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!
Thinking of my Hallel today... this was taken almost 4 years ago at her last home visit. All were together ( we have grown by 5 going on 6 since then, and most of them Hallel has yet to meet). This was a great occasion for our family as we gathered in Ruth's home for huge meals and coming and going of friends and family. Fr Craig Timmerman is a wonderful cousin, who has been very involved with Hallel's call to become a bride of Christ! He even traveled to France when she changed her name and took her habit in August of 2009.
St Francis de Sales is celebrated today and his writings influenced St Therese which is evident in this quote - Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily.
Sharing supper and evening prayer with Fr Craig on this rare occasion of Hallel having time at home almost 4 years ago. Yes, we don't have a priest or Hallel with us day to day, and we miss her mightily and know of her prayers for us. But we still lift up our hearts, minds and souls to Jesus in prayer and service morning and evening and all times in between in our daily lives!
So good to share our prayer as a family! We attempt to get to daily mass and pray as a couple in the morning... and John and I love to do the office on days that he is at home on the weekends, and do a simpler morning prayer on work days in the dark kitchen while he eats his breakfast. The day is so much better if we start with prayer and give it over to the Lord.
When we are together for FAMILY TIME it is a "great occasion" filled with great meals and great sharing and great hugs and great little ones having their ups and downs, and lots of clean up and lots of cooking and lots of pottying and diaper changing and lots of feeding and lots of LOVE and some times of discipline, and running and playing and crawling and singing and dancing and talking and laughing and speaking with a loud voice because of all the noisy LIFE activity going on all around us!
And selfies with babies - this was Patrick 4 years ago when Hallel was home for her visit!
Hallel was home when we had lots of baby calves on the ground 4 years ago. She has always loved her cows and calves and her farm girl growing up on the farm with cows and calves former life.
With pictures of this great occasion that only happens very 3-4 years or more... it is the day to day life that we live most often and that can be equally great and wonderful and blessed and filled with graces as the result of all The Church gives us each day with the Sacraments - The Eucharist, Reconciliation, The Sacrament of Marriage is a daily Sacrament giving us the grace we need to die to self so that we may serve without counting the cost, Our Lady and her wonderful rosary which fills our days and lives with her intercession as she brings us to her Son, The Saints - today St Francis de Sales is there to show us how to persevere and live a life for Christ, we are given so very much that our cup overflows and our surroundings become a small slice of heaven here on earth in the heart of our domestic Church/family! In the Gospel today we are reinforced in our daily serving God..."whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:35
For special celebrations we have learned from The Community of the Lamb to have a parade with sweets and candles and song!
We can look to Jesus in all these ways and with all this help, and be pretty confident that we are doing His Will! The Church is there to help us get to heaven if only we take to heart and follow their guidance in our lives. We are not to pick and choose, or be a shopping cart Catholic. We are to do it all without reservation! Follow The Truth!
Hallel reading during mass after we brought her back to KC after her completion of her home visit 4 years ago. We know that she lifts us up at Mass - "we are together in the Eucharist"- and Adoration and prayer throughout her day as a contemplative nun every day! It is hard for her to come and join us in our world for a number of days for her home visit and not have her daily prayer and mass and Adoration. We attempt to find mass for her daily while she is home, and there is great delight to share it with her!
Sharing mass in the Church of their youth now remodeled and glowingly beautiful! Love this so much with Jesus in the middle in The Tabernacle aglow!
"Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will." Psalm 40:8 from mass today. Yes, we are weak and sinful and selfish and lost and sick, but, as Hallel told me at a low point, "mom, when we are weak is when we turn to Jesus." "I want Jesus, so I long to stay weak and sick!" I need you, Jesus! Come and fill me to overflowing with so very much to help me this day filled with little ways to serve God without counting the cost. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
With her Goddaughter, Therese, 4 years ago.
These 3, Patrick, Rose and Bernadette are now 4!
The 5 with grandma Ann 4 years ago... she has been gone for a month and a half now, and joins those praying for us and we for them! I have found great comfort in going to daily mass as my mother-in-law did with her husband for many years, and after in the darkened Church praying The Chaplet of Divine Mercy for her, all our dead, and all those that are dying today with no one to pray for them. Mom and I had some wonderful prayerful times sharing the chaplet of Mercy during her last few days in this world while she was "sleeping." Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song!
One more from the Great occasion of Hallel home!
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We have grown by 5 with #6 to join us in March! Each family has grown by 2! Hallel's next home visit will be astronomical/out of this world, and we can't wait! Our prayers for a real hug is a daily one!
Rose is now 4 and looks a lot like Susan did at that age!
My inner temple without the Christmas trees - St Francis de Sales, St Louis, Missouri
Danielle Rose - See you in the Eucharist
Explaining how we are together in The Eucharist- Danielle Rose
A PRAYER BEFORE COMMUNION
by St. Francis de Sales
Divine Saviour, ... we come to Your sacred table to nourish ourselves, not with bread but with Yourself, true Bread of eternal life. Help us daily to make a good and perfect meal of this divine food. Let us be continually refreshed by the perfume of Your kindness and goodness. May the Holy Spirit fill us with His love. Meanwhile, let us prepare a place for this holy food by emptying our hearts. Amen.
My hero, St John Paul II the Great, looking over their shoulders with Jesus in the monstrance and the LOVE for all LIFE as his message... is reflected in the faces of Maria and her children as they gaze upon little 2 1/2 month old Evangeline Mary. Nothing can compare to a new member added to our family! The limiting of family so that we can have material possessions, or get aways to some far flung place, or so that we can have more time to do what we want when we want to do it... fleeting and cannot compare to the gift of new life! That sibling will add to the ups and downs of our life always and our love only grows bigger with each new member to our families!
Saint John Paul The Great is my mentor and hero for Family and for LIFE! He was pope for the first 27 years of our marriage, and although I felt alone against the world a lot... he gave me courage and Hope and the Truth to listen to with my heart and persevere no matter what the Lord's mysterious plan was over my own. I needed a lot of prayers obviously in that I have an army praying for me and keeping my eyes on heaven with the 7 kids and 3 grandkids I have there!
The watercolor behind them was of my farm and I put a church with a cemetery in the distance where my 7 in heaven rested until we meet in heaven someday. It gave me a sense of peace to have this special way of having us all together as we are in my heart and soul! http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
Big brother, David, joins the circle of LOVE! You can see the cemetery and Pat on a horse going off into the horizon to work for his family...
My champion for LIFE right next there to St John Paul II is my wonderful husband, Patrick! He loves little ones and they sense his devotion to them and respond with smiles and coos! I can hardly remember holding the little ones in mass each week, Pat would always hold them with great love in his huge strong arms, and they would, for the most part, find peace and comfort there. "You would come in there when the baby was less than a week old, and always together with your family, not split up." This was so important to us to attend mass always and as a family! We would bring the little ones and sit close to the front so that they could watch and learn.
How we heard an audible sigh of surprise when we finally came in "with that blue bundle." "You had those 4 girls all with ribbons in their hair, and than you had that boy!" How I longed to have at least one more to show the world without using words that I had not stopped because we had our boy! No, I carried 2 boys til 5 months, that are buried at the cemetery, and then a 3 1/2 month loss... we trusted and asked for another, but we needed more to pray for us from heaven. We are also called to share with words to those that think we quit due to our selfish wants and desires!
Such wonderful family time we are having this winter on the farm!
How am I so confident that all my little ones are at the feet of Jesus in heaven interceding for me and their family? Because of the promise as St Paul points out to the Hebrews today in the first reading - Hebrews 9 Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
I know that my little ones were LIFE growing in my womb from the second of their conception, and that they were surrounded by love and prayers without ceasing from the moment I was aware they were there. With NFP and charting you can see the day that you are over due, and the hope and love fills your heart! The tears and pain we suffer at their early passing is also part of the wings that carries them to heaven forever. We have the promise of our salvation through His unconditional love and forgiveness if only we accept our Jesus and His Bride, The Church to assist us!
My constant companion on this lonesome journey is My Spiritual Mother, Mary the Mother of God! How she shows me how to say "Yes!" to being open to LIFE and raising them as LIGHTS. I know that she is there for my little ones surrounded by all the millions of lights that have been extinguished by abortion! 58 million! Knowing of one girl, who came so close to being aborted and now is a nurse working with children. It is a lesson to us that a life lost could have touched this world in healing and wonderful way.
John having some time with our newest member of the family. He asked for faith and got brain cancer to show him the way! He continues to ask the Lord to show him his path!
Many followed Patrick.. born dead and brought back to life! He is now a living breathing healthy example to many of the power of prayer and the value of life!
Such words of Truth from my hero! Who can weaker or more defenseless than those in the womb enveloped in the security of the womb? Then attacked by the tools of abortion with pain and suffering and death the result! It harms the child with a beating heart and also the mother by ripping this life her entire body was growing to nurture and support and love and bring into the world... it is a fact that women that abruptly stop there body from pregnancy are more likely to get breast cancer as their breasts were changing for the baby and then abruptly it is stopped as it is ripped from her womb! Wrong and the most horrible evil I can fathom is the killing of a sweet little life so dependent on us for cherishing and protecting. How did it ever come to this being OK? My heart is sick and broken, and I scream to the heavens that abortion can end, and that all can see the Truth... Life is sacred from conception to natural death!
Patrick and John, who have both been healed by prayer and brought to Faith as well as bringing others to know the power of their prayers being answered. In a similar way there are those that have survived abortion attempts that share their message with those that have ears to hear!
Maria and Ruth have both ruptured during delivery and continue to trust in healing their wombs and being open to life... such a lesson on trusting. Ruth will be having her 6th and our 15th grandchild in late March. Jesus, we trust in you.
Jesus, my heart is heavy and full today as we pray without ceasing for the end of taking of innocent life through abortion. The Psalm for today #98 is one of hope that the words we live out The Truth and share it in word and deed about the beauty of value of all LIFE - it will change hearts one at a time and change the world from a culture of death to a culture of LIFE!
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.
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
Yes, Lord, your miracles and the beauty of Family so fills us with a small slice of heaven here on earth, and our striving always for heaven forever with you, Mary your Mother, The Saints, and Angels... Bring all to you, as you stand there with your nailscarred hands open wide to receive and forgive with unconditional love! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Two on her lap in The LIGHT - a lesson of the JOY of Family! So blessed! Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
Armed with Jesus/The Word may we promote LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT/The Cross we are called to carry/drag after Jesus!
random but it makes me smile... lots of prayer time by the clothesline over these 38 years of marriage!
St John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis all LOVE LIFE!
A new gift from Rome - Hallel with her friends from St Thomas, who brought her to The Community of the Lamb!
"Good night, Roma! <3 span="">
My final evening here was spent in style... At the Little Sisters of the Lamb for their Holy Hour. Beforehand, had a spot of tea and enjoyed quite the reunion, with l.s. Hallel, Father Carola, and Nick Hagen!" Mary Gibson
I was sad to read this sign at the women's march..."Keep your rosaries away from our ovaries." So important to surround each life with prayer and our Spiritual Mother loves without counting the cost!
Danielle Rose - Psalm 139 Wonderfully made
Jesus, I trust in you!
A quote from St JPII about the family which is also being attacked!
