Pope Benedict Decides to Retire February 28, 2013

Our beloved Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will retire at the end of the month. February 28, 2012 will mark the end of his pontificate. He sites his health and mental acuity and the demands of the job as reasons for his decision.  May God bless him! My first response was denial, next tears. He has been God’s man his whole life and never wanted to be Pope, planning instead after the enclave that elected him to retire to his home and write books. I feel gratitude for his service to God even when it was contrary to his … Continue reading

Gratitude to God for Good Priests

I experienced a marvelously refreshing silent spiritual retreat last week. This quiet time to be focused on God and not on the everyday stuff came just in time to help me find my center for Advent. Besides giving us deep messages from Scripture and Church teaching to ponder, daily Mass served faithfully and reverently, this priest spent several hours in the confessional so that if in our examinations of conscience we found anything requiring confession, that was available to us.  This priest was so dedicated he was in the confessional so long that every participant in the retreat could have … Continue reading

Catholic Writer’s Guild LIVE! Conference REVIEW

I spent most of this past week in Arlington taking in the amazing Catholic Writer’s Guild Live! Conference, that took place in the same place as the Catholic New Media Conference, and the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show.  WOW!!!  It has taken me nearly three days of recovery to even begin to absorb all that I attended. First, the good.  I loved meeting people whose blogs and books I have read, am reading, or would like to read. That was so very very FUN I can barely handle it yet.  Give me time.  I’m a mite slow in managing input … Continue reading

New Age classes at the Parish Church

Recovering Dissident Catholic What Does the Prayer Really Say The above two links are to a commentary about New Age classes, often costing $100 or more to take, being held in parish churches. There are so many reasons why this is wrong, but the above links spoke to that very very well.  The comments were good too! I want to talk about why I think these classes happen and why so many Catholics (and non-Catholics too fall into these traps) take up these activities. We are community creatures.  We need fellowship and not just during the Mass.  During Mass we … Continue reading

Awesome Priests

I was browsing the internet for another post I plan to make and came across a comment about Catholic Priests who pray the prayers of exorcism outside of abortion clinics.  All I could think was COOL!!  Another blogger at the blog Coming Home quoted the article and there were some good comments on that blog: here. Although I found the initial reference on the blog Barefoot and Pregnant. These priests are awesome! Just sayin’ Here is something I pray for priests and bishops: Dear God, please give great strength to the guardian angels of all priests and bishops. Please give … Continue reading