MSI Press Blog

  woundedness From Dr. Dennis Ortman, author of multiple award-winning books , including Anger Anonymous , Depression Anonymous , and Anxiety Anonymous . WOUNDEDNESS “By his wounds you were healed.” --I Peter 2: 24   My patients, who know that I had been a Catholic priest, occasionally ask me, “What happens to us after we die?” I respond, “I don’t really know. I suppose we return to where we came from before we were born.” The reality is that death is as much a mystery as life. However, the Scriptures give us a clue. When the risen Christ appeared after his death, his disciples did not immediately recognize him. They mistook him for a gardener, a fisherman, or a fellow traveler. In one instance, his identity became clear, inspiring the worship of a doubting Thomas. The risen Lord appeared in their locked room and showed his wounds. He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving, but bel...

  Just around the corner is the Lenten season in the Catholic Church -- and our author Sula has just the book for you: Easter at the Mission. With the help of the deacon at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, Sula explores Catholic traditions and dogma, including some not well known even by long-time Catholics from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Watch the trailer. Read reviews. For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE . Purchase the paperback at discount from the  MSI Press webstore . Use Coupon Code FF25 for 25% off. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  review...

  The following guest post was buried in the Christmas mail, but it is still worth reading: ONE BIG BREATH “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” --Luke 1: 35   I just started participating in yoga classes. I wanted to breathe a little more life into my old, slow, stiff body. The instructor from India invites us to assume many seemingly unnatural positions with our bodies, which I think of as “pretzel poses.” We stretch like rubber bands, hoping not to snap. She asks us to hold those poses for several minutes and breathe slowly and deeply. She instructs us to be aware of our bodies and breathe into the physical sensations we experience. I experience mostly pain, which she tells me is “just discomfort.” She says, “Just follow your breath. It is your life energy,” which she assures us will bring relief. Each session ends with one big breath and the exchange of a solemn greeting, “Namaste” (Bow to you.). The classes h...

excerpt from Easter at the Mission (Sula) -  Life at the Mission Gift Shop The people I know best, those who take care of me, can be found at the Mission Gift Shop. There, I have quite a big staff. (You have heard that dogs have owners but cats have staff, right?) My staff is a group of wonderful people. Mary Anzar was the first person I met many years ago when I was called to my mission at the Mission. Benito Garcia used to work at the Mission Gift Shop but now works at the parish office; we are still attached to each other so I regularly walk over to the parish office to see my Benny. Stacey Gentry supervises my staff, takes good care of me, and most important, serves as my official photographer; you will see her beautiful pictures in this book. I have known Kaleena Scargill for many years. She used to clean the church, I would follow her around, and she would take pictures of me that ended up in some of my previous books. Marie Reed is very kind to me, and she makes sure that ...

  Passover and Easter   Arthur Yavelberg   author of the award-winning A Theology for the Rest of Us Best Indie Book Award Literary Titan Silver Award   People sometimes wonder about why the Jewish holiday of Passover often overlaps with the Christian celebration of Easter. There are many explanations for this—such as both are carryovers from pagan fertility rites having to do with the “rebirth” in spring. (Hence the use of “eggs” on the Passover seder plate and Easter egg hunts.) However, there are deeper possibilities.   Passover commemorates the Exodus of the Biblical Israelites from Egypt. Since God (not Moses) redeemed these slaves from bondage, it is often called a “Festival of Freedom.” While that is true, it overlooks that this freedom is essentially temporary. Once the Israelites escape and the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea, they are brought to Mt. Sinai where they are given God’s Commandments—the well known Ten Commandments and, ac...

  Sharing a photo of Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, in commemoration of the Lenten season.  For more posts about Sula and her books, especially Easter at the Mission , click HERE . For more posts about Lent, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter  here  or on our  home page . Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. 

(Easter 2022 at Old Mission San Juan Bautista ) Excerpt from the beginning chapter of Blest Atheist (a repeat and more from Easter 2017 , never loses its significance...) Siberia on Easter Morning  “ Khristos voskres ” (Christ is risen). One person after another greeted me with these words as I climbed the stairs of the little, wooden church in Akademgorodok, a tiny town at the end of the man-made Ob Sea, bejeweling the Siberian steppe 45 minutes south of the city of Novosibirsk. The intertwining snow-covered birch and kedr (Siberian pine) trees created an illusion of a land of fantasy, made more so in the late evenings by the moon reflecting off the naked silver-white birch bark onto the dark red-brown trunks and evergreen branches of the pines. This was not yet the inhospitable taiga ; it was somewhat south for that, but nonetheless the birch and kedr trees stood closely side-by-side like brothers-in-arms against a hostile white and cold universe.      ...