Two New Books: Deacons and Indulgences

My wife found a really great Catholic store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I could have spent the whole day in there. It was full of religious stuff. I bought two books that I am going to start reading right away.

The first book is called "101 Questions about Deacons". It is all about the diaconate. I am very interested in this topic so when I walked past the book on the shelf it nearly jumped out at me.

The second book is called "The Handbook of Indulgences Norms and Grants". I have skimmed this book and find it to be a treasure chest of Catholic prayers.

When I was in RCIA (three years ago) one of the first questions that I asked in the inquiry stage was "What is an indulgence?" The leader of the RCIA program told me that Indulgences were no longer used in the church and that I should not worry about them. Imagine my surprise when I read that at the beginning of the year of the Eucharist when Pope John Paul II was granting a new indulgence. I made a note that I needed to learn more about them but got busy with life and did not look into it further.

Now, I have this book. I am learning and I think this will also help me with my endeavor to improve my prayer life. I'll write more about this later.