Article: Burn Incense, Find Depression Relief?

Science Daily reports that burning incense may be good for mental health: it contains psychoactive chemicals that impact areas in our brain that help regulate mood! Frankincense was the incense under study, which, incidentally, is also the incense used at traditional Catholic Masses. So, get yourself to Church - and sit close to the thurifer! :)

Article: "She 'loved life': A grieving father wrote openly about suicide"

When you are suffering from a mental illness, it can seem to those around you - and sometimes even to yourself! - that the illness defines who you are - personally, morally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually. When Katie Schoener took her own life after a long struggle with bipolar disorder, her father Ed, a devout Catholic and deacon, wrote an obituary to remind us all that our mental illnesses do not define who we are, do not encompass the full picture of our personalities, and do not tell the whole story of our lives. "Katie was not bipolar," he wrote, "she had an illness called bipolar disorder - Katie herself was a beautiful child of God."

Read the whole story in the Washington Post, here.

Next Meeting: August 25!

Our next meeting will be held on August 25 in the Fireplace Room of the Saint Agnes Parish Center from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Please join us for an evening of prayerful reflection, conversation, and fellowship! No matter where you are on your path, we welcome you. Hope to see you there!