Great news for Los Angeles (and prayers for Uncle Joe)

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The Pope has appointed three new auxiliary bishops to serve in the massive archdiocese of Los Angeles. One is Fr. Robert Barron, the wildly popular author, speaker, and founder of Word on Fire ministries. I’m not familiar with the second pick, Msgr. David O’Connell, but I do know the third, Msgr. Joseph Brennan — “Uncle Joe” to us. He’s my husband’s uncle, and we are thrilled for Los Angeles.

Read the rest at the Register.

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Homemade pasta, FREE Fr. Barron DVD set . . . UPDATED

UPDATE:  The $50 prize is now gone!  

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I posted last week about Arista Pasta’s kickstarter.  A lovely Catholic homeschooling family of seven (the co-founder, Benjamin Herreid, is the brother of John Herreid, who designed my book’s cover, and the other brother of Bill Herreid, who is married to my sister!) is selling delectable handmade pasta products made from local, sustainable ingredients at their farmer’s market.

They want very much to expand their production, become more self-reliant, and bring their exquisite food to a bigger audience.  But there are only 12 days to go, and they have a long ways to go to meet their goal.

So of course you’d throw a few bucks their way, right?

NO?  It’s okay, I understand.  It sounds like a worthy cause, but you just don’t have the money to spare, unless you get something back for it.

Of course they offer some of their wonderful products and other gifts to thank donors — and they now offer to ship their amazing food.  Last night, my husband and I feasted on their incredibly flavorful mushroom ravioli, which was bursting with juicy chunks of savory mushrooms and seasonings.  I’m serious, the whole house was filled with a fragrance that would bring a tear to the eye of the most hardened ascetic.  So with added shipping, now non-local donors can also enjoy their choice of extruded pasta or ravioli or homemade pestos.

Here’s my part:

I have three audiobooks of The Sinner’s Guide to NFP to give away.

Just donate $25 or more to Arista Pasta, and note on your Kickstarter donation form that you would like the audiobook.  No raffle this time — just the first three donors of $25 or more get an audiobook (and, for extra shipping, Arista Pasta will also send you some of their lovely pasta products).  The audiobook is going for $17.46 on Amazon before shipping, so this is a nice deal.

For a larger donation, I have something really magnificent:  Catholicism: The New Evangelization by Fr. Robert Barron.

This is the four-disc set and the spiral bound study guide.  Going on Amazon for $41.00.  I only have one of these, so I will give it the first Kickstarter donor of $50 or more.  Again, that is in addition to the Kickstarter thank-you gift. Remember to note that you want the DVD set when you donate.

So if you were thinking of maybe giving the audiobook or Fr. Barron’s DVDs as a Christmas gift, this is a great chance to get these items plus help out a lovely family business.

When these prizes are claimed, they are gone, so act fast! I expect the Fr. Barron DVD set to go like *that.*  I will update this post at the top when the prizes start to be claimed.

Even if you have $5, please consider supporting Arista Pasta!