Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Here’s my response to Sarah Reinhard's challenge to four questions she threw out to her readers who are writers: 1. What are you working on? With a couple of trips coming up, I’m blogging ahead using my huge Blog Ideas folder. I need to reorganize it because I found a wonderful quote on holiness yesterday and couldn’t decide which of the three holiness files to put it in. Need I say more? In the long term, I’m working on the last two chapters of a book about generosity while I wait for a publisher to accept my proposal on this gem. I’m also waiting to hear from another publisher about a proposal for two books I’ve worked on for the last few years. Whether this publisher accepts the proposal or not, I plan to revise it yet again after Catholic Writers Guild Live Conference, using some new perceptions.   What-How-Why continued on JoyAlive.net  

When I met Neil Combs at the 2013 Catholic Writers Guild Live conference, I sensed a connection that was beyond Catholics and writers. He introduced himself to me when we were volunteering at the Catholic Writers Guild booth in the CMN trade show. He was excited about his book, “A Body in Prayer: Praying from Head to Toe,” a subject that fascinates me.   Then I discovered his conversion story from a Lutheran family was similar to mine from an Episcopalian family.  We both converted after our marriage to a Catholic. We both struggle with what to give up in our busy lives to establish a good prayer time. So I relate to his journey to write the book and to convert to the Catholic Church.   The simple organization of the chapters makes it easy to concentrate on the gems of wisdom.  Here are a few of my favorites: “Open Mouth” –  “A great way to evangelize is to create the opportunity for a conversation about the faith.” “The Eyes Have It” – “I think that the re

 Reviewed by Nancy Ward I discovered Neal Lozano's book, “Unbound,” when our covenant community planned an Unbound Conference with him. About 50 of us learned how to cooperate with the Lord to gain freedom from the influence of evil spirits and then guide those coming to the conference in this prayer method. We learned the five keys that unlock the doors we have opened to intimidating spirits and how to close them. The five keys are not complicated when we understand that not our power but the power of the name of Jesus accomplishes it all: Repentance and faith. Forgiveness. Renunciation of evil spirits. Taking authority over those spirits. The Father’s blessing. That’s the strategy that answers to our prayer “deliver us from evil, freeing us from the lies Satan tells to keep us from God’s plan for our life . As we learned these keys, we tried them out on one another. Instead of believing the lie that I could never do this right, my confidence grew that the Lord could

Jesus tells us in John 15: 9-11 “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” Wow! Who could ask to be loved more than that? The Father loves Jesus more than we can ever imagine or put into words. Jesus tells us that he loves us that much. That love is unfathomable. It’s a gift that we can never earn. Then he tells us his desire for us. “Remain in my love.” Is there anything we wouldn’t do to keep that love flowing into our heart? Our response can only be, “Yes, Lord, we want to live in your love always. Tell us how.” “ If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love .”   This is the Lord’s clear direction on how to keep our love relationship with him alive and vibrant. Do what he wants. Trust him. Do what we know will bring us everlasting happiness. Believe his word. Live in him. Not only do we have the commandments, the guidebook, but also we have the Guidance Couns

I was barely out of college. My journalism degree helped me land a part-time office job with the publisher of a Texas restaurant guide. The hours were flexible and so I could continue my prayer time schedule of 8 a.m. mass, then prayer until 9. The publication folded in less than a year. Then came the God-incidence. I worked as a volunteer one weekend in the pressroom of a large Catholic conference. The manager of the pressroom was the editor of the diocesan newspaper. He was looking for a copyeditor. The job would bring some opportunities to write stories, interview people and get published with a byline! After a short interview in his office the next week, he hired me. Then he smiled and asked, “Can you type?” He became my mentor.