Who is Pope Leo XIV? Will Things Be Different? Explaining the Faith with Fr. Chris Alar

Spiritual warfare is real

Spiritual warfare comes in different forms and comes and goes to different degrees, but for me recently, it took an interesting twist. But I'm not afraid. In fact, I'm glad it happened. Keep reading to learn why...

Let me go back and start with a little explanation... Right after Divine Mercy Sunday the spiritual attacks hit at their worst and continued so that I questioned if it would ever quit.

I had a difficult week battling this latest round. It shortened my temper, caused massive depression, and battered my resistance. It was so bad at times that I would completely surrender to God and find some relief just when I thought I would completely succumb. It's an amazing feeling when God does that. Jesus gives us a respite from the burden, but I was also offering up the suffering as my cross.

God never gives us more than we can handle. It's how we handle things that matter. Lean on Him. When you really can't take the beating any more, give the suffering completely to Jesus. It is incredible to have that faith--He always gives more back to us when we completely trust in Him.

But this attack continued after I'd had some temporary relief. The demons kept trying to make me hate God and give up prayer and going to mass to receive the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It was so hard to fight that discouragement they dumped on me.

Then I had the thought to pray the St. Michael* chaplet. I barely started the chaplet and the burden lifted. I finished the full chaplet feeling peace again.

The next day, I had a slip of the tongue that sent me to confession. I also had a couple of little defects, or maybe venial sins at the worst, that I mentioned but had accredited those to the spiritual attack I had been dealing with. No sooner did I say this than my phone rang in the confessional.

It's not supposed to do that. It has never done that. Since I bought my iPhone 16 Pro six months earlier, I set Do Not Disturb to automatically come on at the locations of the churches I attend. It's always worked. In fact, even tonight, the setting was confirmed to be working--I had a call during mass and the phone never rang, just like normal on the DND setting.

Back to the confesion... Puzzled and embarrassed in the confessional, I said to the priest, "I'm sorry. It's supposed to be off." (I meant DND but was too flustered to think clearly and thought only that the ringer should have been off while I was there.) I said this while hurrying to hit the down volume button to silence the phone, but it took more than once. (I found out why later.) I barely looked at the phone. I wanted to finish so others could take advantage of the half hour that's available for weekday confessions at that church. I finished and received what I needed from the priest, thanked him, and left. I checked my phone outside the confessional, and it was on Do Not Disturb, which comes on as far out as the parking lot as soon as I leave my vehicle to walk across the lot (even the far end of the lot) to the church (switching from "Driving", which doesn't allow text or call notifications, to regular DND, which does the same thing when not driving). It has a wide radius.

Later that evening, when I was home after mass, I looked more closely at my phone and realized I had the confirmation that I was right about the spiritual attacks. That's no coincidence, and it tells me why my first press of the volume button didn't immediately stop the ringing. There were two back-to-back calls from the same number with 666 as the prefix. No other spammer has ever done that to me.

No call should have rung my phone at the church. On top of that, add the particular number while I was at the church, of all places, and, most notably, in the confessional AND that it happened as I mentioned feeling that I had been under spiritual attack... Yeah, no. To all the Catholic haters out there, even you have to admit that's suspicious. iPhones don't fail like that.

God can do anything, and this was actually a grace of confirming that what I experienced was true. Demons can affect electronics. Exorcists tell stories of things like this happening. In fact, the producers or directors (I can't remember their role) of Nefarious, had an exorcist perform a location exorcism and blessing before their equipment would work right during filming. Exorcists I listen to have told stories about vulgar texts or calls after sessions, usually from a triple six number.

So, now I have my own story to tell. I'm not afraid. In fact, I'm grateful, because I have evidence and experience and because these struggles strengthen my faith and my prayer life. I'm also grateful, because spiritual attacks are a way of testing us to help us grow in faith and devotion to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As some of my favorite online priests have said, if you're not being tested, that's not necessarily a good thing. Our faith stagnates if it's never tested. Like muscles, it needs resistance to strengthen. I'm grateful God gives me these, so I can grow stronger in my faith.

ps--I blocked the number before taking a screenshot. (A free phone lookup tracked the number to a real person, but I suspect a spammer spoofed it like all the other spam calls I get regularly. Still, the timing is uncanny, as is the fact that it went through when it should not have. There are no coincidences. It is divine providence that things like this happen. God uses whatever He wants to deliver his messages.)

God bless!

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* Note that St. Michael was the archangel tasked by God with sending Satan into hell. The chaplet of St. Michael invokes the nine choirs of angels to help us. St. Michael is one of our greatest allies in heaven.

More tension... never let a plot sputter

A good start to the story always has strong tension.

I would define tension in a story as words or actions that create an expectation that something will happen. It produces in the audience the need to know what comes next. It comes in different levels with multiple issues throughout a book.

This past week, book 22's opening was holding me up from writing past a certain point because it needed more tension. I had some tension in the story that started great but quickly faded so it wasn't enough for my expectations.

This is why in some of the books of Forgotten Worlds I start at a pre-climactic point and then go back (or back and forth) in the timeline to (usually a slow point) where the decision was made to start the characters down the path that led to that point, then the story reaches that opening scene and continues into the climax and denouement. In those cases, such story structures create two questions--how did this happen and how will the characters resolve it? This creates a strong tension immediately where it wouldn't have existed in a linear timeline. This can be confusing for the reader, but if done right works very well (such as adding a time stamp at each new scene or break so the audience knows where in the story the scene takes place).

This technique is a bit different than simple flashbacks. It incorporates flashbacks heavily but focuses on an earlier timeline to bring the story from a quiet beginning into the conflict of the present timeline. It is a true in media res start to a story; but to understand the progress, the audience needs to know the backstory to that point too and gets it in pieces as flashbacks at key points in the present timeline. I've liked it in many SF shows and sought to use it in writing some of these books. I don't like to use it all the time, or it loses its luster and becomes a crutch instead of a novelty; but I have used it in a handful of the books. (I'm expecting that Book 21 is the last book in this series to use that structure, and that one is all over the place, because it uses scenes from previous books in the series amid the structure of flashbacks explaining how L'Ni designed his plan.)

Most of the Forgotten Worlds stories have linear, normal flowing plots that open at the true beginning with some degree of flashbacks that aren't directly in the timeline of that particular story plot or other sequences (from the Starfire memories, a different type of flashback). In these stories, I need more standard writing techniques. That means a way to get reader's attention. Not every story needs to begin with a big conflict or risk of death. That gets to be too cliche. My goal is to keep the series moving while having some fun with the characters in any way I can but to introduce tension as early as I can.

By this point in the series, the readers know my style and the characters and series plot. I decided I could let my hair down a bit with the opening of Book 22... or it seems that way. I had some fun with the conflict that comes into play and the setup for the story. It creates tension, just not the life or death type that I have in many of the book openings. I hate slow stories, but other pieces of the lives of the character than fighting the bad guys all the time have developed.

The problem I had with the first few chapters was that the tension wasn't adequate for my tastes. It sputtered out. The rule I discovered in reading SF thriller books was to never let the reader completely rest on the down beats of the action. There must always be an unanswered question such as "Will it work?", "How will the characters resolve this?", "What did they mean by that?", and/or "Did that really happen?!" Always keep something unanswered and layer those so the reader is always hanging until the end.

In the opening of Book 22, events are misleadingly normal. However, by this point readers can expect in the series that what seems like a normal event won't stay that way for long. The interactions of the characters are fun and, as I mentioned in the last writing post, opened a big door for character development. But when that sputtered a bit, I felt it. It nagged at me.

This past week, I found an answer. I started rewriting a couple of scenes to bring in more conflict to increase the tension but then realized how much I would lose of the good stuff I wanted to keep. So, I moved the new conflict to a different point and added a bit to the older scene, all to increase the opening tension until I get into the big stuff, which is the only way to describe it without giving anything away. Now I feel like I have something to move the story forward again; the writing block is resolved. (This happens frequently while writing and at different stages of every book, but this time, it inspired an explanation using this particular point as an example of resolving the issue.)

Through all the writing and rewriting and organizing, the word count didn't increase as much as I would have liked, but after all of that, Book 22 is at about 11K words, or about a quarter done. I don't have a title for this one yet and probably won't until it's done. I'm waiting to see how the main theme plays out. Every book in the series gives me a few surprises.

Thanks for reading!

Confessing sins... a spiritual bath

About confession: 

1. 
   Confessing sins to a priest is Biblical. 
2. You are not confessing to the priest but to Jesus. You're simply receiving a guaranteed absolution of sins through the priest in persona Christi by the priest's authority granted in his ordination through apostolic succession (not available from any protestant pastor).
3. Confession is a bath for the soul. You don't always feel peace/relief immediately after confession, however. Sometimes it doesn't hit until later in the day or the next day. I've wondered about the delay at times, but it's usually a case that I needed to get over my anxiety about confession.
4. Confession is nerve-wracking for EVERYONE, no matter how many times you've done it. 😬 However, the priest is not judging you. You are making reparations to God for your disobedience.
5. It is recommended at least once a month or immediately after committing a mortal sin. Mortal sin separates us from God, while venial sin does not but does desensitize us to worse/more sins.
6. Confession is healing. I've had issues that would not leave me until after I confessed them, no matter how small of a venial sin or defect. Frequent confessions for issues that you trip on will continue to help until you no longer commit those sins. As the exorcists say, sin attaches those demons to you and confession detaches them, which leads to the next point...
7. Confession is more effective than 100 exorcisms! (Some say more than 1000 exorcisms.)
8. Be prepared. As soon as you confess, it seems like that's when the devil will tempt you the most to sin again. He does NOT want you becoming a saint. He wants you in hell where he can torment you into eternity. The more resistant you become, the worse the temptations are but the more readily you recognize them to avoid the trap.

Confession is one of the greatest sacraments to bring us closer to Christ and his divine mercy.

Special Divine Mercy Weekend Conference with Fr. Chris Alar and Fr. Donald Calloway

Fr. Chris Alar explains the 7 Sacraments.

Fr. Don Calloway talks about Mary, Mother of Hope.

Off and running... Book 22

Book 22 writing is off and running. I've been dealing with some issues that slowed down the writing for the last week, but the story is going well overall. The slowdown allowed me to consider some aspects of this and give them more thought before writing. I knew the opening scene that I wanted, had come up with it while editing Book 19. It's just what I needed as a way to set up for an angle on character development in this, although originally it was just for my fun, because I wanted to write it.

Figuring out the personality of the new character (from Book 21) is a bit of a challenge. I barely know him, so it's a learning process. That will come out in this book. I intend to take advantage of his presence in this.

I also know what has to happen in this, but that opening scene gave me a springboard for great potential in character development, not only of the new character, but also for L'Ni (like he needs any more development!) and Nya.

In this book, I wanted to reveal a bit more of a particular history that was never fully explained. Not only that, but I also have a few little threads I wanted to pull together in this book. At this point in such a massive series arc, I have a lot of established canon from which to pull. I can no longer make up all new stuff but have pieces to weave from previous books into the current book. As I said, pulling together little threads. And after the jumbled mess (organized mess) that is Book 21, I decided to keep this one linear, although maybe with a couple of short flashbacks just to fill in a couple important pieces of the story.

This series is outlined, but I've left room for changes like characters coming and going. Book 18's farewell to a character wasn't planned, but I made it work and felt it had to be done. I had storylines including that character to the end, but the series arc has been adapted to the change. I also have nearly a dozen extra plots that I could have used, but I knew I didn't want to go past 25 books, so I narrowed the ideas to what I most wanted. I'm now down to the last few of the approved episode plots that need to be in the story to bring the series to a satisfying ending. I hope you've been enjoying the ones that made the cut. They get tweaked to accommodate the changes that happened before they get written. (Look up the history of JMS writing Babylon 5 episodes through all the cast issues and network threats of cancellations and how he had to adapt that as he went and you'll get an idea.)

Right now, Book 22 is currently at 8K words. It's growing, although I wish the writing flowed faster. I have the story outlined--not scene-by-scene but enough to know what needs to be done.

Once this is done, I'll go to work editing Book 20, likely for publishing around late July, give or take a couple weeks. Book 20 explores how Zaer and Shen met and touches on some of their adventures together. I love those two little besties and hope you do too.

Thanks for reading!

34 Trillion Watts | FORWARD BOLDLY

Not all light is true Light

Happy Easter! Know that you are all in my prayers, always.

I hope you have been able to improve your spiritual journey and grow closer to Christ in your real life and, for writers, in your writing. Jesus Christ died for all sins from the beginning of time to the end (Jesus is fully God and fully man, the son of God given flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To know the Son is to know the Father, and God is outside time and space, the reason he doesn't change by our perception. Therefore, Jesus felt then our sins of this time and for the rest of our lives too!). We owe him our sacrifices to ease His suffering in His passion then (as we perceive time) for all of our past, present, and future sins.

This brings me to my main topic of this post. Because modern fantasy fiction has desensitized our society to evil by twisting evil into something to consider to be used for good, I thought I'd share a series of videos about a topic that Satan uses to steal souls from sanctification. It's easy to say that dark magic or demons are clearly evil, but what about "light", "white", or "good" magic? Still a sin and comes from Satan.

Like the mortal sin of lust inspired by graphic sex scenes, magic/divination/occultism is another way that authors must beware that what they write risks their souls and the souls of readers by scandal (a mortal sin of causing others to sin) in that they lead people away from the one true living God's immutable laws. Fantasy is not sinful, but it can be if you promote any occult practices not only as bad but, worse, as good (spirit mediums, "good" or "white" magic and any other magic, new age, other occult, yoga, etc.). Even something as seemingly innocuous as a "love potion" is a sin and, according to exorcists, brings demons into one's life. All divinations and "magic" come from Satan tricking people into not trusting in God and to being disobedient to God. (The inspiration and desire to write/read/watch graphic sex scenes and the fascination with magic both come from demons.)

Below is a series of videos to help you understand the risks and how to come back to the true Light of God, not the false light of Satan, who can appear as an angel of light and distort the truth to trick you. (Before you think I'm being a prude, I used to be caught up in entertainment of this kind without knowing any better, nor caring, until my awakening and reconversion of faith.)

(Fr. Ripperger homily - he is an exorcist who has become famous for his lectures)

(In pulling up all these, I was also shown videos by proclaimed witches that proved to me how much Satan hates all that is holy. Any videos of witches decrying the Catholic church are from the father of lies, because Satan doesn't want souls saved from his grasp. The Catholic church is the ONLY authority on earth with the power to cast out demons, because it has the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, who founded His church on Peter, the first pope, and that church became the Catholic church (katholikos).

Demons don't want us to rely on saints either, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was never stained by sin, because God granted her the grace of being saved prior to conception based on what he had planned for her being the vessel of the living Word (God is outside time and space and has full power over His creation), and the demons could never make her fall in the least way. Satan despises her and wants others to hate her (the woman whose offspring will crush his head while he strikes at [the offspring's aka Jesus's] heel) and all the saints (those who are alive as souls in heaven). Praying to known saints in heaven (confirmed through a strict process of the church) is not necromancy. Rather, it is an act of loving God, who is in their presence in heaven, where true love abounds in the desire for the greater good of all (love for one's neighbor is not a feeling as defined in modern culture but an act of the will).

Any occultists that say that praying to saints is demonic are proving that saints are a threat to Satan's power, because occultists serve Satan, whether they believe it or not. The father of lies doesn't want you to lean on the saints as intercessors. Exorcists use relics from saints that are effective against demons, often particular saints, people who in their earthly lives aligned their wills so perfectly with God's that temptations ceased having power over them, despite all the attempts by certain demons.)

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St. Benedict medal prayer (exorcism prayer in Latin)

(around the cross, CSSB) Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti = Cross of the Holy Father Benedict

(vertical on the cross, CSSML) Crux Sacra sit mihi Lux = the Holy cross be my Light

(horizontal on the cross, NDSMD) Non draco sit mihi dux = Let the dragon not be my guide

(the remaining is around the edge, VRSNSMV - SMQLIVB)

Vada Retro Satana = Step back, Satan!

Nunquam suade mihi vana = Do not suggest to me thy vanities!

Sunt mala quae libas = Evil are the things you offer

Ipse venena bibas = Drink your own poison

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God bless!

7 Writing Techniques so Good they should be Illegal

Final Four

I'm not talking basketball. Besides, that's done for this year.

I'm talking the final four books of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. I can't believe it! Four more books to write and it's done. All this work, this whole journey with these characters... will be finished. I started out with ideas for 30+ possible episode plots but knew that 24-26 would be a good run (and eventually settled on 25), based on a 22-26 episode season of most TV shows from the era before streaming services. Back when we had to record on VHS. Yes, I'm that old. Actually I remember when VHS first became popular, winning out over Beta.

Yikes! How the years have gone by.

How this series has gone by! I started writing Forgotten Worlds in 2018 and released A NEW BEGINNING on April 4, 2019. I'm six years into it and about a year and a half left to go, probably two years until the last book is actually published.

The final four books yet to write.

I finished reading Book 20 & 21 to refresh what I had done with those and make any notes to address when I dig into editing them. The biggest possible issue is that I introduced a new character in Book 21. No one died this time or died and came back. (Did you see that pattern with Ann's and Alric's additions? And they both have "A" names. That's not the case this time.) This new character flipped my plans a bit.

Alric was unplanned too, actually. I just thought it was time to switch things up when he came onto the scene in Book 18. I hope no one hates me for what happened to Vel.

Anyway, this new character changes my plans for the rest of the series a little bit. I've had to consider how I could make use of him or if I need to use him at all. Spoiler alert--yes, I will use him. His addition provides an opportunity for situations I couldn't have done without him like Alric did for Book 21.

I was having trouble figuring out how to use the new character and during one of the three best places for the creative juices to flow (walking, driving, or shower), the spigot of creativity opened... in the shower. I figured out exactly what Book 22 is going to be while moving the series forward in the way I had planned but with some modifications to incorporate the new guy.

Once 22 is done, only three to go. It's not just the final four but the final countdown.

(The music is catchy, but the song actually makes no sense.)

Hang in there a little longer. It's going to be epic!

Thanks for reading!