A committed Catholic and author of Christian fiction, I find God continually places me in situations which create new stories to include in my books.
I am also an avid dressage rider and competitor on my beautiful home-bred bay gelding, Cruz Bay.
The only place my husband and I could both agree on to live was Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. We both live here and it has proved to be a win-win!
My horse is boarded at a wonderful barn just off island. Although I miss having him at home with me, it only takes twelve minutes for me to visit him every day and he's enjoying all the attention he gets from the staff there, who love him almost as much as I do!
Those of you who subscribe to my email list will already know that the brains behind the newly released Christian children’s book “On the Third Day” belonged to a wonderful Monsignor at my church.(You’ll find his full name in the book’s dedication!)
He commissioned it because he wanted children (and their families) to be more aware of the Resurrection of Jesus. It concerned him greatly that people don’t talk enough about it.
I had never written for children before, but you never said ‘No’ to Monsignor, because you just knew the Holy Spirit was talking through him! So I set about creating the little volume, constantly checking with my Word Editor that I was at the reading level of children ages 8 through 12.
Monsignor loved children and started not just one, but two Catholic schools here in the Low Country of South Carolina. So this project was very dear to him.
In August of 2024, he became seriously ill. He was 98 years young and we’d all so hoped he’d make it to the age of 100. But it was not to be. He had originally asked me to create a series of children’s books on the Seven Sacraments, but at the onset of his cancer he switched to the Resurrection.
He also requested that I write a book about a Catholic teen hero. I asked which he wanted first, and he chose what became On the Third Day.Once he’d approved the outline, I knew it was a race against time if he was to see the full manuscript.
I finished it with two weeks to spare. Monsignor’s joyful response to the final draft moved me to tears. I uploaded the book for its pre-set publication date of 18th March, but he died on the morning of Sunday, 9th March. The day of his funeral, it became the #1 Amazon Best Seller for Children’s Books About Jesus. He would have been so pleased!
Yet I am confident he is resting with all the angels and saints in Heaven and did know. 😉
Monsignor was very learned; his lessons at the seminary were all conducted in Latin!
As the bishop said at his funeral Mass, Monsignor could read souls, which made him such a wonderful confessor and spiritual director. A gentle man, he constantly exhorted us in his sermons to be kind to one another and to do little things with great love.
It is hard for me to believe he is gone. His impact on my spiritual life is impossible to measure, and his death has left a gaping hole in my heart that hurts dreadfully. It is the same for everyone who knew him. We all considered him to be a living saint.
I ask him daily to intercede for me and to continue guiding me with the help of the Holy Spirit in my work as a writer. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Monsignor, my spiritual director, asked me to write a children’s book on the Resurrection of Jesus, and there was no refusing him! But not being a children’s author, I didn’t feel up to the task.
However, Monsignor is known among us as a living saint (which embarrasses him no end) and I should have had faith that his prayers for inspiration to the Holy Spirit on my behalf would bear fruit.
The Mission
“Nobody talks about the Resurrection anymore,” he said, and wanted my help with cultivating faith in Jesus’ rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.
Monsignor especially wished children to feel profound awe for this glorious truth, so its impact would remain with them their whole lives.
It is a sad fact that most of us adults no longer marvel at the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; the event is too familiar.
We have ceased to reflect with amazement on the Love of Jesus, Who endured an unspeakably agonizing death to purchase for us the rewards of eternal life.
This tepidity hinders our ability to instill awe in our children over His selfless deed. It prevents us from inspiring in them a desire to love Him in return.
Leading Children through Wonder and Beauty
Children have a limitless capacity for wonder and a deep appreciation of beauty. Nurturing these gifts rouses their curiosity about the Creator of the world and all that is good in it.
Once their interest is piqued, we can guide them towards the Infinite Love of Jesus, and His victory over death at His Resurrection.
Making Jesus Come Alive
However, Christ rose from the dead two thousand years ago. How do we make this relevant to today’s youngsters?
By creating reverence and awe for Jesus’ sacrifice through a personal encounter with Him.
And thus, the storyline of On the Third Day draws two siblings, aged 10 and 12, into a series of adventures intertwining the New Testament with the present day.
During their exploits, they develop a close relationship with Jesus. His Passion and Death are real for them, as they see first-hand the consequences of our sins throughout the ages, and hence our dire need for a Savior.
The book ends, of course, on a happy note with the rising of Jesus and the children’s joy at seeing Him alive again.
The Illustrations
Monsignor was keen that the book contain illustrations to help the young reader remain engaged in the story. The drawings and the cover were produced by means of AI, which in itself was an interesting exercise!
The theory is that you describe what you want, and hey presto! up comes the result you’re looking for. The reality was a little different, reminding me that AI is still in its infancy. I frequently got sheep with two heads or three legs, and human characters had more than the normal number of hands or arms.
The sheep on the left has no head and two tails, and do we have two or three sheep on the right?
There was no way I could conjure up a Border Collie herding sheep; the sheep were always chasing the dog, no matter how I phrased my request.
Fly preferred leading by example!
As a result, a little ingenuity was needed.
In another example, the boy Tristan was supposed to end up face down on the ground during the narrative. But AI in its wisdom decided this was an ‘illicit’ image, so Tristan ends up lying on his back, as this was acceptable to the program.
Overall, I think I spent more time on the illustrations than on writing the story.
In Conclusion
It is my sincere wish that the children who read this book, and those who read it to them, will come to better understand Jesus’ great love for us – and feel inspired to repay His sacrifice through a life of Faith.
May the Holy Spirit also use this story to reignite belief in a loving God within any who feel abandoned by Him because of grief or other misfortune.
Whatever your age, have fun reading On the Third Day!
Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, when Christians rejoice at the Resurrection of Our Lord, Who died to save us from our sins.
However, while we Catholics receive forgiveness from our sins when we go to Confession, and all our eternal punishment due to sin is removed – i.e. going to hell – the temporal punishment due to those sins may still remain. This means that after we die, we go to Purgatory to be purged of our remaining impurities before we can enter Heaven, ‘where nothing impure shall enter (Revelation 21:27).’
This temporal punishment remains if our contrition is imperfect, that is, if we got to Confession without truly repenting of our sin or out of fear of hell. Perfect contrition is extremely difficult to achieve: it’s hard for us not to be attached in some way to our sins. Which is why we keep committing them!
Is There Another Way to Be Cleansed?
In his wonderful book, Understanding Divine Mercy Father Chris Alar, MIC, a priest with the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, writes, “For those unable to have all temporal punishment remitted in this life because they don’t have perfect love, perfect contrition, or perfect detachment from sin, all hope is not lost.”
Hegoesonto explain theextraordinary grace of Divine Mercy Sunday. “If you have ever wished you could wipe your slate clean and start over, this is your chance! … All sins and punishment are removed by the grace of this one day, Divine Mercy Sunday, when we fulfill the conditions of a valid Confession and worthily receive Holy Communion.”
How to Receive the Grace of Divine Mercy Sunday
If you are a non-Catholic, or homebound or unable to get to the Sacraments because your church is closed, you can still receive this grace if you truly desire it. Ask God for forgiveness of your sins by making an Act of Contrition and wanting to be united to God through making an Act of Spiritual Communion and the Church believes that God will grant this grace of His Mercy.
For Catholics who can attend church, first, go to Confession before or on Divine Mercy Sunday – or any time during Lent will do. The important thing is to be in a state of grace on Divine Mercy Sunday, meaning that you are aware of no mortal sin on your soul. The last act is to receive Holy Communion with the intention of receiving this promised grace.
Father Alar suggests the following prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, You promised St. Faustina that the soul that has been to Confession (I have) and the soul that receives Holy Communion with trust in Divine Mercy (I am) will receive complete forgiveness of all sins and punishment. Lord, please give me this grace. Jesus, I trust in You.”
If you recite this prayer with total trust in Jesus and a sincere intention of turning away from sin, Jesus will give you this grace. As Father Alar writes, “This grace is so powerful that it can open the door to Heaven, so don’t let Divine Mercy pass you by!”
Thisyear, 2024, DivineMercySundayisApril 7th.
Helping the Holy Souls in Purgatory
You can only receive this grace for yourself, and not for a Holy Soul in Purgatory.
However, you can offer a plenary indulgence for those Holy Souls, attached to an act of worship of the Divine Majesty or taking part in a Divine Mercy Service on that same day. This is separate from the extraordinary promise of Divine Mercy Sunday.
Are All My Sins Taken Care of?
As a final point, the extraordinary promise of Divine Mercy cleanses us of everything up to and including our participation in Divine Mercy Sunday. It does not remove punishment for sins committed after that date. We have to wait until next year to receive these amazing graces.
All the more reason to take advantage of them this year!
In my previous post, we looked at why Mary is the Queen who intercedes for us with her Son, lifts up souls fallen from divine grace, and reconciles them to God.
Now we’ll discover why this amazing and compassionate lady is not some ordinary woman who ‘happened’ to carry Our Lord in her womb.
COULD JESUS HAVE BEEN BORN OF ANY WOMAN?
Non-Catholics are baffled by the importance given to Mary. It’s true that she doesn’t feature heavily in the New Testament, the way the Apostles or St. Paul do.
Yet the Angel Gabriel greeted her with the words “Hail, full of grace”, which alone sets her apart from most of mankind!And she is called “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42) by her cousin Elizabeth, who recognizes her as the Mother of Our Savior.
And consider this statement from Catholic Answers: “Mary is the Mother of God, the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. Consequently, Jesus received His DNA from the Blessed Mother, Mary, and, by extension, her direct ancestors.”Still think she was an ordinary woman?
Mary also instigated Jesus’ first miracle, causing His ministry to begin, as we saw in the First Blog Post.
So for Catholics, it doesn’t make any sense that God should choose some random Jewish woman to bear His Son. The woman upon whom was bestowed that amazing honor would have to be spotless. Jesus could not have been born of an ordinary sinner. He is the New Covenant, and by carrying the New Covenant in her womb for nine months, Mary became the Ark of the New Covenant.
Mary is portrayed above in her role as Our Lady of Guadalupe, the only apparition in which she appeared as a pregnant lady.
The Ark of the New Covenant could not be a sinful woman; she had to be pure. God prepared the perfect woman to bring Our Lord into the world, and thus was born the Immaculate Conception.
WHY IS MARY CALLED THE ‘IMMACULATE CONCEPTION’?
The Church did not create the term ‘Immaculate Conception.’ It is how Mary referred to herself when she appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, in the southwest of France in the Pyrenees, during an apparition recognized by the Catholic Church.
“So, what?” you might say, “I’m not Catholic, and I don’t have to believe in apparitions.”
Actually, neither do Catholics. But, to help us believe in her apparitions, Our Lady often performs miracles when she appears to mortals, which even skeptics can’t deny. On this particular occasion, she caused water to flow out of dry ground, which has now become the famous Lourdes spring, site of 70 official miraculous healingsand tens of thousands more unrecognized ones.(See also the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, witnessed by a vast crowd of believers and non-believers and the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe.)
When visiting the lady in white the Lourdes grotto, Bernadette had no idea what the term ‘Immaculate Conception’ meant. She asked the beautiful apparition who she was, partly because her parish priest, Father Peyramale, was growing frustrated and told her to.
The lady replied: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Uneducated but devout, Bernadette had no idea what those words meant when she repeated them to the priest. Stunned, he informed his bishop, aware Bernadette could never have heard the term before; he knew she was telling the truth – and that Our Lady was appearing to the young peasant girl.
MARY, THE EPITOME OF HUMILITY
Father Gabriel Amorth, the famous exorcist, had several encounters with Satan, and asked him why he hated Mary so much. Here are Satan’s responses:
“She makes me angry because she is the humblest of all creatures, and because I am the proudest; because she is the purest of all creatures, and I am not; because, of all creatures, she is the most obedient to God, and I am a rebel!”
“I am more afraid when you say the Madonna’s name, because I am more humiliated by being beaten by a simple creature, than by Him (Jesus Christ)…”
“Because she always defeats me, because she was never compromised by any taint of sin!”(my italics)
Father Amorth also recalls, “During an exorcism, Satan told me, through the possessed person, ‘Every Hail Mary of the Rosary is a blow to the head for me; if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!’”
Mary was totally obedient to God. When the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and conceive a child out of wedlock, he appeared to be condemning her to death by stoning under Jewish law. But Mary accepted it as God’s Will, and said, “Be it done unto me, according to Thy Will.” (Luke 1:38)
She showed complete obedience to God and her complete humility was a sign of how worthy she is to be the Mother of Jesus.
Mary is no ordinary woman!
Given the above, it is impossible to underestimate Mary’s importance in the salvation of the human race. Recognizing this, Catholics venerate her. We don’t worship her: worship belongs to God alone. But we realize how special she is and ask her to intercede for us with her Son.
It amazes me that she loves all of us so much that she is willing to do this, even though it was thanks to our past, present and future sins that her Son had to endure the cruel tortures and death which she witnessed. Yet she bears us no grudge; instead she actively works for our salvation.It’s more than we deserve!
A revised (and deeply disturbing) version of the Catholic Church is under discussion at the Synod on Synodality, which claims to be ‘inclusive’ and ‘welcoming’. Yet I am unable to discern how or where the synodal participants include or welcome God.
Which begs the question: was He even invited?Perhaps His invitation got lost in the mail. Or has He just declined to attend?Maybe He felt the invite was not sincere?
Here are some comments recorded in an article by the National Catholic Register. They were made by the Nigerian-born Catholic priest Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in California, during a press briefing at the 16th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (aka the Synod on Synodality) on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
I am curious to know what you think of them.
“I remain convinced that the process is going to be more important than the outcome. And the process for me has been truly enriching, focusing on elements, mechanisms, or frameworks of listening, of dialoguing and discerning,”
“I believe that this is the kind of framework and mechanism that would lead us as a community called Church to experience a new way of being, where people no matter who they are, status, station, or situation in the Church are able to be part of a process where they are not only heard but they are also able to contribute to a process of discernment. I am very grateful for the process that has been adopted.”
(I’m sorry, what was that?)
“From experience, there has not been any shortage of [divergence] and differences,” he said. “Divergent positions and differences of opinions and what the process allows us to do is not only to note convergence or consensus but also to note divergent and differences and that is part of the process.”
(Can anyone please explain what that means?)
FatherOrobator continued: “I can testify that these divergent and differences have not degenerated into hostilities and animosity, and so that it is the constellation of convergence of divergences and differences that is going to be the matter for creating something new so that no voice is suppressed on any of the issues.”
(Again, any suggestions as to what’s being said here?)
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that nowhere is Jesus Christ mentioned, or the Gospels (or any Scripture at all) or even the Catholic Church? (Apparently we’re ‘a community called Church’.) And where are God the Father and the Holy Spirit?
It’s all about ‘the process being more important than the outcome’, ‘a new way of being’ and ‘a constellation of convergence of divergences and differences’.
What process? What outcome? What way of being? And what the heck is a constellation of divergences and differences?
It scares me that this is the depth of communication going on behind closed doors in the Vatican.How is this synod going to deepen our faith?How is any of this supposed to strengthen the Barque of Peter and steer her in the right direction?
What has any of this got to do with bringing souls to Christ and saving them from eternal damnation?
Many of my friends and readers have a hard time understanding why we Catholics have such strong devotion to Jesus’ mother, Mary.
Since St. Peter 3:15 says that we should “always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you,” I decided to write a series of posts about why Our Lady is so important to us.
The first defense I shall give is for Mary’s Queenship.
The notion of Mary as queen is a stumbling block for many people. Christ is Our King; why do we need a queen? We can go straight to Jesus, the Mediator between us and God the Father; we don’t need anyone to mediate between us and Jesus!
So why do Catholics talk about going ‘to Jesus through Mary’?
Edward Sri, in his article Is Mary’s Queenship Biblical? explains how in the Old Testament, the mother of the king was always the queen.
“(I)t is precisely from a Biblical perspective that Mary’s queenship makes perfect sense. For in ancient Israel, it was the king’s mother who reigned as queen, not the king’s wife.”
He demonstrates how this was for practical reasons. “Most kings in this period had large harems. King Solomon, for example, had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). It would have been impossible to bestow the queenship on 1,000 women! Yet, since each king had only one mother, the queenship was typically given to her.”
The author writes that “the queen mother had a real share in her son’s reign, helping in his mission to shepherd the people (Jer. 13:18-20) and serving as a trusted counselor (see Proverbs 31). But most of all, the queen mother served as an advocate for the people, hearing their petitions and presenting them to the king.”
When Bathsheba tells her son Solomon that she wishes to ask a favor of him, his response is ‘Make your request, my mother, for I will not refuse you’ (1 Kings 2:20).”
At the marriage feast at Cana, Jesus listened to His mother’s petition even before His public ministry had begun, as Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri points out in his wonderful book, The Glories of Mary.Her compassion for the wedding hosts who had run out of wine was so great, that she appealed to her Son for help.
He told her that His time had not yet come (John 2:4) yet, despite that, He honored His mother’s request. Such is the power of Mary to intercede on our behalf with her Son!
These Biblical insights help us understand why Mary is the Queen Mother in her Son’s Kingdom.I highly recommend reading Edward Sri’s article, which cites other Scriptural references to support Catholic belief in Mary as Our Queen.
Since He is King of the whole world, she is Queen of the whole world. Therefore, all of us who serve God should also serve Mary, says St. Bernadine of Sienna. Note that we shouldn’t serve Mary instead of God. But, as Our Queen, Mary does merit our service.
RELUCTANCE TO APPROACH OUR KING & JUDGE
St. Alphonsus de Ligouri reminds us that we can lose God’s friendship through sin. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God (Isaiah 59:2).”
Yet in the words of St. Bernard, he tells us to “Take courage, oh, sinner, who has lost God. Thy Lord Himself hath given thee a mediator, even His Son Jesus Christ Who can obtain for thee whatever thou desirest.” Without question, we can go straight to Jesus when we have offended Him.
But what about those times when we are too ashamed to present ourselves before Him “Who was crucified and died for us men and our salvation,” as the Creed declares? Well aware that “Christ will come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead,” we sometimes cringe at the thought of approaching Our Fearsome Judge.
Here St. Bernard says, “if ever you fear to have recourse to Jesus Christ because His divine majesty alarms you” – for He is still God, even though He became man – “if you ever wish for another advocate with this mediator, invoke Mary, for she will intercede for you with the Son, Who will surely graciously listen to her, and the Son will intercede with the Father, who can refuse nothing to this Son.”
The saint concludes with a delightful image of Mary as “the ladder of sinners, by which they ascend anew to the height of divine grace.”
APPROACHING THE COMPASSIONATE QUEEN OF MERCY
Mary wields enormous power in her role as queen, and she happily exercises it for our good, if we acknowledge her and show her allegiance.
We call her the Queen of Mercy because she is not a severe empress, but a compassionate ruler, who has for her object the good of her subjects. She is not “queen of justice, intent upon the punishment of the guilty, but queen of mercy, solely intent upon compassion and pardon for sinners. Accordingly, the Church requires us explicitly to call her queen of mercy.”
St. Alphonsus tells us that Mary was compared to the moon by St. Bonaventure, because, as the moon is placed between the heaven and earth, “so she continually interposes between God and sinners, that she may appease the Lord towards them, and enlighten them on their return to God.”
FROM GOATS TO SHEEP
Mary’s most important office is that “of lifting the souls fallen from divine grace, and reconciling them to God.” St. Alphonsus says that William of Paris speaks of Mary’s intercession turning sinners – those wicked goats who will be separated from the elect of God – into sheep, and placing them on the right hand of the Lord, instead of abandoning them to the left, where they “have merited to be banished.”
I hope the above has helped you begin to see the importance of Mary for Catholics.
Next time I will delve into why we consider Mary the Holy Mother of God.
As I was finishing Friday’s Folly, I became aware that in the first three Sinclair Island Romances, my heroine was the Christian influence on the man in her life.
I was hoping nobody else had noticed this, but one of my readers (you know who you are!) also spotted it. The time had come for my next hero to be the one to bring his lady love to faith in Jesus.
The heroine of Rachel’s Risk – whose name, you guessed it, is Rachel – is a very difficult convert. Having started out as a determined atheist, she takes a lot of convincing about the truth of God’s Existence and His Redeeming Love.
Following her story, you’ll understand her distrust in the idea of God; when things aren’t going well in our lives, it’s tough to believe in His Goodness. But when we meet someone joyful, whose faith is so strong that even loss and hardship can’t shake it, we want to know where that strength comes from – and how to attain it for ourselves.
But Rachel is in turmoil; when her bitter atheism meets Gordon’s powerful Christian love, she is afraid to believe in it.
Their story is intertwined with the Pearls – beautiful palomino horses running wild on Cuddie Island, introduced in Friday’s Folly.
Rachel has many adventures with these stunning animals, especially one young stallion, as she navigates the choppy waters of true love and discovers that what really matters in lifeis not as she first thought.
Set to the beat of thundering hooves and hearts, Rachel’s Risk is now available for pre-order!
Writing this third novel of the Laura Harper Trilogy has been a bitter-sweet experience, as it is also the final book of the Riding Out series. These three trilogies began in 2016 with Jack Harper’s journey back to the Catholic faith in “Riding Out the Devil,” and a lot has happened to him since then!
The Reason Behind the Series
A lot has also happened to my son, who was the inspiration behind Jack Harper.
He was fighting a superhuman battle against ulcerative colitis, and creating a hero with the same issues was a means of honoring his determination not to give up the daily struggle to become healthier and live a more normal life.
And now, six years after the publication of “Riding Out the Devil,” he has just returned to the States from three weeks of driving around Britain with his dog. While over there, he continued working remotely, scaled Mount Snowdon in Wales, camping overnight in the rain halfway up; he climbed Helvellyn in the Lake District and walked with his dog along Hadrian’s Wall, which was built across the north of England in AD 122 to ‘separate the Romans from the barbarians.’ That is a small selection of his activities!
All this was possible because he met a wonderful lady, who practices holistic medicine and suggested he take specific enzymes to break down his food. As a result, his diet is much more varied. Previously, he could only eat turkey. Period. But now, he no longer has to run to the bathroom multiple times a day, or worry about being caught short. He is much healthier and, for all intents and purposes, lives a normal life.
He has come a long way since those awful days when he was first diagnosed. It makes me smile to see him so happy and I never cease to thank God for helping my son beat his disease.
And because of him, I’ve now written nine books in the Riding Out series!
Cruz Bay Provides Useful Horse Incidents
First Incident
While I was working on the first draft of “Riding Out the Race,” a great deal was going on in my horse’s life and there was no shortage of material for my fictitious equines.
The first major disaster was one night in November of 2021, when the temperatures dropped twenty degrees – from the 70s to the 50s. Cruz already had his thick winter coat, but he is twenty-two years old, and I didn’t know that an older horse can contract infectious colitis when the thermometer plummets that far, that fast.
He had non-stop diarrhea, was listless and in terrible pain, uninterested in eating, and going downhill fast. He nearly died, and I’m eternally grateful to my vet, Dr. Dessie Carter, for saving his life. It was a full week before we could be sure he would pull through, but thanks be to God, he did.
When one of the horses contracts it in the novel, you’ll discover all the details pertaining to the symptoms and treatment. But I sincerely hope no horse owners among you ever have to deal with this life-threatening condition.
Second Incident
The horse Loco, who comes to Jack’s farm with a check ligament injury, is modeled on Cruz, who tore a hole in his check ligament (twice) two years ago, thus already supplying plenty of real-life details to include in the book.
But I couldn’t foresee that Cruz would injure his deep digital flexor tendon when I was half-way through the novel. Not only that, but while on stall rest, he managed to re-re-injure his check ligament! Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter (at https://HilaryWalkerBooks.com) will be familiar with my bay’s long journey to – hopefully – a complete recovery and return to full work.
Rehabilitation
He has gone to a wonderful mother and daughter team, Lauren and Danielle Gruber at Primarily Hooves. They live in the Smoky Mountains, up in Tennessee, six hours from my South Carolina home.
The heels of his front hooves were crushed, pulling on, and straining his tendons and ligaments and making them prone to injury. No one had ever before explained to me that shoeing could result in this for a horse, nor what it would mean for Cruz down the road. I guess I’m lucky he lasted nineteen years in shoes before disaster struck.
Lauren and Danielle have taken off his shoes. With correct trimming, they are retraining him to go barefoot, encouraging his heels to grow back properly and develop a natural cushion for his weight. The process will take the best part of twelve months. But by this time next year, who knows: maybe we’ll be out competing again? It’s in God’s hands.
Lauren and Danielle are also turning a friend’s horse from a totally lame navicular case into a sound and rideable horse again. He is the same age as Cruz and they know each other from their years in South Carolina. They were thrilled to be reunited and are turned out in the same paddock. The two of them make a cute picture when they lie down next to each other, especially with the mountains in the background!
More Horse Happenings
Jack’s incident with Loco in “Riding Out the Race” is based on a previous horse of mine, who did exactly the same thing to me, with the same outcome. I am not making it up! But you’ll need to read the book to find out what he did. 😊
Despite suffering a dislocated shoulder, my friend Dana was determined to keep riding. She figured out a way to mount and dismount one-handed, a technique which one of my characters uses.
The accident in the barn happened to a friend of mine when I lived in Germany. It has served as a warning to me ever since to be careful always to shut the stable door – whether I’m inside or outside the stall!
Another horse in the novel, Nimble, has issues identical to those of a friend’s new horse, and the way he was cured in the book exactly follows my friend’s protocol.
I also include an animal communicator. Some readers may be skeptical about their value, but I have used them with great success on Cruz Bay. They give me valuable insights that I couldn’t otherwise discover, and I often think I should try to become one: it would save much aggravation on the part of my horse, and a great deal of mystification on mine!
The End
I have grown very fond of the Riding Out characters, and it will be hard to say goodbye to them.
Father Michael is a special favorite of mine: he is a truly humble man whose only concern is to get the souls in his care to Heaven. His gentleness and wonderful sense of humor have endeared him to me over the series and he is my idea of the perfect Catholic priest. I shall miss his repartee with Jack: those scenes were such fun to write!
But by the close of this book, all the characters are in a good place. Father Michael is learning to take things a little easier, although he’ll never stop working to save souls. Jack’s priorities are shifting more towards his human family, while Laura now ‘gets’ the horse thing. Joe will soon be off to college and have a break from baby duties. Newly born Catherine has a loving family to take care of her, and I envy her growing up with all those horses!
As Agneta says, “Alles soll recht kommen.” If you want to know what that means, you’ll need to grab yourself a copy of “Riding Out the Race”!
The New White Martyrdom: Cancellation of Good Catholic Priests
The clash between traditional Catholic teaching and its compromised modern equivalent reaches a climax in this novel by a multiple bestselling Amazon author.
My new novel “A Truthful Man” simply had to be written.
It had to be written because hundreds of good and holy Catholic priests are having their priestly faculties removed, their accommodation taken way and their pay reduced or stopped altogether.
What is their crime? Proclaiming the Truth of Jesus Christ, and having the courage to speak out against the current culture in defence of God’s Truth.
These men dare to be Catholic and their superiors don’t like it: they find authentic Catholicism ‘offensive’ and fear the laity will, too. Such prelates have forgotten that the people of His day found Christ offensive. The truth hurts, but must be declared in order to save souls. As the Bride of Christ, our Church is supposed to be in this world, but not of this world. We’re supposed to be counter-cultural, proclaiming the unchanged and unchanging Truth, that Rock for us to cling to, however crazy the world around us becomes.
On the other hand, progressive priests who show no reverence for the Real Presence or any belief in Catholic doctrine, are given the green light by their superiors to pursue their ungodly and wholly un-Catholic agenda.
What Is Being Done?
Does anyone care about these holy and abandoned priests, whose vocations are in ruins?
In my related podcast What Is Truth? I talk about ‘a group of committed Catholics, lay people and clergy’ who have joined forces ‘after one too many instances of persecution of betrayal.’ The mission of this group, The Coalition for Canceled Priests is to spiritually and materially support ‘faithful priests who seek to return to active ministry after being unjustly canceled by their bishops.’
In penning this novel, I hope to do my part in bringing awareness to the plight of these priests and to the organization that is helping them.
What’s the Book About?
“A Truthful Man” follows Father James, a traditional Catholic priest who is happily settled in the tiny parish of King’s Brambling on the coast of southern England. He loves preaching the truth and his parishioners love him.
An old university friend, Mark Boulder is also pleased with life as the founder of a highly successful investment company. His brother-in-law is the influential bishop, who ensures that a good proportion of church donations flow into the coffers of Mark’s new charity for senior citizens.
Mark is hailed as an upstanding citizen. But his life of lies starts to crumble around him and he lashes out against the infuriatingly upright Father James, with the help of the bishop.
Father James discovers what fate awaits a priest who insists on telling the truth, whatever the cost. The bishop’s retaliation is swift and severe and the pastor is kicked out of his rectory.
Now on the wrong side of the law as well as his whole community, Mark is soon aware that the only person who can aid him is the very priest whose vocation he has destroyed.
But even if he can humble himself to ask Father James for forgiveness, why should the betrayed priest help him?
The Takeaway
It is my hope that the reader will find the book entertaining, while learning something of what is going on in the Catholic Church today and what the laity can do about it. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen says, it’s up to us, the people, to “see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
May this novel inspire you to help our holy canceled priests. We need them back in the pulpits!
A Truthful Man is available at the following stores:
Hillie the Golden Retriever disappeared from our horse farm in England one night, with Blue, the Great Dane (from ‘A Dog Named Blue’). Blue came back. Hillie didn’t, and there followed a sequence of very unforeseen events!
Hilary Walker Books 