I have an hour and a half of work to get done, but the baby's up and she is nowhere near sleep right now, so I'm here instead.
Adoro, thank you. It is heartbreaking to deal with the pedophilia cases, but it must be done.
My best friend's family is in pretty dire financial straits right now, as is my mom. My family's doing alright. I start working for USDA again in two weeks, I'll get a huge sign on bonus that I think SK and I have decided to pay off one of our credit cards with, and then use said credit card to slowly fix his teeth, hopefully paying it off in full each month, or at least not maxing it out again. So I am very grateful to the Lord for His mercies in my finances. I have promised to start tithing again, but I'm not sure how to do it! We're not members of any church right now, and until I actually join a parish, I don't know how SK would handle my wanting to tithe to the local parish.
How do parishes work, anyway? Do you have to go to the church closest to you? Can you choose a different church? I don't know. I still haven't gone to Mass. Oh, another breakthrough! I had the TV on EWTN last night, and they were showing the Mass of Consecration for the Chapel of Divine Mercy in Chicago. I fell asleep on the couch watching it while SK played World of Warcraft. He was listening to the Mass and to the different speakers, apparently, because when he woke me up to go to bed, he asked me about it. He seemed very upbeat and supportive, said that it had sounded really interesting! So that's cool!
Well, Kate seems like she's about to settle, so God's blessings on you all!
Padre Pio, pray for us!
Sherri
2 comments:
Hi! I don't know if you're still wondering about how to choose a parish, and unfortunately I don't know your area so I can't really make any suggestions specific to you.
First, though, no you don't HAVE to attend the parish closest to you, although that is technically what you're supposed to do for many reasons. However, I used to live in Minneapolis and the church closest to me really was Catholic in name only. They are nationally known as a dissident parish (and I don't believe their "Mass" was valid).
I would in general terms suggest that, in choosing a parish, check out the websites. Check out their Mass schedule and when they offer Confession. If the parish has the words "Catholic Community" as part of the title (As opposed to "Catholic Church"), keep looking. If they don't offer Confession regularly..keep looking.
I have discovered that the best parishes call themselves Churches, not "Communities", and offer the Sacraments frequently. There are other signs, too, but sometimes it's trial and error. If you were local I could tell you where to go to and where to avoid. Do you have any practicing Catholic friends where you are?
If not, you could register at Catholic.com, and post to their forums. Guaranteed you'll find some people in your local area that can maybe direct you to a good, faithful parish.
God bless!
Sherri ~
I was just wondering how you're doing. Are things going well for you? Do you still have questions?
There is a conference taking place in Ohio through the Coming Hom Network (EWTN's Marcus Grodi's apostolate). It might be of interest to you.
God bless you,
~ Julie
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