Test post

This is just a test post to see how WP works. Are you a creative Catholic? “The Catholicpunk Manifesto” is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better! Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! “The …

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The sick and the sinners must heed the call

Who needs Jesus? Whom does He call upon? From the Gospel reading in today’s Mass for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday: Luke 5:27-32: “Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.He said to him, ‘Follow me.’And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.Then Levi gave a great banquet for …

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The Second Step: Coming to Believe

The Second Step of 12 Step recovery movements is: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” “Came to believe” implies a process in which you once didn’t believe, but eventually adopted a belief. This is known as conversion. “Recovery” is a distinct form of conversion, as you undergo …

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Have mercy on me, Lord

The Responsorial Psalm from the Daily Mass for the Friday after Ash Wednesday is an excellent prayer of repentance and petitioning God for forgiveness (I pasted the full text here): Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my …

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Take up your cross daily and follow Him

On this, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, the message is clear: Luke 9:22-25: “Jesus said to his disciples:‘The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejectedby the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,and be killed and on the third day be raised.’ Then he said to all,‘If anyone wishes to come after me, …

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Return to me with your whole heart

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The First Reading from today’s Mass is from the Prophecy of Joel: Joel 2:12-18: “Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to …

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Lent Begins On Wednesday

Tomorrow begins Lent, the season of penitence. Please read this post from last year (which itself has a link to the previous year’s Lenten intro). Are you a creative Catholic? “The Catholicpunk Manifesto” is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better! Know someone, perhaps yourself, who …

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Praying Lent 2009

There is an excellent online resource for experiencing Lent this year: Praying Lent 2009 (Via Creighton University Collaborative Ministry.) Are you a creative Catholic? “The Catholicpunk Manifesto” is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better! Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? …

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Releasing yourself from the things that harm

There is an interesting article on clinging to people, places and things that afflict you, and why and how to release and distance yourself from them. (Via Spirit Daily.) Give it a read! Are you a creative Catholic? “The Catholicpunk Manifesto” is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture …

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Death and Purgatory

As a person who suffered from alcoholism, I can say that I have already experienced death of a sort. The old me has died. Some parts of the old corpus may still be twitching, but essentially out of the agony and expiration of the old Paul S. a new person has been reborn. Oblivion did …

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