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!
Pat and I on either side of our daughter, Little Sister Hallel in May after sharing mass as a family. We are greatly blessed by her prayers for our marriage and our domestic Church/family each day. The Hallel Psalm from mass today, Psalm 145, speaks of The great LOVE we are given, and in return we are called to give him total Praise, which is what Hallel means - the first part of Hallelujah!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 10-11, 12-13ab
R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. Every day will I bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD and highly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD, and let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom and speak of your might. R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. Making known to men your might and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom. Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations. R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
This feast of another St John today - St John Chrysostom - who spoke words to those called to marriage in the 400s that still speak to us today!
Yesterday we made 90 pints of salsa and today I am helping Pat pick up bales shortly, so I am not allowed to go on and on here. I think I detect a sigh of relief... I do suffer when I can't pour out my heart freely here, but I do see that short and sweet can be almost better when needed. I was able to pray with both Pat and John this morning and read the Gospel last night before bed and twice this morning is always a good thing!
So filled with Praise/Hallel for the new little ones that remind us of the LOVE of Jesus for us. Now Nancy is holding a new life in her womb and all our prayers are surrounding it.
Jesus, I love you and long to serve you without counting the cost. I know that a lot of my dying to self is part of my sacrament of marriage and that is too is a daily sacrament as I embrace my Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! May I go forth this day giving and dying and caring and loving and praying without ceasing and serving and allowing you to work through me. Come Holy Spirit! "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. " Your words to us today from the Gospel/Luke 6. May we always hunger for your Truth and share it with love no matter the cost to us. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
My parents just celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary, and are a wonderful example to us of how to persevere on the difficult narrow path we are called to stumble down carrying/dragging our most Cherished Cross. Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
That's a lot of salsa - 90 pints!
"I am not alone because Jesus is with me, and with him I fear nothing." -St Faustina
No matter how small and alone you may feel right now, know that you are not alone and you are not forgotten.
Jesus is with you, and you are his beloved. The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary yesterday! Love it!
With the rain in the middle of the night a couple nights ago... the hay was too wet to bale and Pat made the trip up to see my parents for an overnight. Breakfast at my brother, Phil's restaurant - Phil's Grill in Center City after sharing morning prayer with my parents!
So wonderful to share the office of The Church with my dad, Deacon Robert, and mom and Hubby, Pat. We have put the office on our phones since John was in Seminary for a year about 5 years ago. John and I share morning prayer a lot of mornings this summer after Pat and I have shared morning prayer in the Magnificat.
My parents with their well worn prayer books - my dad had a date of 1974 in the front and was used by him since his ordination as a Deacon on The Catholic Church with the first class of permanent deacons from the Arch Diocese! Dad was sharing that he had used an Episcopal prayer book when he led a evening group called The Gathering of the Concerned - "we had a kneeler where they could kneel and get prayed over and I used the readings from the prayer book." This was a place of ministry and prayer after mom and dad were baptized in the Holy Spirit in Detroit.
Pat was very impressed by my dad's litany of prayer for friends and family and priests and deacons and with a family now numbering 121 that is a huge job to lift them up. A huge job of prayer! They are up to the job!
Jesus, thank you for the wonderful example I have with my parents still alert and with me on this journey of Faith and Family! Thank you for my husband sharing our times in prayer and with family! Jesus, we trust in you. bless-bless, Barb
So very happy to have my parents shining light into the darkness!
And just like that Rose is off to Kindergarten! She wanted her picture in front of the cows so she wouldn't miss them. Dear Lord, bless Rose in her journey. Fill her life with inspiring teachers and kind friends. — with Ruth Lanoue.
This was returned to me yesterday. It was a picture that we gifted to my mother-in-law on the occasion of our wedding 39 years ago! We were 22 and now we will be 94 with the arrival of a new great-grandchild in a few weeks. I am not including ours in the womb due in April.
We were gathered in the name of Jesus and many of us had just received Jesus' Body and Blood at the table of the Lord in my home parish of The Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis!
It is now in the entry way to our home and next to a most precious crucifix that Pat's mother gave to us a number of years back. So wonderful to remember the beginning of my life as a Verly and to see the beautiful Fruit that has been added to this wonderful farm family over the last almost 40 years - we are a month into our 40th year!
Joy is now interested in eating and as we gathered for our morning meal after sharing mass together... she wanted to have her food too! Joy is now fully at the table with us eating her first food. She loved to grab her spoon from grandpa's hands.
The Gospel today from Matthew 18 in which he tells us; "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Yes! We celebrate the sharing of our Faith with all of our family... we are aware that we will be welcoming our 26th member, and praying for our newest grandchild! We are truly gathered in the name of Jesus and His Bride, The Church! As Father reminded us of this Truth this day at mass..."The Family is where Faith is shared and taught with JOY!"
Joy got her spoon... such a beautiful day on the porch with the cool wind and no flies to bother us as we came to the table with JOY!
I came across this prayer for our priests, who are the ones that are Christ and give us Jesus/LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT in his Body and Blood each day...
O Jesus,
I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home
or abroad in distant mission fields;
for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
for your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in Purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priest at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me
Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way(especially...N...).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
We should join in this prayer each day for our priests, who are certainly under attack by the devil to prevent their bringing Jesus to us!
Rose helping to feed Joy and the puppy interested, too! Tomorrow Rose starts kindergarten and then Luke starts preschool later in the week. Then it will just be Joy on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Ruth will be busy running kids to and from, too.
Jesus, we do find Joy at your table and we long to give that Joy back to our domestic Church/family without counting the cost. Be with all those in the way of the storms battering our country and the fires in the West. Jesus, we trust in you. Bless-bless, Barb
Cute alert... watch out she is ready to grow before our eyes. Looks like red hair is coming, too, but we just have to be patient to see about that right Joy?
Ryan Stevenson - The Gospel
Danielle Rose - See you in the Eucharist
Our daughter, who is a nun in France, has reminded us that we are united in The Eucharist, and that is most beautiful and powerful for me!
The girls in our yard on Hwy 59 shortly before we moved to the farm from our tiny humble house... our starter home which we lived in from our marriage until 1987/our first 9 years of marriage and 4 girls and one miscarriage between our two oldest girls. http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
Our little comfy home came to mind yesterday when I took Pat his lunch as he cut hay around the back of the 7 grain bins. I joked that rather than a cute red barn I had shiny metal grain bins that made me feel like I was living in the inner city. I guess now that the fact that I was a city girl come to the farm has become an issue in our marriage... this seem ominous and foretelling.
Another one of the 4 in the summer after a wonderful million dollar rain for the crops that year.
The three oldest in our bedroom at our small place with so many warm and lovely memories! We kept the crib in our room for each new baby, so for that small room it was full and made my heart sing to have a new baby to welcome. We had 4 girls in our little house with one bathroom, which had been added later and you walked into it from the garage. Girls in the bathtub at night fill me with delight! I loved my nest years - 14 years allowed to be home with my kids!
In the kitchen where we canned and washed dishes by hand and where Pat would come in late for most every meal and had a lap full of girls helping him eat his food to his delight and theirs'!
Why am I so yearning to reminisce today? Our house was tore down and buried and burned a number of years back...
After I had fed Pat his lunch and he took off on his tractor to cut more hay... I stopped by the birch tree we had planted in front of our little house and walked over the now green grass where our little house stood for over a hundred years and held such precious memories of our first 9 years of marriage. The rosary in my hand and prayers for my kids and their families and my Most Cherished Cross/Patrick.
Such a powerful message to us this day in the Saint whose Memorial is today - St Peter Claver! He ministered to thousands of those brought here as slaves from Africa! "With the aid of interpreters and illustrations of Christ's life. Peter taught the brutalized slaves about the mercy of God. In 33 years, he instructed and baptized over 300,000 slaves." Such a powerful influence for good in the midst of this most shameful past in our country! A light in the darkness, and hopefully Christ in the lives of their families now generations removed will continue to help them recover.
The two older ones in front of the woodstove, which Pat loved and brought over to our farmhouse when we moved. He is sad that he hasn't found a spot for it in our new home with our little red barn.
Maria in the garden with the famous giant carrot. There were years of great gardens over the years.
I marvel from time to time when I hear of young couples that have entered marriage and really don't know where they are at with the faith and family part of their relationship. Pat and I on our first date shared what our values were and they were all the same, and upon that we built our love and had a short engagement and knew that we were meant for each other.
The words of St Paul today in Colossians 1 ring a bell for me..."God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard..."
Our shared love of the Catholic Church is the rock upon which our marriage has been based, and that was from the beginning and has never been altered, other than to be enhanced along they way by things like Renew, TEC, praying together more and more, the rosary, St John Paul II the pope with us for the entire first 27 years of our marriage, and how I loved his holy direction in all matters pertaining to LIFE and family! The death of Christ also flowed over to us in the loss of our 7 as we were open to LIFE and raising LIGHTS! Dying to self is what is most essential in our making our marriage last - the daily Sacrament of Grace we are given in this Sacrament of Matrimony!
The 4 girls in my shoes in the kitchen of our first home. Lots of laughter and LOVE/LIFE/LIGHT!
Lord, I now see that our history lived with you as we embrace our Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT is how no matter how hard it is... we find our salvation and can hope to come to you in heaven forever unblemished and worthy to live with you there forever with Our Lady, the Saints including wonderful St Peter Claver, and the Angels, who all bow down to you, O Lord! May this day be filled with my service without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you...You are the Lord of the Sabbath! Amen and Hallelujah
Corn leaf Hawaiian skirts made from corn leaves for Halloween in 1986... I had one too, and we made a terrible mess in the car and each home we visited! They sure looked cute when we started here at home, but we pretty much had only a wasteband left when we finally got home that night. Good thing I grabbed this picture to record the adorableness! Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Our small wonderful home is now only a memory, but a very good one!
Precious memories in our first home.
The red wallpaper and the red plaid!
Just mentioned this today.... Susan/Little Sister Hallel with black eyed Susans on her birthday years back.
I picked some in my yard yesterday, and thought of Hallel... using my mother-in-law's waffle iron now ours for breakfast with her familiar statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate heart looking on. We miss her, but she continues to be with us in many ways.
The Gospel by Ryan Stevenson
It speaks the words of St Paul to the Colossians today!
This guy does great songs!
The Eye of the Storm - Ryan Stevenson
Now We got the LIGHT
Another great artist - who uplifted us on our trip across the country and back
Lauren Daigle - First
"To love God as He ought to be loved,
we must be detached from all temporal love.
We must love nothing but Him,
or if we love anything else,
we must love it only for His sake."
St Peter Claver
A prayer to share with friends today. A Prayer for Hurricane Season
O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming le...thargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us. Amen.
Simon holding his youngest sister a few months back... she was just a month old when Hallel was here for her first home visit in 4 years! She was able to meet 3 new nieces and a nephew. Now we have another grandchild in the womb, and Hallel's prayers and ours are surrounding it from the moment we are aware of their arrival here on earth!
Speaking of life in the womb, and celebrating a day of birth... today is the birthday of our wonderful Blessed Mother, but I am discovering that it goes back to the beginning in many ways to her conception as it was according to the perfect plan for her to be "the holy throne which he prepared for himself. He who established the heavens in wisdom has fashioned a living heaven." (Byzantine Liturgy) Such wondrous and glorious expressions of what her conception and growth in the womb of Anne and then her birthdate of entering the world all means for the world of sin and darkness!
Our entire family when Hallel was here... I added Joseph, who was in Virginia for training.
With my many losses over the years of my childbearing...7 including 2 buried at the cemetery as they were 5 months along... I have been asked if possibly some could have been blighted ovum and if they should be named and considered a life. For me LIFE begins at conception and hence they all are my little ones that keep my eyes on heaven and whom I long to meet someday and know of their prayers for me. http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
Hallel with the 3 baby girls our 3 daughters had within 10 months of each other in the last year. So fun!
"When the most holy Virgin was born,
the whole world was made radiant;
blessed is the branch and blessed is the stem
which bore such holy fruit."
Today's Liturgy of the Hours, Antiphon 2
I am in love with all the beautiful words this day on the day of birth of Mary!
LOVE!!
Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother! Today is the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Celebrated since the 6th century, the traditional date of the feast is September 8, exactly nine months after the feast of her Immaculate Conception. The birth of the Virgin Mary ushers in the dawn of the redemption of the human race through Jesus Christ.
O Mary of all women, You are the chosen one, Who..., ancient prophets promised, Would bear God’s only Son; All Hebrew generations Prepared the way to thee, That in your womb the God-man Might come to set us free.
O Mary, you embody all God taught to our race, For you are first and foremost In fullness of His grace; We praise this wondrous honor That you gave birth to Him Who from you took humanity And saved us from our sin.
Yes, it is true that we also celebrate her Conception on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, but for me there is not one without the other, right?
And I see this as true in our domestic Church/family as we freely inform all of the new life so that there can be prayers surrounding that life and if there is a loss, there can be shared grief and support given. Trusting in Him!
Many told me to not inform my kids and family when we were expecting another child to spare them the pain of loss if I should lose it. No! In sharing that loss as a family we grew so close to each other, and our deep seated respect for all life grew from the tiny seed of loss/the cross called being open to life and raising lights yet some are called to be with him and pray for us left here to go forward! It is important and good to be open and share pain as well as JOY! Our joy would be dull and lackluster everything were all rosy and easy!
Lord, The LIGHT entered the world through your perfect Mother! We rejoice with you and celebrate this her day of birth! These words of St Paul to the Romans in the first reading from mass today; "We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified." Yes, we certainly are filled with great Joy this day! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Special time with our family 4 months ago when they lived with us... It was great to spend a few days with them last week... grandpa sure got to reconnect with this sweety.
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
He was there and then he was gone... til next time little sweetheart!
Joy is now 5 months old and looking for her first food! She is enjoying our wonderful homemade applesauce. This is why we do all the work! We sadly don't have any apples this year, so we are unsure about getting our applesauce made this year. Time will tell.
5 year old Rose loves to feed her sister maybe too much. "Joy gets a little worried about what Rose is going to feed her next. " I guess mom has a big helper, who is a little too enthusiastic. "Our concern must be to know God's Will. We must enter that path. IF God Wants WHEN God Wants HOW God Wants." -St. Gianna
This is real surrender, and the only path to true happiness.
"Remember that you are never alone. Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives." -St John Paul II
Even in the smallest, most thankless moments of this life's journey, you are not alone and the work you are doing does matter.
"We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour
His Mother, and we honour her simply and solely to honour Him
all the more perfectly. We go to her only asa way leading
to the goal we seek - Jesus, her Son....
She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God.
If you say "Mary," she says "God."
St Louis Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #94
