MSI Press Blog

  Introduction about the book: Sometimes you want to talk to God when it isn’t an occasion or a specified time of day and when there isn’t something happening in your life that you want to ask God for or thank God for. You just feel a need to reach out to Him and talk to Him. You might be inspired by an especially pretty sunset, or there may be something else that you want to say that doesn’t fall under a particular prayer category.                 I’ve always wondered whether maybe God likes those prayers best, when He hears from us at times when we want to talk to Him not to ask him for something, or to pray at a time we think we’re supposed to, but “just because.” Don’t you appreciate the phone call from a friend who says, “I was thinking about you, so I thought I’d pick up the phone and say Hi”? Don’t you appreciate the spontaneous kiss from your child—or from anyone else—that isn’t a Hello kiss, a Goodbye kiss, a Good morning kiss, or a Good night kiss, but is a kiss on the spur o

  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

  Difficult Relationships That Take More of a Toll As We Age Long-standing relationships that are chronically stressful begin to take a greater toll as we age. We know that chronic stress and mental anguish have a greater impact on our physical bodies as we age. Making a final attempt to mend difficult relationships or to let go and to stop obsessing about them becomes an essential task when you are on the cusp of old age. Mental distress robs us of valuable time and energy we need or want for other pursuits so it becomes essential to pick our stresses. Difficult relationships are not those friendships that seem to have a natural ebb and flow and enter and leave a life. Most of us have countless relationships that we can pick up after years. Difficult relationships, on the other hand, become tiresome, unbalanced, and demanding. If resolving a difficult relationship were easy, we would have done it long ago. However, we somehow have gotten entangled in old feelings, responses, hurts, an

  excerpt from Weekly Soul : Meditation #16 -- An Apache myth tells of how the creator endowed human beings, the two-leggeds, with the ability to do everything—talk, run, see, and hear. But he was not satisfied until the two-leggeds could do just one thing more—laugh. And so men and women laughed and laughed and laughed. Then the creator said, “Now you are fit to live.” Larry Dossey Laughter vitalizes the soul. In the Navajo (or Diné) tradition, there is a sacred and joyful celebration of the First Laugh. When babies are born, they are understood to be part of two worlds: the Spirit world and the physical world. A baby’s first laughter, often at around three months, is a sign of their transition to being fully present in the physical world as a member of their family and community. The person who observes or elicits the first laugh… whose character is considered to be passed along to the child… is responsible for hosting an A’wee Chi’deedloh, the First Laugh ceremony. G

  From FAABConsulting.com (Franki Bagdade) The Nightmarish 9's (or 8 1/2 or maybe even 10!) First of all, I’m sorry. Thoughts and prayers, sorry. It’s going to be ok. Really, they will come back to you, before they hit tween and then teenager land. Let me tell you a story about the first time 9 joined our family. My easy as pie first child hit 9 and turned into a nightmare. She argued about literally everything. She was 9 going on 19 and no that is not funny or cute. To read the full post, click HERE . To read more posts about Franki and her book, click HERE . Get 25% off Franki's book with couon code FF25 HERE .

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic looks at how maximize the promotional value of writing an article related to a published book topic. Writing articles for magazines is a good one to promote a new book. The book provides the credibility for writing the article, and the article, in turn, ends up promoting the book even if the author does not mention the book itself in the article (it is listed in the author's bio). Whether a book is a self-help idea, parenting advice, inspirational, or some other topic, there are at least two ways to use article writing to promote the book: stand-alone (national-level) articles and regionalized articl

Somehow, some way, it appears that animals know a lot more about death (and when it is coming) than we do.  When Murjan was approaching death , in fact, just the day before, he begged to go out on his leash for a walk. That cat always seemed to think he was actually a dog--and how he loved to go for walks! Saturday's walk was very different from his past walks, however. He kept exploring dark places, especially little cave-like areas, as if looking for a place to take a final rest. He never did that before. That spooked me a little because he seemed to be telling me that he was dying--and he was. He passed away within 24 hours of that walk. So, it should not have been surprising that when Carl was dying, he was surrounded by the cats who loved him. They spent all day and all night of that last 24 hours with him--under the footrest, on the footrest, and lying on him. They clearly knew. Check out MSI Press's books on cancer and related to cancer HERE . For more posts on Carl Leav