Discernment
Blast from the past - memories of my childhood are good and warm like them...
I was probably in my mid twenties when I put my hands in bread dough for the first time. I was a new farm wife, and Pat's mom was showing me how she had made bread for her family of 10 kids - my husband was #6! Somewhere along there I found a recipe for potato buns and that became my bread dough recipe. I made it for years on a fairly regular basis, and then it tapered off and I quit! For some reason with all my grandkids coming for the week before Christmas - I had an urge to make some special Easter Bread for the breakfast we were in charge of Saturday morning. It was especially fun to think that it would work well with candles in to sing Happy Birthday #5 for our grandson little David's birthday! I have such fond memories of making bread with the girls, so it was very exciting to have this experience with the grandkids! Little Rose got to feel the wonder of her first ever bread dough at a much younger age than I - 1 1/2 years old is quite young, and she thought it was pretty neat. John thought that this was such a great picture, and I really like it myself!
After the yeast had made the bread rise and double in size - Maria and Therese had the fun of punching it back down. It was a great time just as I had hoped!
4 generations making some great bread to share at our family Christmas and celebrate..
success and yummy too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Thanks mom Verly for teaching me and maybe someday my grandkids will thank me for teaching them! Passing it on, and sharing our time making good fun food!
Driving Maria to the Poor Clare Monastery in Sauk Rapids ten years ago on this date was a very emotional and powerful time for me as a mother of this young 20 year old girl! Maria had just come back from studying in Rome for 9 months and felt a call to the cloistered life of St Therese of Lisieux after reading Story of A Soul and experiencing the Big Church and Saint picture that you can find in Rome! Realizing that she could very possibly go behind the enclosure and not be available to us for hugs and spending time with her family outside. We had going away parties for her in Marshall and in the cities so that she could give farewell hugs to family and friends. Looking back at how this was a witness to many, who did not understand the cloistered life nor the listening and discerning a possible call to be a bride of Christ! We had family from both sides come and show their love and support to Maria and her family. It was a very hard thing for us as family to let her go so dramatically, yet we knew that being allowed to share with her in this very difficult sacrifice that we would receive blessings and graces abounding to the highest height! Maria discerned out of the Poor Clares, but Hallel did find her call and continues following it to this day! Having her, for the most part away and not able to be an active part of our family is a huge sacrifice, yet we know that we are benefitting so much from the prayers of our Little Sister Hallel and the rest of her Community of the Lamb!
Maria knelt on the outside of the enclosure and she was blessed by a priest, and then she was taken behind. We were brought into a room and then she appeared behind the enclosure - there was a huge sense of loss in that we could only touch through the openings and the hugs were to be no more!
Maria still carves out daily mass and lives her prayer life still very much within her family!!! She was called to become a wife and mother, and still holds most precious the beauty of one called to be His bride! Yes, there are more distractions with a husband and 3 little ones - all the more precious is that special time with Jesus through His glorious Bride, The Church!
It brings tears to my eyes to remember the churning emotions of that day! Pondering the feast day we have on this first day of each year - Maria, named after our Spiritual Mother, Mary the Mother of God, chose the first of the year - the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of Heaven and earth to enter. As her mother - I was so filled with awe and wonder to know that my daughter was so in love with her Lord that she wanted to discern a call to be his Bride! I was also very much grieving the loss of a closeness in the life of my little girl and her flying from the nest! Such a balance of allowing her to go, yet holding her always close in my heart and lifting her up in prayer daily along with giving her guardian angel watch over her! I think it says a lot that the year begins with our reminder that Mary was given to us to take into our homes as our Mother from the Cross by Jesus! It says so much about the importance of having "mothering" as we face all that comes to us in our life - year after year.
We were brought together by this event in our family! Jesus, with your Mother at your side, we long to celebrate with great JOY this beginning of 2014 with the mothering of Mary Most Holy! She brings us ever to YOU, Jesus. May we give up of our selfishness and follow after you carrying our Most Cherished Cross to find LIFE everlasting! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Gathered at mass today on the 10th anniversary of Maria entering the Poor Clares, and Maria reminded us that it is the 4th anniversary of her son David's baptism!
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Luke happy to be at mass today - he is thriving on the mothering he is getting from his wonderful mom!
