Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Once incredibly fearful of the Sacrament of Reconciliation - my experience with a friendly, enthusiastic priest changed all that.  Have you ever been called back into the confessional?   While I still get butterflies before a Confession [discomfort is good indication of contrition - more of that in the podcast below] over the years, the Holy Spirit has shown me what a true GIFT participating in this Sacrament is.  Do not thin of it as being made to go but of actually BEING ALLOWED to go to Confession!  God provides this amazing experience of actually HEARING the words, "Your sins are forgiven."  That is not all He gives us - he also takes our guilt, shame, and pain and fills us GRACE! His Holy Spirit within us, that Spirit which helps us to strive closer toward holiness, and so much more! 

The Grace Trifecta Standing before a room of 30 or so women facilitating my first faith sharing back in 2006, I fumbled around for the proper words as I tried to answer one participant's seemingly simple question on the grace of God.   What is grace?  While I had this innate understanding, I could not formulate the right words to express what I believed it to be. I realized, I had no definition. Fast forward a few years, I am sitting in a small chapel in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ( aka Jesus in the Eucharist ). In my reading I once again face the question, what is grace? This time I open the  Catechism of the Catholic Church ; and prayed for guidance from the Holy Spirit.   That day the  Allison abridged version  of how I define the grace of God, was born (see image above) and I discovered the GRACE TRIFECTA ... Read More   All rights reserved, Allison Gingras 2016

Success #1   Returned home - safe and sound - and healthy from my business trip to Washington, DC.  While there for the  Napa Institute 's Human Ecology conference on the campus Catholic University of America - I learned: All about Uber (as the Metro was down while I was there);  $1500 a night hotel rooms are WAY better than $400 a night hotel rooms (our reservations were given away by the Days Inn so they had to put us up at a Marriott for one night - it was nice albeit very inconvenient at midnight)!; Planes travel 'wicked fast' when there are only 11 people on board with no stowed luggage! (except the one bag my traveling companion, Jennifer Longworth had with our  Breadbox Media  swag in it!). Success #2  Jennifer and I were able to spend some time in the  Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception  in Washington, DC at the end of the first night of the conference.  ...   read more  ......

Week 4 (Part B) - Honesty and Counsel This week forced me to take a very long hard look at my mindset towards what I admit and will share about my personal finances and what is really happening.  Although my name Allison means "truthful one" and I do feel sometimes I am honest to fault; this week's teachings and ponderings on the topic of honesty made clear, there was some areas I saw okay to paint  gray .  There really is no legal or honest gray areas with regards to money, especially if those finances are shared.   This week also challenged my filing system (or lack there of) and how pride had (and probably still does) hinder my seeking and accepting counsel.  Let's evaluate these struggles & triumphs more closely ...     FILING, HONESTY AND COUNSEL  All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2016

I'm so happy to announce that Laura Pearl (author  Finding Grace  and upcoming Erin's Ring) is going to be offering an online book club this winter! Right about now, people are settling into their routines and especially in the midwest we are feeling the beauty of autumn begin to descend. Some trees are changing colors and many of us are ready to settle in with a good book at the ready. Honestly, nothing is better to do during the shorter days where there is a bit of time now and again than to turn to a great read and Laura's book, Finding Grace, is just such a read. It is a book that takes you deep into the story (Just read any of the great Amazon reviews!) and brings you out the other end incredibly satisfied. So if you are looking for something that is extra fun, consider reading Finding Grace this fall and joining Laura for her online bookclub come early 2015 for Grace-Filled Tuesdays! Right now  Finding Grace is available on Kindle for just $4.99  and ...

In December of 2011, right around the time I was finishing up my manuscript for Finding Grace , I began to search the Internet for information about how to go about having it published.  My cyber-travels ultimately led me to  this 2007 article about Cheryl Dickow, a former middle school teacher who had started her own Catholic publishing house called Bezalel Books .  I was immediately struck by the thought that I'd started writing Finding Grace in 2007, and that was the same year that this article originally appeared in Catholic Review-- and I believe the same year that Cheryl started her company.  I felt an immediate connection with Cheryl and it seemed that God was pointing me in the direction of Bezalel Books. I will always be grateful that I stumbled upon that particular article about this extraordinary woman at that particular time. Cheryl Dickow is not only a publisher; she is also an editor, a speaker, a blogger,...

 An excerpt from Finding Grace ;   Grace's musings on  Fatima after she learns that her elderly neighbors  are Holocaust survivors:           And something was nagging at the back of her mind.  What dire warning had Mary given to Francisco and Jacinta Marto and Lucy Santos, the three peasant children to whom She'd appeared at Fatima?  Wasn't it that there would be a terrible war, worse than the most recent one the world had witnessed?  Our Blessed Mother had appeared to the three Portuguese children in 1917, not long after the Great War, the "War to End All Wars": World War I.  Through three poor, humble, young shepherds, the Mother of God had sought to warn the people of the world that if they didn't change their ways and consecrate themselves to Her Immaculate Heart, an even more terrible holocaust would be visited on the earth.         ...