My apologies for the long silence. Been too caught up in my own thoughts, lately, I suppose.

Many thanks to all you kind readers who wrote to offer prayers & encouragement for my brother-in-law's marriage. I've had no updates, so as far as I know nothing has changed yet.

More than one person suggested Retrouvaille a Catholic ministry program designed to help married partners get back on track. I went to the web site and looked around, and the program does look very good. From the testimonials I've read, it seems well worth the time and effort to put things right in a marriage. Please, if any of you are in a marriage that seems to be not what it should be, go look at the web site. I'm sure these folks can help you.

At this point, I'm not at liberty to suggest it to my brother-in-law. I saw him yesterday for a few minutes, and he was particularly cranky so I thought the timing wouldn't be good. Plus he's pretty anti-Catholic, so even though neither partner has to be Catholic to participate in Retrouvaille, I don't think he would have been particularly receptive yesterday.

I have been really troubled by this, and often find myself at a loss for what to pray. Fortunately, there is recourse for Catholics in forms Protestants don't avail themselves to: we have written prayers to look up and make our own, and we can also simply ask a Saint to pray for the situation, trusting them to know exactly how to pray. So I have been trying to remember to do that. Old Protestant habits die hard, though, and I seem to forget that I have these options.

I hope to blog again very soon this week.

--Sparki