Snow in August... looking back at Jan 1, 2003 and 9/11/08 - sending our girls off to enter religious life!

Gathered together at Nancy's apartment on Sept 11, 2008 just a short while before we drove Susan to the airport to fly to France to join The Community of the Lamb!  In order of age... Susan was daughter #4 as I was telling her 5 year old niece, Rose Ida, a short while ago when grandpa asked if he could brush her hair...  "Did you know, Rose, that grandpa had 4 girls in a row?  Who were they?"  She surprised me by naming them all until Susan, who is now Little Sister Hallel.
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/susan-angela-agneslittle-sister-hallel.html


Susan had heard the call on a Schoenstatt retreat when she was about 10 or so, and when her wonderful Community of the Lamb came to the U.S. she saw that then she could say "yes" to the impossible idea that she could enter an order based in France, and whom she met in Rome while studying there for a year as a Sophomore at St Thomas. 

John just 2 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer and just after his second chemo in France to witness Hallel take her habit and change her name!  Miracle on top of miracle and so intertwined on their journey of finding faith and answering "yes" to Jesus call to each of them.  John continues to ask after a year in the seminary...
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html

Susan was not our first powerful experience with religious life... I myself, discerned a vocation to the point that it was responsible for me entering The Church in 1971 with my entire family - all 13 of us as I was the oldest of 11!  Every day has been an amazing gift to me as I share her tirelessly every day if I am able as I love, love, love with no reservations The Church!

Yes, our 3rd daughter, Maria Theresa, also studied in Rome for a year, and she discerned a call to a cloistered life as a Poor Clare nun! 

Easter of 2003 with Maria in Sauk Rapids!  Newly married Ruth and Paul were expecting Simon in September.  I will always remember going to mass as a family on The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on New Years day in 2003.  We took individual pictures in the church, some with tears, as we did not know if we would ever get a real hug again due to the enclosure.  We had receptions for family and friends in the Cities and in our church basement, as she would be behind the enclosure and not come out.  John was 13 years old and took it really hard... I recall him laying his head on her lap as we drove the 3 hours to drop her off that day.  Maria knelt outside the enclosure, and received and blessing from the priest, the door opened and then welcomed her back, and then we gathered in a room with the enclosure between us... very powerful and real!!!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/now-stories-of-johns-4-sistersruth.html

Maria discerned out after about 5 months!  She finished her degree and met Joseph. 

Called to the Sacrament of Matrimony - raising LIGHTS and open to LIFE!  Maria homeschools and shares her Faith with JOY as she passes it on!  Before bed Joseph blesses each of the children as they ask for his blessing before bed.  The words of the Psalm from mass today...
"May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us....
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God bless us...
O God, let all the nations praise you."  Psalm 67
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html

An amazing young friend, Anne Goedtke, on the trip with her excited and wonderful family as she will enter the convent on August 13th in Toronto, Ohio - A Franciscan order!! 


This picture brought our own wonderful powerful and emotion filled times to mind and heart.  I am sure that rosary times, prayer times, singing and music filled times, sharing, laughing a lot, crying some at the huge changes ahead as we shed both tears of joy and sadness ( I know that our Hallel is filled with JOY and LOVE for her spouse, yet we still miss her being a part of our daily lives.  We know that we have her prayers daily as she adores her Jesus at mass and takes him into herself at daily mass), daily mass on their way when possible, and pondering the Saints each day. 


Anne is such a powerful example to all of her siblings of this wonderful option as they also ask the Lord to show each of them what he is calling them to!  Following her journey has been so important for all young people who know of her powerful message that Jesus loves us, and has a special call to which we give an enthusiastic "Yes!" 

Susan/Hallel meeting her niece, Evangeline Mary, for the first time while she was in KC for Easter, and then...

A fabulous home visit on the farm with all of the family except for Joseph!  We number 25 now with 15 grandchildren!  We take seriously being open to LIFE and raising them as LIGHTS!  How blessed to share our Faith!  I was told on a retreat a few years back that due to my discerning a call... I now have a little Sister.  Yes, I did encourage all my kids to consider this wonderful option, and am now blessed with a chance to be a contemplative when I spend time with them as I was gifted with a week there last September.  I was called to marriage, but the Lord continues to smile on me!  So blessed!

Jesus in the middle of our family!  John continues to discern where he is called... he continues to burn to share how he was healed and found his faith in the midst of brain cancer!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

 All but Joseph... sharing our Faith is foremost in our lives!  How blessed are we to have our Hallel modeling the beauty of LIFE as the spouse of Christ and practicing chastity, poverty, and obedience! 

So blessed by her prayers always for us, and helping us on our journey as we long to be forever with Jesus, Mary ( on this feast of Our Lady of the Snows, as she revealed where her church should be with a snowstorm in August in Rome!), all the Saints and Angels! 

Danielle Rose - Pursue me

True Love - Danielle Rose
The Cross and the song that Susan/now Hallel played over and over before she entered.  It brings my heart so much insight into True LOVE and tears come flowing like a river each time I listen to this. 

"Dad is all about doing things." John/one of the many St Johns today!

John and I just had a heart to heart as we shared lunch and finishing up the sweet corn freezing for today.  He reminded me that his dad/my husband and most Cherished Cross loves to be doing things..."Dad is about doing things, and it would be wonderful if you could do them with him.  It would be really good for your marriage,too."  Yes, John, you are right!


We headed out with 12 pails and came home with about 3 1/2 instead as it was not all ready yet.  So instead of a big job over at Ruth's today, I brought them home to my place and did it here.   Pat and Rose kindly followed me home and were my attractive helpers today!

Rose my lovely assistant is taller this year, and didn't feel she needed the booster to stand on.  Such a cheerful, willing and hard worker she is!


John also left this morning with the sendoff of knowing that it was an amazing St John today..."Oh, there are just a few of those St Johns... more like 50 or more!"  Today is St John Vianney, and John got nicely acquainted with him while in seminary a few years back.  "He was the one, who struggled in seminary and finally was ordained" only to humbly serve hundreds coming to him weekly for confession - "reconciling sinners to God!"

The creamer board which Pat has used on sweet corn day over the last 39 years of our marriage, and he was saying today that he remembers his mom using it before him.  Ruth likes to cut hers off, so Rose sat next to Pat and cut off some, too!


I am feeling very convicted today after John was so real with me about how I need to get myself in better shape to keep up with my active husband.  I half-way joke about being put out to pasture, but that is not what my husband wants from me, so....  I need to get into the doctor and do something about my knee and foot - one on each leg, so talk about hobbled!  Also I need to lose quite a bit of weight that I have been just ignoring.... my thought in the back of my mind is; "I will have all that to live off of when I get cancer."  Bad!  I know.  John is right about Pat's love of doing, and I need to be a better wife and share those times with him.  I am a contemplative at heart, so it will be a stretch, but I know that I will grow from sharing experiences with him.

Sweet corn with the grandkids on our porch last night with our cute red barn as a backdrop on our 39th anniversary filled with LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!

Princess discovered the best doggy bone ever... a cob of sweet corn to chew on!


So much great stuff today that comes with the feastday of this wonderful humble Saint John Vianney!  I love this response he made to the Gospel today where those from Jesus home town question him - "because of their lack of faith, he did not work many mighty deeds there."  Matthew 13
A good Christian is not satisfied simply to believe in the truths of our holy religion.  He loves them, he ponders over them, he tries in every possible way to acquire a knowledge of them; he loves to hear the Word of God, and the more he hears it, the more he longs for it.  He believes not only that God sees him in all his actions, and judges them all at the hour of death, but he trembles at the thought that he will render an account of his whole life to God.  He not only thinks of this, and trembles over it, but he strives earnestly to improve himself daily.  He never ceases in his endeavors to find new ways in which to do penance...The hope of a good Christian is firm, his trust in God is unshaken.  He never loses sight of the next life.  The remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus Christ is ever present to his mind, is always in his heart...He longs for God alone, and desires him only.  St John Vianney

Thanks Pat and Rose and later John for giving me a hand today!  We had a small job done in a few hours and so far only 35 quarts of corn - last year we did 200 in one day, so this was a different day for sure.  We will maybe do more later after the fair? 


Lord, I do long to "strive earnestly to improve myself daily!"  That really reminds me that I cannot become lax with myself and improve myself on many levels.  May I go forward armed with Jesus in The Word and Sacrament, Mary the Mother of God, All the Saints each day, my guardian angel, the rosary and prayer filling me day... how can I not take two steps forward and only one step back... inching/staggering/dragging my most Cherished Cross and following after Jesus!  I am given so very much by your Bride, the Church!  I am weak and need you my Jesus!  May I always be weak and turn to you.  Jesus, I trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

 Rose and Luke were helpers picking this morning along with grandpa... yes, grandpa is a doer of things, but he always wants to include the little ones!  I need to improve in this way too. Pat does expect me to be more social and more doing of things with him!  It would help our marriage if I would get more healthy!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke

Please can I have that when you are done, Rose?  Love this cool weather!  Perfect day today!

If Rose hadn't come over... who would have been so cute with all the wonderful yellow corn?  Grandma's kitchen isn't near as pretty as last year in Ruth's new canning kitchen!

That sun streaming in the window of the command station - there is a roof over the porch now that does cut down on some of the brightness though.  The corn just looked more bright yellow in the new farm sink in the sun last year.  We might still do some there, too! 

Small Things With Love

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"Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue."
-St. Catherine of Siena

 And to dwell in the abundant warmth of his love.

Married on a Thursday at The Basilica of St Mary 39 years ago!

In honor of our 39th anniversary today... Pat and I with our nun between us... it pretty much says for me the fact that our shared faith as a couple when we met and dated - "I will only marry a Catholic." Pat Verly to his sisters a few years before we met!  Also the miracle of our sharing our Faith as a family - all 25 of us  - is the glue that holds us together and allows us a small slice of heaven on a regular basis!


Well, the idea of snapping a selfie just didn't seem to be possible this morning as we traveled to Farm Fest together.  It is pretty miraculous that we are going somewhere together as lately, other than picking up bales in different tractors yesterday, this has not been possible.  Even those rides together to get parts in town hasn't seemed to happen.  Going up with Nancy to the Cities and then on to my mom's was a solo away from home time. 

All but Joseph about 3 months ago when Hallel was home for her first home visit in 4 years!


Our girls are following in the wisdom/Holy Spirit guided basis of our marriage and now of theirs'... being open to life and raising lights!  http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
I am filled to the brim after finding this quote shared by my friend, Scot Hahn!
Archbishop Chaput: "When young people ask me how to change the world, I tell them to love each other, get married, stay faithful to one another, have lots of children, and raise those children to be men and women of Christian character. Faith is a seed. It doesn’t flower overnight. It takes time and love and effort.... The future belongs to people with children, not with things. Things rust and break. But every child is a universe of possibility that reaches into eternity, connecting our memories and our hopes in a sign of God’s love across the generations. That’s what matters." 
Wow!!!!  So wonderful to see the Truth in writing and proclaimed by The Church. 

 Jesus in the center.... love, love, love!  The arms are filled with baby girl's each this year.  One thing that I also asked each of my kids to ask the Lord if he wanted them to enter religious life or the priesthood.  Susan said Yes to her call, and we now have a huge family including her Community of the Lamb!


I must admit that I dropped Pat at the gate and did not accompany him to farm fest.  Shame on me!  I came into Redwood Falls and discovered Jesus on the altar for adoration in St Catherine's Catholic Church, and am now in the wonderful public library using their internet!  I have learned that Pat loves to talk farming with anyone and their dog, and I love to have a day away to pray and share my love for Jesus and His Church from the rooftops!  So, as John said this morning, "he wants you to travel with him" which gave me the idea to drop him at the gate with an "enjoy yourself" and then get some wonderful time hanging with my Jesus- praying all 10 decades of my rosary, most of the chaplet, and the litany of our combined 200 member families! 

Hallel with Josephine Francis.... we always get ahold of Hallel to have her praying for the new life in the wombs of her sisters!  Her prayers are so important to all of us as she in a contemplative nun and spends much of her days in prayer, mass, adoration and dishes! 


I too discerned a call to religious life as the thought of being a nun brought me into The Church when my parents offered me a choice to join them and the other kids in joining The Church!
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html
http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/susan-angela-agneslittle-sister-hallel.html

 Christmas 1982... the two oldest - there was a loss between them.  We already had a piece of our hearts in heaven.

 With Ruth in 1981

Then there were 4!  Yes, I sewed their matching dresses for a while.  Pat in a sea of blue and girls...  Yes, we next had John after 2 more losses, and we now have 3 wonderful sons-in-law!

 John arrives in 1989!

 City girl comes to the farm!  It has continued to be evident that I did not grow up on the farm, and don't have it in my genes.  I have tried and failed numerous times, and now am happy to be put out to pasture for the most part!  I see that Pat is not happy with me from time to time.

Honeymoon in Colorado... yes, 39 years has seen a lot of changes on many levels! 


Today Jesus speaks to us about The Kingdom and asks us if we" understand all these things?"  How we long to be found among the righteous!  It was great to find a quote by Thomas Merton today in the meditation of the day....This is the gift of understanding: we pass out of ourselves into the joy of emptiness, of nothingness, in which there is no longer any particular objects of knowledge but only God's truth without limit, without defect, without stain.  This clean light, which tastes of Paradise, is beyond all pride, beyond comment, beyond proprietorship, beyond solitude.  It is in all, and for all.


This was a gift as Merton was very huge for me as a new Catholic - how I rejoiced every day since we joined the Church on Christmas Eve 1971, and I was very much Catholic when I met Pat in 1977 at his sister's wedding!

 Jesus on the altar... such a wonderful way to begin year #40 and all that it will hold for us!


Jesus, how we long to be always good followers of yours!  Each morning we join in prayer and ask that we will put you always first and foremost in our marriage, family and farm life.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

As if our 7 in heaven were wishing us a wonderful anniversary to walk out of my hour and  a half with Jesus to find this beautiful monument greeting me!  It keeps my eye on heaven forever with Jesus, Mary, St Lydia on this her feastday, and all the Angels and Saints.  I long to do as St Lydia - invite Jesus, Mary and the Saints always into my home! 




"The rosary is a long chain that links heaven to earth. One end of it is in our hands and the other end is in the hands of the Holy Virgin.... The rosary prayer rises like incense to the feet of the Almighty. Mary responds at once like a beneficial dew, bringing new life to human hearts."
-St Therese

Beads/prayers/Mary with me and bales

Baling is a huge part of our summer around here!  Lots of time spent in pickups and tractors picking up bales and minimal time to write here.  One good thing is that I can always have my rosary beads along--- they are easy to carry and help my mind stay positive and concentrated on prayer in the midst of the directions for going here or there on the two way radio!

I was gifted with some quiet time in the shade of a sweet smelling bale to pray some decades yesterday.  It seems that with the ability to dictate texts and see emails on my phone that in my down time I can let those in need know that they are in my prayers.  This morning my sweet sister-in-law, who recently had a heart by-pass had a 8a doctor visit, so my prayer was intensified for her during that time.

 Ruth had Joy in her car seat buckled in while we drove over to pick up bales.  We were just saying this morning how she brings lots of Joy into our lives, and how she is so meant to be here giving us her sweet smiles and wonderful love!  There can never be too many little ones just as there can never be too many flowers making our world beautiful!

Joy sweetly fell asleep for grandma while I helped pick up bales and then the slow ride home!

Joy looks to be uniquely brown eyed and redish hair!  She also has become a finger sucker over the last week.  Mom can hear her sucking her fingers during the night rather than cry to nurse.  She is getting plenty and was in the 70th percentile at the doctors for her 4mo check up! 

Waiting patiently... she is learning at a young age to be patient and kind from her wonderful hard working mom/farmer!  Ruth is such a wonderful willing helper and it is so natural for her to have her newest baby along for the experiences of life on a busy farm!  They both seem to truly love their farm life and all that goes along with it!

Bright yellow sweet corn on red plates on the new porch in the midst of a busy day working with hay.  The corn had just been picked that morning, the zucchini was just growing before lunch... that's fresh and healthy!  In a few days we will have to take time to do our big freezing of sweet corn with all of these great helpers!

A peaceful sight this early morning... prayers for Angela for exactly that Peace and Joy!  When I start to get tense and anxious those beads in my fingers and Mary along with me help me to find a better place as calm washes in and around me! 


This is a sunrise picture, and in a powerful way this is true of facing the end of our lives also as we step on into the forever with Jesus, Mary and all the Saints in heaven after we leave this world.  Today there was a friend on caring bridge sharing how the end is getting closer.  Speaking of how hospice is helping them at this hard place.  I was reminded of how much I always loved working with hospice and helping my patients and their families find comfort as they walked into the sunset of their lives.  Meeting their physical needs as well as their spiritual and psychological.  Yes, it is the sunset of the time here on earth, but then we enter the eternal sunrise of heaven forever with Jesus!

Pat loading me this morning while the beads travel and my heart rises like incense to the Lord!  Able to pray with Pat before we headed out this morning and read the readings for the day last night before bed and this morning.  How I love to read about Moses and how he could speak to God face to face and his skin would just glow as a result... he would cover his face with a veil!  Oh, for that day to arrive!!!


 Lord, I long to be radiant after my encounter with You!!!  I long to rid myself of the sin and darkness that seems to dull and mar me.  I am washed clean by my humbly laying my burdens/sins at your feet in the confessional.  Mary, how I love to have your companionship.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb

 Luke showing grandma sweetcorn and the bales just picked up...

Walking the fair calves back to the barn after they have been washed and fed and watered.  Then in the house to work on 4H projects for the fair!  I saw some coloring, some making of a babysitting backpack, talk of sewing a pillow, and toothpick digger, and on and on... BUSY!!!

The cows mooed for more grass when they saw us picking up bales..."They're spoiled!"

Enjoying the shade and the quiet!  There was a family that said a "Hail Mary" after every meal prayer for John and continued it now for 8 years!  That is many many rosaries for John's journey, and so much spiritual help!  We have adopted this for those in need of our fervent prayers!  We have found a pearl of great price - our small slice of heaven here on earth... giving all control to Jesus through Mary!

"Thou makest crosses soft and light..." St Alphonsus Liguori

Early morning walk with their fair calves on the farm this morning.  These two are described as "pussy cats" to work with, and the rubber boots reveal that they have just come from their morning wash in the wash rack.  Not a bad way to start their hot humid day for boy, girl and calves. 

Ruth out with all 6 kids this morning... Joy was all smiles as her big brother David pushed her from the calves to the pigs along with lots of bikes and pillows and all that goes on a week before the fair is to arrive!
https://www.facebook.com/paul.lanoue.5/videos/10159087724580023/
Here is an adorable video of the kids running with their pigs last evening!

Today is the feast day of St Alphonsus Liguori, and it was wonderful to share morning prayer with Pat firstly and then with John before he headed off to work.  John and I did not know the melody of the opening hymn, but when we realized that it was written by St Alphonsus... we read the words together.  How I loved to read these:
Thou makest the Crosses soft and light,
And death seems sweet and bright;
No cross nor fear that soul dismays,
Whose will to thee united stays.
God is truly LOVE, so his crosses to us are soft and light as he allows us to die to sin and self and come to be his hands and feet!  Sharing His LOVE with all... most especially with those closest to us in our domestic Church/family!

Realizing that a year ago we had done our sweet corn, we went to check out how it is coming and found our first sweet corn of the year!

 I said that Joy looked like a cob of corn, but Rose assured me that she wasn't!  She will have to wait a few more months until she will taste her first corn!


We all dislike those hard lessons/hardships/sickness/injustices/loss of prosperity/humiliations/crosses that come our way, but in St Loguori's way of looking on them as "soft" ways the Lord is correcting us and reminding us that He loves us, and asks us to embrace those crosses and trust in Him and follow after him with no looking back!  As Alphonsus heard the Lord say to him; "Leave the world and give yourself to me."  May we follow his example and say; "Yes!"

Luke helping with the corn...

When we are corrected with LOVE, it is embraced and learned well rather than with an iron rod.  It was a ah-ha moment to look down and see The Stations of the Cross by Alphonsus Liguori on the floor this morning.  Looking them over it seems that St Alphonsus focuses on "not the weight of the cross but of my sins which caused you to suffer so much pain."  If we really allow ourselves to recall what Jesus did for us - then the crosses we bear are truly "soft and light" crosses put in our lives to help us "give yourself to me."  Jesus, we trust in you.  Bless-bless, Barb