TheMonarchGamer

Not fr-josh, but a Catholic.

There's a story about St. John Vianney, a priest, that I absolutely love.

One day, he was hearing confessions and giving counsel to anyone that wanted to come, and the line stretched for ages. A woman's husband had just committed suicide by jumping off of a bridge into a river, and she was devastated, so she went to see St. Vianney to ask pretty much the same question you did.

The line was so long that after waiting for hours, she was about to leave, when miraculously, since he had not been told of the woman or her husband's suicide, St. Vianney stood up and shouted into the crowd:

"Do not despair! Between the parapet of the bridge and the surface of the water he became contrite! He is in purgatory and you must pray for him!"

Perhaps that story can give your mother hope. No one is beyond God's mercy.

God bless!

The Irish

How do you balance being pastoral and meeting people where they are, with affirming the Truth, especially regarding difficult emotional issues?

And also, do you prefer pancakes or waffles?

Not Fr Josh, but a Catholic on /r/Catholicism.

You should drop by sometime; probably a tenth of all of our posts (so... maybe one per day? At least one every few days) are people looking to convert to the Church. It's really inspiring :)