MSI Press Blog

  The story behind Dia de Muertos is pretty simpe, really. Sula, the parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautist a, already had published five books about the Mission and about Catholic customs and beliefs, all of them in English. The parish, however, was pretty equally divided between English speakers and Spanish speakers with two Masses each Sunday in each language and holiday and holy day Masses bilingual. (The community of San Juan Bautista is a pretty evenly divided bilingual community, as well.) Sula, the parish cat, was present at all Masses. She was beloved by all parishioners. The "Sula books" were written to help raise funds for a very expensive retrofit requirement. (The church sits atop the intersection of three major fault lines and has twice fallen from earthquakes high on the Richter scale). Although most Spanish speakers in the parish could understand English, they felt left out of the Sula project. They wanted a book that spoke to their community in their lan...

  Yes, we have quite a collection of short videos of Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, thanks to Stacey Gentry, Sula's official photographer. For some Caturday/Saturday fun, just click HERE and select the videos you like -- or all of them! For more posts about Sula, her life well lived, and her books, click HERE , including Surviving Cancer, Healing People , which won a Literary Titan gold medal. And, with Easter coming up, don't forget about Sula's Easter book! Sula, the now-famous church cat, tackles a mysterious topic for her fifth book: What is Easter, what is its meaning, what are the beliefs behind Catholic behaviors associated with the Lenten season and Easter, why is it called the Paschal mystery? Sula answers these questions with history, dogma, humor, and charm. And, of course, with pictures, lots and lots of people-cat pictures. The sections of the book--Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and East Mornin...

  Excerpt from Sula and the Franciscan Sisters - The Sisters, Their Convent Home and Work, and Our Mission A long time ago, the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, as an order, were not Catholic; they were Anglican. Then, they became Catholic. As Franciscans, they found their way to Old Mission San Juan Bautista, a Franciscan Mission established by St. Junipero Serra and Franciscan friars from Mexico in 1797. The Franciscan sisters came later. Once here, they helped the parishioners, other people, the cats who came to visit them at the convent, like my friend Julius, and, of course, me. The Franciscans are a mendicant order. That means that they work. Some orders are cloistered—they spend their time inside all the time, praying. Some orders teach; the Jesuits like to teach. The Franciscans teach, too. The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement at San Juan Bautista have taught at the St. Benedict School in nearby Hollister. They also have taught catechism, Rite of Christian Initiat...

  Check out page 24 of the January issue of the  Mission Village Voice , where Sula's grave is announced as Headstone of the Month. (Just flipping the pages is found - great Internet tech set-up.) As the article says, Sula ministered to the parish at Old Mission San Juan Bautista for 15 years, arriving there apparently Heaven-sent when she was two years old from no one knows where. The "author" of 7 books and the subject of (inter)national articles, she was always a stop on the Mission tour, where she never failed to give visitors her love. Since she passed over the rainbow bridge in August, her grave site in the Mission gardens beside her beloved St. Francis statue has become a stopping place for parishioners and visitors honoring her years of support to this community. For more posts about Sula, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interes...

  winter solstice at Old Mission San Juan Bautista Thanks to Arthur Yavelberg, author of A Theology for the Rest of Us , for this post: Religion has a bad rap these days for all kinds of reasons--many of which are more than fair. Unfortunately, what often gets lost in these issues is the basic nature of true faith and spirituality--hope.   After all, the alternative is bleak--an uncaring, arbitrary universe in which everything has arisen by accident and will eventually dissolve just as randomly.  As the Psalmist writes, our lives are as so many blades of grass and, once we are gone, our footsteps will disappear and it will be as if we never were. Compare that with the fundamental message of the spirit: there is not only design in our universe, but a divine purpose that, while perhaps mysterious, exists nevertheless.  Our lives may be limited, but we can sense the infinite--both in terms of time and the love and compassion that are the essence of what it means to...

  Sula for 15 years a beloved staff member, although a cat, at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, served parishioners faithfully until August 24, when she died with her "work boots on" after fighting cancer for ten years and succumbing only to the 6th bout. Her story has been told in many posts of this blog, all over the Internet, and in a memorial story on KSBW , a Central Coast California television station, that was carried by other stations, as well.  See more posts about Sula  HERE . Now, let us introduce Bubblegum, a young white rooster. Bubblegum showed up at the first Mass after Sula passed away, walking down the aisle like Sula did, and standing in front of the altar like Sula did. Bubblegum has since attended a funeral Mass and the full two-hour meeting of the Sula Committee making plans for Sula's funeral and memorial. Interestingly, Bubblegum (pictured here) is white with grey tail feathers like Sula was white with a gray tail.         ...

  IN MEMORIAM On August 24, 2022, Sula, the beloved parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, passed away quietly in her carrier as she prepared to spend her last working day at the Mission. For about 15 years, based on the estimates of parishioners who have known her since she appeared at the Mission as a kitten, she has spent her time at Masses, exploring the gardens, and in the Gift Shop where she lived until recently, moving in with parishioners, her godparents, when covid struck and spending Sundays on duty at the Mission. She brought excitement to scores of visiting children, peace to parishioners during Mass, and healing to the hurting. As a survivor of multiple forms of cancer, including skin cancer that took her ears years ago, she served as a role model to cancer patients. Visitors came not only to visit the Mission but also to meet Sula. On her Face Book page, she had over 1000 followers, including fans from more than a dozen states and many countries. Sula, a “divine...

  photo of Sula, looking for more of her books, by Stacey Gentry Sula, parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, is back in the news again. This time, an article about MSI Press LLC in the San Francisco Post details the role Sula and her books play in raising money for the presentation fund of Old Mission San Juan Bautista. Check it out! Nicely written! For more posts about Sula and her books -- and lots of neat pictures, click HERE .

  (photo by Carl D. Leaver) On the solstice (Tuesday), at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, the sun will stream through the arms of St. John the Baptist (the statue outside the church), then through the window in the choir loft, and starting from the right-hand side of the statures in the rededor and coming to rest on the tabernacle, from which it flows in a golden river of light down the center aisle. On cloudless solstices, it is quite spectacular. Anyone in San Juan Bautista at 6:00 am Tuesday this week (Dec 21) are welcomed into the church -- usually a priest, together with local Native Americans who built the church, will lead a waiting ceremony until the sun does its thing. Want more information about Old Mission San Juan Bautista? Here is the official information , and here are the reflections of MSI Press author, Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission . Enjoy the solstice wherever you are.

  Sula, well known across the Internet for the general sharing of her story by Guideposts , All Creatures , and others, is listed on every Sunday bulletin of Old Mission San Juan Bautista .  Sula has survived five bouts of cancer, written a book about it ( Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story ). When she entered remission after her fifth bout and concurrent with closure of the Mission gift shop, her home, because of covid regulations, Sula, now 14 years ago, went into retirement, living with a parish couple that has taken care of her whenever she needed to recuperate for years. Now, she comes to the church on Sundays to be with the parishioners and lend them support as she always has. Sula's first cancer is skin cancer. The first bout required clipping her ears. The second bout required removing her ears. She remains in remission from skin cancer. Sula's second cancer was carcinoma at the injection site of a vaccination (her hip). The first time required surgi...

  The following is an excerpt from the description and history of the Day of the Dead as written by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission in her book, Dia de Muertos. Los antiguos mesoamericanos, quienes comenzaron la costumbre de celebrar la vida de sus antepasados =cada año (el Día de Muertos) creían que la muerte es parte del viaje de la vida. La muerte no es mala, no es el final de la vida, sino el comienzo de una nueva vida. Nueva vida viene de la muerte, al igual que los nuevos cultivos en este valle agrícola en el que se encuentra la ciudad de San Juan Bautista surgen cada año para que nuestros maravillosos trabajadores agrícolas cosechen en beneficio no solo de nuestra ciudad, valle y estado, sino también para muchas personas en muchos estados de los Estados Unidos donde nuestro producto se envía todos los días. Tal vez esta interpretación de la muerte—de que sea parte de un ciclo de nacimiento y renacimiento, es la razón por la cual San Francisco se refirió a la muerte como “H...

Old Mission San Juan Bautista is famous -- in part, because it is beautiful; in part, because it is one of the oldest Missions preserved in its original conditions; and in part, because Alfred Hitchcock made it famous in the movie, Vertigo , considered by the American Film Institute as the 7th best movie of all time, and at times, considered the best movie ever. (You can even visit the Vertigo coffee shop and buy Vertigo coffee at the Windmill Market in San Juan Bautista, inspired by the movie, and in San Juan Bautista you can see most of the places in the movie today just as they were in 1957--and 1857.)  The Mission is indeed old, and it needs preservation. For preservation, it needs funds. That is why Sula, who serves as the Parish Cat at Old Mission writes books, ministers to parishioners, and has her own pew. (The picture above was taken from Sula's pew during a healing Mass; she does get a good view.) For a short video about the work of the preservation committee and the reas...

  How many gift shops can boast the presence of a divine cat, always willing to meet with and pose with customers? Sure, a few can. Among them, a leader is the gift shop at Old Mission San Juan Buatista, where Sula, parish cat and a member of the staff at Old Mission, as well as author of six books, lives in residence. Well, lived in residence pre-covid. With current covid curtailments, she retired to live with her godparents nearby in Hollister and now works on Sundays, where she attends Mass to comfort people who need her and engage with customers at the gift shop next door. Among other Catholic products, such as rosaries and statues, the gift shop also sells all of Sula's books, and the proceeds go toward the restoration fund for the Mission. Sula has raised a lot of funds to help save her Mission! To read more about the Mission and the gift shop, click HERE . To see more information about Sula and her books, click HERE .

  (Sula in the arms of Fr. Ed at her godparents' house in Hollister, godparents on the left, friend on the right, and another MSI Press author, CB Leaver , in red in the front) Sula has been the parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista for 13 years and through four bouts of cancer (fourth just starting/reappearing). With Covid-19 and the shutdown of the Mission, along with the rest of the state of California, Sula retired to live with her godparents in Hollister, where she can be watched after and can even have a visit occasionally frnom a retired priest from the parish who lives neaby. She still works on Sundays, though -- and visitors are always delighted to find her in the pews at Mass, where she goes on her own and sits with whomever seems to need her at the moment even though she does have her own pew with her name on it, and between Masses at the Mimssion gift shop. Here is her bio: Sula is a very unusual cat. She is the parish cat for Old Mission San Juan Bautista and, b...

  Yep, it's Caturday, and we want to share, somewhat anonymously for privacy reasons, a bit of the recent trials and tribulations of Sula, the parish cat at Old Mission who has written six books. Sula has both a big fan club -- you can even join it on her Face Book page HERE -- and quite some renown, thanks to both own publications and publications about here, which you can read about HERE (pick and choose the ones that might most tickle your fancy). To briefly encapsulate the history: 1. Sula arrived as a kitten, perhaps somewhere around age 1, at the Old Mission, which really is the only action in her little town. 2. After a few years spending much time outdoors in this sunny California town, Sula developed skin cancer on her ears. They were trimmed. The cancer came back. Her ears were removed. You can read her story about that experience in her book, Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story .  3. Elizabeth Mahlou related Sula's story to Guideposts Magazine , wh...

  (photo by Martin Klimek) Long overdue is this story about Sula, parish cat of Old Mission, who was featured in the Christmas issue of Guideposts Magazine and in the All Creatures spinoff magazine in 2017 -- she was the cover in both cases.  Since that first story, which you can read online HERE , asn well as view the beautiful photography by Martin Klimek (sample above -- and more pictures at the Guideposts online site), Sula has written six books about and in support of her parish, Old Mission San Juan Bautista. They have received wonderful reviews! You can read more posts by Sula and her books HERE .

  We are hard at work on our next cat book, again by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission: Sula and the Franciscan Sisters . It is mainly a picture book, great pictures, some incredible pictures. We now have it available on pre-order for only $10! (Post-release price is anticipated to be $14.95.) We hope to have it out this month -- but not yet at the stage where we can promise a September release. This book is envisioned as a memorial to the Franciscan nuns who lived at the convent in San Juan Bautista for many years and helped to take care of Sula. How they loved her, and how she loved them! The beautiful pictures in the book show that. For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE .                 

  Photo by Kaleena Scargill Some of the people who form a big part of my mission [taking emotional/spiritual care of the parishioners at Old Mission San Juan Bautista] struggle with cancer. I do understand them—their fears, their pain, their sometimes-sadness. I feel those things, too, at least as much as a cat can feel. I know that God made humans to have even deeper feelings and a greater range of feelings, and I am glad that some of those feelings include loving animals because it is through that love that I can connect with them and bring them the message of God’s love. I have to tell you about one of my special friends, Loryn. She understands me because she had cancer, and I understand her because I had cancer—the same way Cody and I understand, support, and love each other. Maybe it is better if I am not the one to tell her story, though. Maybe she should tell her own story. I think you will find it more interesting that way. So, here is what she wrote for my book about her e...