Monthly Newsletter Issue #88
 

NEWS FROM GRATIA PLENA

End of the Year Giving
Gratia Plena is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates on a very tight budget. We seek to overcome many barriers that keep people from receiving mental health services. One of the large barriers is cost, and so we adjust our fees when people have a difficult time paying the full fee. What do we do at Gratia Plena exactly? We strive to help people get back to work and help young people to stay in school. We do our best to assist with repairing marriages so that families can remain intact. We help people become free from enslavement to all types of addictions. We work to reduce depression, anxiety, and suicide. We support the activities of a number of local Catholic organizations. Our counselors teach and give talks at parishes and schools. The list of our activities is quite long.

Our expenses in 2019 were the highest ever. We do not have annual gala fundraising dinners. The income of Gratia Plena is based partly on service fees, but also from grants from private foundations, from the support of some parishes, and from individual donations from good and generous people like you. If you are looking for an opportunity to help sustain a worthy charity through a financial donation at the end of the year, please consider Gratia Plena. November is a time of charity donations prior to and around Thanksgiving, with the intent of sharing God's gifts with others out of gratitude. Gratia Plena no longer participates in the annual national giving day events because a significant portion of the donation amount is diminished toward credit card processing fees, and this 3rd party mechanism creates additional administrative challenges for a small organization like ours. A significant number of nonprofits raise half of their annual funds from end of the year giving. If the Spirit moves you, we prefer to receive your direct donations by check. You can also donate by credit card through our website by using the "Donate" link in the top blue banner. We are very thankful to our regular monthly donors and invite you to join their ranks. Any amount is extremely helpful to us for those whom we serve. Gratia Plena belongs to you -- the community that supports it.

Gift Cards
Gratia Plena nor anyone related to Gratia Plena will never solicit you directly for gift cards. If you receive a request like this by email, phone, or on social media...please ignore it and/or report it as a scam. However, we do love to receive direct deliveries of office supplies and gift cards for Walmart or Office Depot. We can make good use of copy paper, kleenex, k-cups, artificial sweetener, and other such items in our daily work. Thank you for helping us assist those whom we serve in this way.

Developing the Virtue of Sexual Purity for Women
The King David's Men group has been meeting weekly at several Gratia Plena offices for several years. Many people think of pornography, extramarital affairs, promiscuity, and other such sexual integrity issues as only affecting men. However, many faithful Catholic women struggle with these issues of chastity in secrecy and shame. There are not as many resources for women to get help as have been developed over the years for men. We at Gratia Plena want to do something about this. This is our mode of operating: we see a need and attempt to address it. Several female counselors at Gratia Plena are starting a confidential weekly women's support group called the "St. Philomena's Women group." The group will meet Thursdays at 7pm starting December 5th in our Stafford "St. Thèrése" office. The cost is $10 per meeting and we ask for a minimum six meeting commitment. The fee can be adjusted by request if necessary.

Project to Help Refugees from Venezuela
Armando Tovar, LPC, one of our Gratia Plena counselors, is on site at St. Faustina parish in Fulshear on Thursdays until the end of this year, providing consultations and treatment for those who have experienced distress from the immigration or refugee process. Please help us spread the word in the community about this outreach project and available service. Those who are interested can call the office for more information or to schedule (832) 532-0129.

SPIRITUAL LIFE
Confession is Good for the Soul 
The sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (also known as Confession) is an opportunity for the admission and forgiveness of sins before a priest who represents Jesus (only God forgives sins) and the community, in order for the person to be reconciled to God and others. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes that it is a sacrament of conversion for us when we have strayed such that we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to receive God's grace and mercy and recommit ourselves to The Way of Christ. It is also a sacrament of forgiveness. Jesus granted priests the power to forgive (John 20:23; 2 Corinthians 5:18) "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The priest is not there to judge or criticize, but to bring God's forgiveness through an encounter with Jesus. It is a humbling practice to bring oneself to confess with the help of the Spirit, in a sincere and genuine manner, and to seek and experience God's love and mercy. Pride and blindness unfortunately sometimes keep people from Confession and counseling. Many people report that they experience in Confession a healing that is spiritual and psychological, a sense of being washed and made whole again. Professional mental health counseling may bring healing in some similar ways through the intimacy of sharing information with another person that had previously been kept secret, but it does not allow for the forgiveness of sin by God. Confession then is first good for the soul, but also for the mind, body, and spirit. There is in it a type of reconciliation with one's own self as well as with God and others. The grace received through the sacrament helps protect the person from future temptation and provides a strength to help resist evil. Demons that examine a soul after Confession cannot see the sins that were there, however they can see the unconfessed sins. Priests are bound to keep private and confidential confessions within the sacrament.

Catholic parishes have regular hours of Confession each week, but for special circumstances an appointment can be made with a priest. During Lent and Advent, communal events are organized at many parishes bringing in extra priests to serve the large numbers who seek Confession in preparation for Easter and Christmas. We thank our priests for their long hours of hearing our Confessions in the spirit of great saints such as St. John Vianney, St. (Padre) Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Leopold Mandic,  St. Philip Neri, St. Joseph Cafasso, and holy priests such as Fr. Candido Amantini, CP.

Last year a priest asked Gratia Plena to develop a small confessional booklet "Growing in Virtue" for those who struggle with sexual sins. The Scanlan Foundation generously assisted with the final production and initial printing. Over 900 booklets are being shared with many parishes around the Archdiocese. Parishes can order additional booklets by contacting the printer Bubba Arnim at Remedy Graphics in Katy at (281) 391-8555. Gratia Plena makes no profit from these booklets.

Consistent Promotion of Life
October is Respect Life month! Our great God is all about life-giving love (see John 10:10; 1 John 4:7-21), while evil seeks to hate, destroy, separate, and kill. Political lines are often drawn on these issues, but a consistent life perspective does not fall neatly into one or the other political side. The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago helped educate the community about a consistent life ethic. In 1995 St. (Pope) John Paul II offered his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). The points he makes were relevant then, but even more glaring in today's culture nearly 25 years later. In several places he refers to the Pastoral Constitution from Vatican II Gaudium et Spes from 1965 which was over 50 years ago. He calls to mind that "without the Creator, the creature would disappear" and illustrates how our distancing ourselves from God is stifling the human race. He suggests that we are so concerned with "doing" that we are losing the primary experience of "living life" and enjoying it. We have the free opportunity in our country to interact with our politicians and advocate for the value of life. Our politicians like and want to hear from us.

The worldwide culture is increasingly blocking and ending life in a growing variety of ways often for selfish motives. This list is not in any particular order of importance. All of these issues are significant. Here are some of the topics that are part of a respectful consistent life ethic:

• Capital punishment for those convicted of crimes still continues in our country even though before and after execution, some have been found innocent. The Catholic Church condemns capital punishment.
• Babies who have birth defects and genetic disorders, and those who are being born in poverty stricken countries and minority neighborhoods are particularly targeted for abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy up to birth and sometimes even during birth. Nearly all Christian groups oppose abortion.
• Unjust wars cause unnecessary deaths of citizens and soldiers.
• Artificial contraception blocks life. Artificial reproduction introduces threats to life at the same time that it attempts to facilitate it. Catholic OB/GYNs offer alternatives.
• Human trafficking in which people are sold, tricked, or enslaved for work or sex, violates the integrity and dignity of the human person and removes their freedom to enjoy life. It often ends with the death of the person who is no longer useful to the trafficker. Catholic organizations work on the front lines to help these women and children.
• Drug epidemics such as the opioid crisis are taking lives in staggering numbers. Drug cartel violence breeds death.
• Murders are always immoral, but murders and murder-suicide in domestic violence are on the rise. Domestic violence is one of the least reported crimes in the world.
• Genocides still take place in our world, as large groups of people are persecuted and killed for their race, religious, or political opinions.
• STDs spread through casual sex are causing women to be unable to bear children and to develop cancer.
• Same-sex couples are by nature infertile, not able to naturally bear children.
• The delay of marriage until later in young adulthood reduces the window of fertility and thus family size.
• Physician assisted suicide laws are creeping into state law around the country. Although the so-called "death with dignity" laws were implemented to allow for the suicide of terminally ill medical patients, it is clear that many who are dying are not terminally ill, but may suffer from mental and other illnesses and be unable to consent. Physician assisted suicide goes against the traditional commitment of doctors to "first do no harm" (primum non nocere). It is always immoral and never dignified.
• Suicide, often related to mental illness and addiction, is on the rise. About 800,000 people die from suicide around the world each year. Suicide has a tragic and destructive ripple effect.

• Friday, November 1st is a Holy Day of Obligation for the Solemnity of All Saints! Get thee to Mass for this great annual celebration of the Church Triumphant!
• Houston Coalition for Life invites the community to join in a silent Prayer Vigil for the end of abortion at 9am Friday, November 1st. This is a legal, peaceful activity at the abortion facility at 5225 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77007. Contact the Houston Coalition for more information.
• The St. John Paul II Foundation is offering a marriage enrichment workshop for couples on Saturday, November 2nd in the NASA area at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church.
• Hear our counselor Cindy Renaudo representing Gratia Plena being interviewed on Catholic Radio 1430AM Monday, November 4th at noon.
• A conference called "Liturgy, Life of the Church" will be taking place at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Sugar Land, Saturday, November 9th from 10am to 4:30pm. Speakers are Christopher Carstens and Denis McNamara, faculty members of the Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois.

MONTHLY RECOMMENDATION
Book of the Month

The Book of the Month recommendation for October is the recently released The Adaptive Teacher by John Barone and Charleen Katra. This gem of a book contains faith-based strategies to reach and teach learners with disabilities. The book is useful for teachers and catechists of course, but also parents and counselors. John is on staff at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston, and Charleen is director of the Office of Disabilities for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and hosts a Catholic radio show and podcast. Charleen published earlier this year a book called How to Talk to Children about People with Disabilities which is also great for teachers, parents, and catechists. She is on a roll!

As always, if you purchase books or movies on Amazon, be sure to log in to "AmazonSmile" with your charity set to “Gratia Plena” and we will receive a portion of the sale as a donation. Thank you!