MSI Press Blog

Sula checking her book inventory; photo by Stacey Gentry Here are some of the comments that readers have made about Sula books. Surviving Cancer, Healing People:  One Cat’s Story Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat’s Story is comprised of truly charming, heartwarming, endearing, and inspiring stories, shared by parishioners and told from the point of view of a lovable and amazingly insightful cat. [This] is one of those books that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf. Heartwarming and thoughtful, Surviving Cancer, Healing People is a joy to browse and highly recommended. – Reviewers’ Choice/Small Press Bookwatch/Midwest Book Review Once you meet Sula through the pages of this book, you won’t soon forget her. While it’s Sula’s “meowmoir,” it’s also the story of those whose lives she’s impacted and an inside look at California’s Spanish mission. Whether you’re a religious person or not, the history is fascinating,

  A bit of a detour from the usual Cancer Diary posts, this week we are posting reviews about a well-liked but not widely known book about living with cancer (spoiler: it has a religious appeal): Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista. #1 Synopsis: Sula is a cat with a divine mission who has an uncanny ability to sense which parishioners at the California's San Juan Bautista Old Mission need her attention at any given Mass. But is it really uncanny, or does St. Francis give Sula tasks during her daily conversations with him? Or is she led by God? Sula has developed a special bond with cancer survivors like herself. The bond between her and the Old Mission parishioners saw her through two bouts of cancer, flooding her with gifts: money for surgery, a home for recovery, prayers, and love. In the pages of "Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story" is comprised of truly charming, heartwarming,

  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

  Pictures and videos by Stacey Gentry. If it is Saturday, it just might be Sula day. And if it is Christmas, it might be Sula Santa. Have fun getting to know Sula better below. (The videos, unlike the pictures, are not embedded in this post; they are linked. You have to click on them to see them.)   Sula, beloved cat of San Juan Bautista (CA) parish and author of 6 books (5 in English and 1 in Spanish, never lacks for photographers, videographcrs, and artists to portray her and her adventures. Their efforts can be found in a number of  posts about Sula on this blog  -- and definitely spread across the  Internet . This Saturday-Caturday, we are sharing a short video of Sula, taken by Stacy Gentry. She is trying to get into Mass on a day when Mass canceled. Covid has taken a toll on Sula's ministry, as well as on the life of all the parishioners as Mass has had moments of being changed, canceled, moved on lone, and the like. See poor Sula's frustration HERE . Like seeing Sula in

  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

  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 cat

  There have been many posts on Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission , by many people, including on Sula's own page, as well as articles written about her in Guideposts and All Creatures, but perhaps the most special thing about her (at least recently) was shared by her current vet oncologist.  Sula has had an ongoing struggle with cancer, in and out of remission, for more than six years. At first, she had skin cancer on her ears. That was controlled by cutting out the cancered areas. Then, the skin cancer returned, and Sula's ears were removed. She wrote about it in Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story . Then, Sula got another kind of cancer: injection site carcinoma. Her vet cut out a piece of her hip to help her survive it, and survive she did. But in a couple of years, the cancer came back. This time, the vet said the only way to save Sula's life would be to remove her leg. The priest said no. Let her live out her life however long with all her legs intact. 

  Today's story behind the book tells the tale behind Tale of a Mission Cat   by Sula.  From the author --  The book content was the second in what has turned out to be the Sula series. It was inspired by fourth-grade students from all over Northern California who regularly visit the Mission on Thursdays for school projects. As I (Elizabeth Mahlou, amanuensis for Sula) watched them gather brochures for the school projects, I realized that there some things about the Mission that was not in those brochures or any brochure. So, I set about writing about all aspects of the Mission grounds, things that the children could see but that were not explained anywhere, including some pieces of history -- all told from the point of view of Sula, the cat, whom they all met either on the grounds, in the church, or in the gift shop. It became a sophisticated "cheat sheet" for them -- things that their teacher did not know, for the most part. Next to  Surviving Cancer, Healing People , i