This month, I would like to tackle a topic that has bothered me for some time and that is scrupulosity. I have nothing against people who suffer from scrupulosity but I often find myself very frustrated with myself after dealing with a person with scrupulosity because I always felt like I had not help the person in a way that they needed to be help. In my search to become a better priest/confessor, and to be able help people with scrupulosity better I came across a book by Fr. Santa C.Ss.r. (Yes his name really is Fr. Santa as in Santa Claus). Fr. Santa had been the editor of monthly newsletter for people who suffer from scrupulosity called Scrupulous Anonymous. Taking what he learned from that experience and from being a Redemptorist retreat director who wrote the book: Understanding Scrupulosity: Questions, Helps, and Encouragement. I would like to share with you today some powerful insights from his book today. Quotes from his book will be in bold. My personally commentary will be in regular font.

I have devote my spiritual ponderings for the month of October to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in a special way we have looked at how the Blessed Virgin Mary has been displayed throughout of history and what religious lessons a particular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. For this last week, I will one again be referring to a book by hagiographer (a person who writes biographies of saints) Ann Ball. The book is called: The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin Around The World.

Once again I have devote my spiritual ponderings for the month of October to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in a special way look at how the Blessed Virgin Mary has been displayed throughout of history and what religious lessons a particular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. I will be referring to a book by hagiographer (a person who writes biographies of saints) Ann Ball. The book is called: The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin Around The World.

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I have decided to once again devote my spiritual ponderings for the month of October to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in a special way look at how the Blessed Virgin Mary has been displayed throughout history and what religious lessons a particular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. I will be referring to a book by hagiographer (a person who writes biographies of saints) Ann Ball. The book is called: The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin around The World.

I recently came across an interesting story about Saint John Paul II in a book called Everybody Needs To Forgive Somebody: Stories of Real People Who Discovered the Underrated Power of Grace. It was written by Allen R. Hunt a former Protestant Minister who has converted to Catholicism. He explains that when Pope John Paul II met with the man who had tried to assassinate him, John Paul II discovered not a harden killer but rather a man who was deeply afraid of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It seems that John Paul II’s would be assassin had heard about how John Paul II had attributed the saving of his life to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Agca (the assassin) reasoned that since Mary had saved the pope’s life that it would only be a matter of time before Mary would seek to kill him. John Paul II spent more than two hours explaining to the man who had tried to kill him that Mary was not a goddess who chose to love some people and hate others but rather that Mary was the Mother of God and that Jesus gave her to all of us to be our mother also. John Paul II went onto tell Agca the amazing truth that the Mother of God was now his mother and that he and John Paul II were brothers through the power of Christ. Mary was not a goddess who did her own will but rather she was a conduit of God’s grace.