 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 So, this is my first shot at writing a book review. I recently had the pleasure of reading Donald Dorman's Then I am Strong. Although this is not strictly a book about same-sex attraction, Dorman does touch on a lot of issues regarding the development of masculinity and the things that can stunt it's growth. Even by the very title, Dorman alludes to the very essential male question of strength. 
Image by klimkin from Pixabay
As instruments of Her Immaculate Heart and soldiers under her command in service of our great King, with St. Michael, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Joseph as our model Knights, we pray that we become the heel of Mary. May our daily prayers and sacrifices be used to crush the head of the serpent out of one another's lives, out of Franciscan University, and out of the world, so that through her, the perfect reign of Jesus Christ might come over all.
- from Knights of the Holy Queen Household Covenant So, it was one thing to relate to men as individuals but I still somehow needed to get into the world of men. I now needed to learn how to relate with other men in general. For that, the Lord would send me away again to a strange land. As I prepared to graduate from college, I began to feel that He was calling me to discern graduate school, specifically to pursue a Master’s Degree in Counseling at a very unique school. 
Maria Esperanza displays the stigmata of Jesus Christ. Fair use photo
At the start of my college career, my little secret was hidden safely away from prying eyes. I had imprisoned myself in my own loneliness, allowing no visitors to my tortured soul. Gradually, this loneliness gave way more directly to anger at God, whom I perceived to be the Cause of my malady. Why would God give me these painful and sometimes consuming passions only to forbid me to act on them? Why did He persist in His torture of me? What did He want? I had already resolved not to seek a sinful path. Why then couldn’t God leave me alone, then? I struggled so hard. I knew in my heart what was right. Why this awful conflict, I cried to Heaven? I hated myself. Why was I like this?
 Image by LhcCoutinho from Pixabay Today is the 99th Anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions in Fatima, Portugal. It is also the twentieth anniversary of my pilgrimage there where Our Lady intervened in my life so powerfully. This blog is a direct result of what happened to me there. Without the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, I would not be here today and my life would have turned out much differently. Today's post is brief introduction to Fatima and what happened there in 1917.
 Image by Annett Klingner from Pixabay Despite much ado about the recent Synod on the Family, problems with the format and a few bishops saying some really dumb stuff about which they really ought to have known better, the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) appears to be mostly in line with what the Church has consistently taught, but emphasizes more than ever, the need to be more pastoral and less judgmental in our approach to sin and sinners, at least in regard to those with same-sex attraction.
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