It is also a great month for meeting new people. I just got a note from one of our subscribers who is now engaged to someone on this site. Courtship and keeping company with the opposite gender helps one get better acquainted with someone who could be your future pic. Social affairs and outings are necessary to get to know someone well enough to made your decision. Here on this site you can meet people of good character and Catholic! Found out their interests or hobbies; find out what they like to focus on. Their interests may be the same as yours; or you may want to get interested in them if not already. Most important, be true to yourself. Don't force something that is not there. Seek the advice of a close friend, parents, or your confessor to make a good choice as often our emotions can easily take over and one does not always think clearly in the process. IT is true that love is blind. Easy for me to say, right? Listen to the voice of reason and use common sense. I recently viewed a show where the guy kept wanting to take the girl to the "fantasy suite". Sure glad she turned him away! She was not that "type" of girl and she told him so. I highly doubt that relationship would make it to the altar. They probably won't have enough in common and if one focuses only on the here and now, one can easily get bored and wonder why one hung out in the first place.

Courtship is to find out if you are to spend the rest of your life with that particular person. When you see it will not work, the relationship should end as calmly as possible. It is better to end now than later; now as friends, than later live in unhappiness if married. Respect your date! Good luck!

Melissa

This month as well, we commemorate the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima...She appears to three shepherd children in the Cova de Ira in Portugal, not far from the city of Lisbon. She repeats the need for the Rosary daily. We especially need to keep that practice in our prayer lives asking her to help us and those who no one remembers to pray for.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Melissa

HAPPY EASTER

Hello to all ,especially all new members! I hope you had a good Easter... we had a beautiful day in Seattle. It was warm and sunny. I hear in other states, there was snow and still winter weather. Well, Easter was early this year, so let's hope spring is on it's way. :)

THis is a perfect time to meet new people. Group meeting or outings are great to help break the ice  and smooth over any awkwardness. IT is always important to be true to yourself. Don't push something that is not there. Even if this person is a traditional Catholic, they may not be the right traditional Catholic for you....the right person to help you to God. Be patient. It will happen in God's own good time. Seek the advise of parents, your local priest, a close friend who has known you for a long time. Look for good qualities, like character, piety, regular church goers, kindness, proper language, wise decision makers. Look for similar likes; it is nice to have things in common. Have mutual respect for each other. Be kind and honest . This will work best in the long run.

Good luck and God bless!

Greeting to all. Well It has arrived! Holy week is here and Easter is in just a couple of days. :) Hope your Lent went well. It usually seems so long; but with work and all, it actually went by pretty fast.

This past month, the Catholic church has a new Pope ...Pope Francis, which to me, he seems very open and reachable to the people, which is  a nice change. We all need to pray for the Holy Father ....why not during this Lenten season?

Have any of you seen The Passion movie by Mel Gibson ? I have watched  it on the big screen and I must say it is a good program to bring to light what sufferings Jesus went thru for all of us. I realize this is "Hollywood", but it does make us think and hopefully help  our meditation, when  we go thru the passion of Jesus or when we recite the stations of the cross.

I came across a new book out there, that I highly recommend to all of you... It is called The Price To Pay. It is about a Muslin who converted to Catholicism and what he had to go thru for the faith. His name is Joseph Fadelle .On the cover, there is a line from St. Matthew 10:39, where he says,"He who loses his life for My sake will find it." That is so true! I realize we have it so  easy here, with the mass available and all( and no great persecution); and usually the doors to the church swing open to accept souls thirsting for the truth. What price would you pay for your beliefs? This man was imprisoned and shot, left for dead; his wife didn't know if he was alive and some family treated him very poorly.I believe you can get this book on Amazon, and if you go to the Langeley chapel in British Columbia, they also sell it in the bookstore.

Happy Holy Week!

We are already a week and a half into  Lent. Somehow it does still seem like it is very long; but if we make use of the time to work on our souls, it may well go faster. :)

For those of you available to go on a pilgrimage this year, I recommend the Anniversary Pilgrimage celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Episcopal Consecrations in Econe in 1988. It is from June 17-29 of this year lead by Regina Pilgrimages and  accompanied with a traditional priest (usually two.)  Besides going to Econe, you will also go to LaSalette, Lourdes, Avignon, and Loyola. Go to www.reginapilgrimages.com for more info. I have been on a few of their pilgrimages and can vouch for their direction and well organized pilgrimages.

I was recently reading an article in the Angelus that came out in December 2012..I highly recommend the advise from the one which titles "Ten Ways to Improve the Catholicity of Your Marriage." Though here on our website we are mostly not yet married, I think the guidelines are very helpful for those dating and planning to get married. Here the author suggest reading similar Catholic books where couples can discuss opinions and thought on God and our Catholic faith. I think this practice helps us both grow in spiritual faith and improves our communication with one another. Prayer, which is a good foundation of marriage, keep a couple together with God; as God should be a third part of our future marriage. The writer of this article, Michael Rayes, also suggests making regular chapel visits as a couple, asking for almost anything really, but especially for the good of each other. One other thing he mentions, is having masses said for each other, which I think is a great idea and one I have never thought to mention before. 

There are other suggestions, but I recommend reading the article. 

Good luck and God bless!!!!!

Thanksgiving

Hello and welcome to all new members. I hope you had a good thanksgiving! Lots of turkey and dressing. Christmastime is just around the corner; but before we start the first Sunday of Advent, let's dwell first on what is important in our lives... Keeping the faith with us and our families.

Yesterday, I attended a funeral of one of our parishioners Anita. She lived a good life as far as I can tell. Up here in Langley, I would often see her working in the kitchen after mass (or even before), getting the coffee and snacks out for the hungry faithful as they flocked downstairs after mass. She was very kind to all and welcomed newcomers. I heard she made the sacrifice to drive far to come to mass and was very dedicated to her faith. Interestingly she was actually born in Winnipeg and moved to Vancouver at the young age of twelve during the depression as it was probably very hard to survive in the prairies back then. At the funeral, quite a bit of her family came, and Father spoke later today that they were grateful for her friends and other parishioners  who came to attend the burial mass and cemetery . One person also came up to Father saying he would think on what had been said at the services, mainly that we should be thinking about our own souls, and why are we here are this earth..where we are going, and why death happens...maybe we wonder why God let this happen. Yet death is  the result of sin,something that our first parents did willingly and chose; as it was definitely not in God's plan's that we die, but rather after a trial period, we would be taken to heaven. But because of original sin, we must suffer and work hard to get thru life, and fight the temptations of this world in order,and then  with His help attain heaven.

Father stressed the importance of the mass, and these days people are loosing the faith as they are no longer shown the way or they are distracted by the world. So, in addition to going to mass on Sundays, why not try to go during the week as well. And we don't have to stop making visits to the cemetery just because November is at it's close. Let's continue to pray for our friends and relatves or even people we don't know who have passed on.. I am sure they still need our prayers...Let's also thank God for what we have .. as we so easily take things for granted. :)