MSI Press Blog

  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 from Reddit) We are a little slow on the uptake or perhaps that is a little slow on the finding out. In looking for something else recently, we came across a cute picture of Sula, parish cat and MSI Press author, and posting on the Reddit site, Cats with Jobs ,  Sula has published six (!) books. You can read about theme 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.

  book illustrations by Zhenya Yanovich an early Christmas gift...an excerpt from Christmas at the Mission by the famous and beloved Sula , Parish cat at Old Mission Christmas Carols Music is such an important part of our life at the Mission. At every Mass we sing hymns, liturgical songs, and excerpts from the Psalms . Christmas, though, has special songs. People call them Christmas carols . There are many different Christmas carols. Each carol tells a different part of the story of what happened at and shortly after the birth of Jesus. Here are some. I am sure you know others: ·        O, Little Town of Bethlehem is about the city where Jesus was born. ·        Silent Night is about the time when Jesus was born. ·        Away in a Manger talks about the place where Jesus was born. ·        What Child Is This? is about Jesus himself. ·        The First Noel is about the angels telling the shepherds about the birth of Jesus. ·        We Three Kings is about the ma

  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

  (photo from last year, in anticipation of changing that number this evening from 41 to 42) November 13 today is CB Leaver's birthday. CB is the MSI Press author of the popular Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest and one of the oldest CHARGE Syndrome adults in the world. He knows only three others world-wide (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Netherlands) who have reached his age of 42 years (one is actually 45, the others are 42, as well) but thinks there may be another one or two somewhere. It is no mere feat, then, that he has survived, and robustly so, after a very tenuous start in life in which he as given 0% chance of survival by well respected doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and rescued by doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Hospital, and Stanford Children's Medical Center -- it took a countrywide network to turn that 0% into 100%) and no mere feat also that

  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 “Herma

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

  Zhenya illustrated several of MSI Press’s books. He has drawn covers, as well accomplished as inside illustrations. He illustrated Jeremy Feig’s book,  How My Cat Made Me a Better Man , which placed as finalist in the 2017 Book of the Year Awards. And right now, it is the season for another book he illustrated, Christmas at the Mission by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission. Unfortunately, Zhenya passed away at too young an age while already becoming a well-known artist in the US and Russia. Fortunately, his illustrations for MSI Press can be enjoyed in the books he illustrated for us. You can view information about them  HERE . MERRY CHRISTMAS!