#digital signs for churches

[annabarnes82]

Digital Menus For Restaurants

Digital menus for Restaurants have been called game-changers in the dining industry for a reason. They provide a dynamic and interactive way for restaurants to showcase their offerings. With vibrant visuals, real-time updates, and the potential to personalize menus on the fly, these digital menus are meant to uplift the dining experience for customers.

[darwinjesse63]

Digital Signs For Churches

Churches have become a new hotspot for the spiritual brings out there. That’s where you should know about how digital signs for churches work and give a new direction to how you should be making the church time attractions better. Such digital signs help visitors understand the motive of visiting over there. Ensure to seek all details about such products at first.

[starmocha]

The way I immediately read it as "handcuffs" and only thought, "wow, the devs have grown more lenient, that's so cool of them—" before I realized nothing about that sentence made sense 💀

[ectonurites]

having another one of those nights where i feel the need to deep dive research into the well-known but now-defunct punk rock club in boston that my mom's great-uncle/godfather was the doorman for in the 70's-80's

[offpagebloggers]

Find the Best Digital Church Signs Near Me

Why Digital Church Signs Are Essential

Digital church signs are revolutionizing how congregations communicate with their communities. These signs provide an innovative way to share messages, events, and inspirational content effectively. Whether it’s announcing service times, promoting events, or sharing uplifting messages, digital signs offer unmatched visibility and flexibility.

Unlike traditional static signs, digital church signs allow dynamic messaging that can be updated quickly. They capture attention day and night, making them an invaluable tool for engaging both your congregation and passersby.

If you’re searching for "digital church signs near me," you’re likely looking for a reliable provider who understands your unique needs and offers durable, high-quality solutions.

Choose Signs Plus for Digital Church Signs

When it comes to premium digital church signage, Signs Plus is a trusted leader. They specialize in providing electronic LED church marquee signs that combine quality, durability, and cutting-edge technology.

Why Signs Plus?

Customizable Solutions: Create signs that reflect your church’s identity and message.

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Durability You Can Trust: Weather-resistant designs built to last for years.

With Signs Plus, you can bring your church’s messages to life, creating a stronger connection with your community.

Conclusion

Digital church signs are a powerful way to enhance communication and inspire your congregation. Whether you’re updating messages daily or sharing weekly schedules, Signs Plus offers the best solutions tailored to your needs. Choose high-quality, customizable signage to elevate your church's outreach today!

[vaaaaaiolet]

Leon's lifeline for the past two months has been a chance encounter he met at a bar. At an abandoned payphone in the dead of night, he can only hope his guardian angel picks up his call.

mdni (mild implied sex). gn / m, HELLA pining, romance, implied alcohol abuse bc older leon, egregious overuse of religious / angel imagery, angst w/ a happy ending!

word count: 935 // read on ao3

a/n: if you know anything about me it's that: 1) i will not stop making puns even if you held a gun to my head 2) paradise edition solos your fav 3) you can tear religious imagery out of my COLD DEAD HANDS

find more drabbles in my collection: sketches for my sweetheart the drunk!

Against every neuron in his brain screaming flight, Leon breathes way too early into the receiver, “Hi?”

The payphone is a cold metal kiss against his ear. The night rain works double time to chill him right through. He’s always had bad luck. Leon never meant for it to go this far. Never meant to let things get so out of hand with you, the angel he ran into at a bar two months ago. 

Something about you just sticks. The quarter he fed into the pay slot did too. He should’ve taken it as a sign to let it go, let the drizzle soaking through his government-issued suit order him straight home from the airport, but the heart’s a heavy burden when it’s empty and besides, it gives him something to dream about.

So Leon stays. Prays you pick up. 

The music was loud the night Leon met you. He’s tried convincing himself you’re an earworm instead. You tick all the boxes, too. He can’t get you out of his head (one). Leon had offered you a drink on a whim. You’d told him his eyes looked like pieces of sky fallen to earth, and maybe it was because you saw home in him that he saw it in you. 

It was probably his own gin and tonic steering him astray. It could’ve been the twinkle in your eye when Leon kissed your knuckles in the red flush of the stoplights streaming in through the front window. But sooner than later, you had him wrapped around your wings. It just felt right with your feet off the ground when he’d hoisted you up under your thighs.

You sang so pretty in his arms. Leon’s postmarked for hell for sure. He’d taken you apart in a quiet back corner, pressed kisses down your eiderdown-soft nape, had the gall to smile at the shiver he brought out in your shoulders. You fit him like a glove. Every sweet gasp of his name that left your lips, Leon had burned into his brain to play on loop (two). 

Leon, Leon, Leon.  

And now, two months later, Leon realizes he’s angry about it. Not because of how outdated that is – seriously, who burns CDs anymore? – but because he didn’t know he was doing it. And that he’d do it for so long. He’d come to depend on the savior of your laugh to pull him through nights he’d spend with moonshine or an emptied magazine in different, more unfortunate circumstances. The memory of your voice put his fear to sleep. It was only a matter of time before Leon was skipping church in favor of taxi cab confessionals, drunk under the passing streetlights. Reciting the silvery lyric of your name under whiskey breath (three) as good as turned him into an acolyte. 

One, two, three rings pass before the line drops. Leon slips in his last quarter and punches in again the 10 digits that haunt his dreams. 

Why should you pick up? Maybe he’d hallucinated you tucking your number into his hand before you’d kissed him goodbye. Your wings could’ve been made out of paper, a false idol of Leon’s desperate invention, a feather dropped into his jean pocket from when he plucked you out of heaven. Of course he’d be the hero of the greatest love story that never was. The longest romance novel never written.

The dial tone stretches skyward. Leon sinks his teeth into his lip, stifles a dying scream to God with an aching throat. He doubts he’d listen. 

Because even after all this time, Leon is impatient. The whole city’s asleep except him. The downpour is knifing into his back and he doesn’t want to wait for the day so he can turn sunshine into sugar; Leon wants to pull the sun into his mouth. All this praying on his knees and he can’t even put his mouth on you, can’t put into use all the practice he’s had saying your name. 

He never even offered you a dance. Some kind of gentleman he is. The president’s bitch at attention and a poor excuse of a prodigal son to boot, standing at this payphone and pretending it’s only rain sliding down his cheeks. 

So when the receiver echoes back his greeting, Leon thinks it’s a cruel test. He’s sullen, tasting bitters again.

“Hello?” it repeats softly, “Leon?”

And it’s you.

Leon gasps your name, clutching the phone to his chest and scrambling to answer back. “You didn’t- is it really you?”

You laugh like tinkling bells, lovelier than he remembers. “You sound just the same.”

“And so do you.” Leon runs an incredulous hand through his hair. “How’d you know it was me?” 

“You started off with a ‘hi’. Normal conversations start with the word ‘hi’ and we’ve never had a normal conversation. It didn’t sound right with your voice.”

You remembered how he sounded. He’d called for you and you’d heard.

“I regret that. I’d like to have one of those with you sometime,” he admits. 

“It’s been a while.”

“You don’t- you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Can I be honest?” you whisper.

Leon holds his breath.

“I forgot to put my name on my number and I thought you’d never call.”

Tomorrow, Leon decides when he asks you to meet him for dinner at the Italian place you’d once told him about, right across the old church and the bar where he’d once met an angel, he’ll tell you he was always going to come back home.

And he hopes you’ll forgive him for being late.

click for my full drabble collection, and find more of my work here!

comments and reblogs are very much appreciated <3 divider by @/saradikagraphics

[jesawyer]

Hello Josh, Pentiment is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s an emotional journey for me. I can relate to Andreas’s melancholy and really like the character arc for him. Thank you for creating this amazing story.

I have a question about Seal of Confession in Pentiment. Sister Amalie disclosed Brother Guy’s confession to Andreas and explained why Guy can’t be protected by Seal of Confession. But as a catholic I was taught that Seal of Confession cannot be violated under any circumstances, and the seal also applies to anyone who overhears a confession. I assumed that the rule was different in Middle Ages. Did canon law back in 16th century mention anything about eavesdropping confessions?

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Certainly under modern canon law, Sister Amalie would be subject to church discipline equal to that of a priest who violated the seal, which could include excommunication.

Re: 16th century canon law on witnesses to confession other than the confessor: the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) did not mention witnesses, only the confessor:

Canon 21: On yearly confession to one’s own priest, yearly communion, the confessional seal All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them. Let them reverently receive the sacrament of the eucharist at least at Easter unless they think, for a good reason and on the advice of their own priest, that they should abstain from receiving it for a time. Otherwise they shall be barred from entering a church during their lifetime and they shall be denied a Christian burial at death. Let this salutary decree be frequently published in churches, so that nobody may find the pretense of an excuse in the blindness of ignorance. If any persons wish, for good reasons, to confess their sins to another priest let them first ask and obtain the permission of their own priest; for otherwise the other priest will not have the power to absolve or to bind them. The priest shall be discerning and prudent, so that like a skilled doctor he may pour wine and oil over the wounds of the injured one. Let him carefully inquire about the circumstances of both the sinner and the sin, so that he may prudently discern what sort of advice he ought to give and what remedy to apply, using various means to heal the sick person. Let him take the utmost care, however, not to betray the sinner at all by word or sign or in any other way. If the priest needs wise advice, let him seek it cautiously without any mention of the person concerned. For if anyone presumes to reveal a sin disclosed to him in confession, we decree that he is not only to be deposed from his priestly office but also to be confined to a strict monastery to do perpetual penance.

The Corpus Juris Canonici may cover this, but I would make two statements here: 1) detailed canon law was not something most parish priests or certainly anchoresses would be familiar with 2) it's late and I don't want to try to search through the UCLA's digital library copy of the Corpus Juris Canonici.

That said, I do have a copy of Thomas Tentler's Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation which gets into the weeds on what was going down in the Holy Roman Empire in the early 16th century. I used it as the basis for a lot of the specifics in Father Thomas' Saint John's Day confessions. I'll try to look it up this question tomorrow.

[stars-and-sugarcubes]

Pluto, the Internet, a Night in the Woods.

I was going to repost thoughts I shared from watching a Night In the Woods video essay, but I have decided to expand on it and re-write it completely.

" During one of Rosa's sleepy reminiscences about her youth, she says, 'Back then there were places that brought us all together, the church and the union.' Both the union and the church were hubs for community building and shared values. You could trust that your fellows in these places would think about the world similarly to you, and if you think about how unions suffered near extinction when manufacturing moved out and the industries that these unions had formed in died, that on top of how with each generation we become more and more agnostic, thereby losing that common gathering place in the church. it kind of explains why young people are so atomized and miserable these days. The only common place that we can gather and delude ourselves in is the internet. "

- Flundering Chipper (minutes 30:44 to 31:27)

1971, Intel released the first microprocessor, and home computers entered the market in 1977, raising in popularity and accessibility through the 80s and 90s. Today, technology is known to have developed exponentially since then.

The video essayist, Flunderingchipper, spoke about the younger generation's lack of religious faith and physical spaces to commune, and it made the cogs turn in my head. GenZ, the Sagittarius Pluto generation (1995-2008), is considered both digitally fluent and dependent due to being the first generation to fully grow up with computers and abundant internet access. GenZ also marks a significant difference between the generations after and before them.

The timeline for micro computer and personal computer usage begins at the bookend of the late Summer sign of Virgo (1959-1971) and the beginning of the Autumn signs with Libra (1971-1983), planting the seeds for the transformation of social and worldly connectedness we see today with Pluto now in Aquarius (2023-2044). Computers and further advancements like smartphones cemented themselves in the US and the world through Pluto's transits in Scorpio (1983-1995) and Sagittarius, the generation of Sag. Pluto is gaining the reputation of being extremely different from older generations and being connected online and less so in person. That is, not to mention the Capricorn (2008-2023) and Aquarius generations. On the internet, the general impression American GenZ seems to be that they are absurd, politically minded, and socially aware, gregarious, zealous, and unwilling to participate in corporate and political struggles of older generations. At least, from what I understand.

Computers came in the autumn of Pluto's treck through the zodiac. A time when previous generations harvested their gifts and their young have less material gains in turn. It started with the Libra Pluto generation, but the Scorpio Pluto generation was likely the first to notice it. Millennials.

All this to say, Pluto, the planet of ordeals, transformations, and death, showed us a time when the internet grew in influence, taking the place of community with friends and colleagues. Less people go outside to have fun. More people turn to gaming, social media, art, and sharing their interests with each other. There are fewer free spaces to commune. The Church loses its grip as people grapple with religious dogma and share in their struggles with it. People learn more about the world and connect with others from further distances. The average person can share themselves with the world and create communities and gain influence on a wider scale, changing the culture around public figures. Mall walkways are emptier, and stores shut down and become desolate. Small shops and average people are threatened by growing corporate power. But that begins to bleed into Capricorn Pluto.

As an older GenZ person reflecting on life as we move forward, I just find this morbidly fascinating. We must endure Pluto's travel through winter.

[mariacallous]

The United States Federal Trade Commission is taking action against two American data brokers accused of unlawfully trafficking in people’s sensitive location data. The data was used, the agency says, to track Americans in and around churches, military bases, and doctors’ offices, among other protected sites. It was sold not only for advertising purposes but also for political campaigns and government uses, including immigration enforcement.

Mobilewalla, a Georgia-based data broker that’s said to have digitally tracked the residents of domestic abuse shelters, is accused by the agency of purposefully tracking protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. In a court filing, the FTC says Mobilewalla attempted to unmask the protesters’ racial identities by tracking their mobile devices to, for example, Hindu temples and Black churches.

The FTC also accused Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel of harvesting and exploiting consumers’ location data without consent, alleging that the company used that data to unfairly infer health decisions and religious beliefs.

According to the FTC, Gravy Analytics collected over 17 billion location signals from approximately a billion mobile devices daily. It has reportedly sold access to that data to federal law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Gravy Analytics could not be immediately reached for comment.

A spokesperson for Mobilewalla says the company's privacy policies are constantly evolving, adding: “While we disagree with many of the FTC’s allegations and implications that Mobilewalla tracks and targets individuals based on sensitive categories, we are satisfied that the resolution will allow us to continue providing valuable insights to businesses in a manner that respects and protects consumer privacy.”

“This data can be used to identify and target consumers based on their religion,” the FTC says. The location data collected by the two companies makes it possible, the agency says, to “identify where individual consumers lived, worked, and worshipped, thus suggesting the mobile device user’s religion and routine and identifying the user’s friends and families.”

According to the two settlements, which must be finalized in court before they would go into effect, Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla are barred from collecting sensitive location data from consumers and must delete the historical data they gathered on millions of Americans. Mobilewalla would be banned from acquiring location data and other sensitive information from online auctions known as real-time bidding exchanges, marketplaces where advertisers compete to instantaneously deliver ads to targeted consumers. This case marks the first time the FTC has moved to police the collection of data directly from an ad exchange.

In another first, the proposed Gravy Analytics settlement would introduce military installations to the list of “sensitive locations” where the FTC bans location tracking. Under the terms, the company would be prohibited from selling, disclosing, or using data drawn from these locations, which include mental health clinics, substance abuse centers, and child care service providers.

In November, a collaborative investigation by WIRED, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Netzpolitik.org revealed that over 3 billion phone location data points, collected by a US-based data broker, exposed the movements of US military and intelligence personnel in Germany. These movements included visits to nuclear vaults and brothels. In that story, WIRED first reported on FTC chair Lina Khan’s efforts to shield US military and intelligence personnel from data brokers.

US senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who first urged the FTC to take action against Mobilewalla in 2020, praised the announcements, calling the companies’ actions “outrageous violations of Americans’ privacy.”

“These companies enabled US government agencies to surveil Americans without a warrant and enabled foreign countries to spy on service members with just a credit card,” says Wyden, who also previously investigated Venntel with other members of Congress.

While the FTC’s orders don’t directly tackle the issue of government agencies purchasing Americans’ location data—information for which a warrant is normally required—Wyden says the cases nevertheless undermine the government’s case for allowing the purchases. The orders make clear, he says, that federal agencies are hiding behind a “flimsy claim that Americans consented to the sale of their data.”

In a statement, FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya notes that while surveillance conducted by private companies won't raise the same constitutional issues as surveillance by government, the difference between the two is “porous if not irrelevant” to the people being watched. "Governments have long relied on private citizens for work that would be impractical or illegal for law enforcement," he says.

Whether the orders against Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla will be enforced remains to be seen. Major changes are coming to the agency under the future Trump administration—most expected to undermine years of work by Khan and her staff. Many of Donald Trump's allies have been vocally critical of Khan's aggressive pro-consumer approach, including Republican megadonor Elon Musk, who has taken command of an ad hoc office that will purportedly advise the White House on improving “government efficiency.”

FTC commissioner Andrew Ferguson, whose name was floated last month as a potential Khan replacement, partially concurred with the agency’s decision to bring cases against the two data brokers on Tuesday. He agreed the companies had taken insufficient steps to ensure consumer data was properly anonymized, adding that they’d failed to obtain the “meaningfully informed consent” of the consumers they targeted.

Unlike Khan, however, Ferguson argues that the companies did not run afoul of the law by “categorizing consumers based on sensitive characteristics,” such as whether they attend church or political meetings. “These are all public acts that people carry out in the sight of their fellow citizens every day,” he says.

Ferguson likewise chastised the agency for attempting to restrict the power of data brokers to target protesters specifically. “Treating attendance at a political protest as uniquely private and sensitive is an oxymoron,” he says.

In a separate action Tuesday morning, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was taking steps to crack down on predatory data brokers that traffic in people’s financial information, calling the practice a gateway for “scamming, stalking, and spying.”

Musk, who donated more than $100 million toward Trump’s reelection, called publicly last week for the bureau to be “deleted.”

[eowyntheavenger]

By Emily Strasser | August 9, 2023

At the theater where I saw Oppenheimer on opening night, there was a handmade photo booth featuring a pink backdrop, “Barbenheimer” in black letters, and a “bomb” made of an exercise ball wrapped in hoses. I want to tell you that I flinched, but I laughed and snapped a photo. It took a beat before I became horrified—by myself and the prop. Today is the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, which killed up to 70,000 people and came only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed as many as 140,000 people. Yet still we make jokes of these weapons of genocide.

Oppenheimer does not make a joke of nuclear weapons, but by erasing the specific victims of the bombings, it repeats a sanitized treatment of the bomb that enables a lighthearted attitude and limits the power of the film’s message. I know this sanitized version intimately, because my grandfather spent his career building nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the site of uranium enrichment for the Hiroshima bomb. My grandfather died before I was born, and though there were photographs of mushroom clouds from nuclear tests hanging on my grandmother’s walls, we never discussed Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or the fact that Oak Ridge, still an active nuclear weapons production site, is also a 35,000-acre Superfund site. At the Catholic church in town, a pious Mary stands atop an orb bearing the overlapping ovals symbolizing the atom, and until it closed a few years ago, a local restaurant displayed a sign with a mushroom cloud bursting out of a mug of beer.

Oppenheimer does not show a single image of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Instead, it recreates the horror through Oppenheimer’s imagination, when, during a congratulatory speech to the scientists of Los Alamos after the bombing of Hiroshima, the sound of the hysterically cheering crowd goes silent, the room flashes bright, and tatters of skin peel from the face of a white woman in the audience. The scene is powerful and unsettling, and, arguably, avoids sensationalizing the atrocity by not depicting the victims outright. But it also plays into a problematic pattern of whitewashing both the history and threat of nuclear war by appropriating the trauma of the Japanese victims to incite fear about possible future violence upon white bodies. An example of this pattern is a 1948 cover of John Hersey’s Hiroshima, which featured a white couple fleeing a city beneath a glowing orange sky, even though the book itself brought the visceral human suffering to American readers through the eyes of six actual survivors of the bombing.

The Oppenheimer film also neglects the impacts of fallout from nuclear testing, including from the Trinity test depicted in the film; the harm to the health of blue-collar production workers exposed to toxic and radiological materials; and the contamination of Oak Ridge and other production sites. Instead, the impressive pyrotechnics of the Trinity test, images of missile trails descending through clouds toward a doomed planet, and Earth-consuming fireballs interspersed with digital renderings of a quantum universe of swirling stars and atoms, elevate the bomb to the realm of the sublime—terrible, yes, but also awesome.

A compartmentalized project. The origins of this treatment can be traced to the Manhattan Project, when scientists called the bomb by the euphemistic code word “gadget” and the security policy known as compartmentalization limited workers’ knowledge of the project to the minimum necessary to complete their tasks. This policy helped to dilute responsibility and quash moral debates and dissent. Throughout the film, we see Oppenheimer move from resisting compartmentalization to accepting it. When asked by another scientist about his stance on a petition against dropping the bomb on Japan, he responds that the builders of the bomb do not have “any more right or responsibility” than anyone else to determine how it will be used, despite the fact that the scientists were among the few who even knew of its existence.

Due to compartmentalization, the vast majority of the approximately half-million Manhattan Project workers, like my grandfather, could not have signed the petition because they did not know what they were building until Truman announced the bombing of Hiroshima. Afterward, press restrictions limited coverage of the humanitarian impacts, giving the false impression that the bombings had targeted major military and industrial sites—and eliding the vast civilian toll and the novel horrors of radiation. Photographs and films of the aftermath, shot by Japanese journalists and American military, were classified and suppressed in the United States and occupied Japan.

The limit of theory. Not only is it dishonest and harmful to erase the suffering of the real victims of the bomb, but doing so moves the bomb into the realm of the theoretical and abstract. One recurring theme of the film is the limit of theory. Oppenheimer was a brilliant theorist but a haphazard experimentalist. A close friend and fellow scientist questions whether he’ll be able to pull off this massive, high-stakes project of applied theory. Just before the detonation of the Trinity test bomb, General Leslie Groves, the military head of the project, asks Oppenheimer about a joking bet overheard among the scientists regarding the possibility that the explosion would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world. Oppenheimer assures Groves that they have done the math and the possibility is “near zero.” “Near zero?” Groves asks, alarmed. “What do you want from theory alone?” responds Oppenheimer.

Can the theoretical motivate humanity to action?

One telling scene shows Oppenheimer at a lecture on the impacts of the bomb. We hear the speaker describe how dark stripes on victims’ clothing were burned onto their skin, but the camera remains on Oppenheimer’s face. He looks at the screen, gaunt and glassy-eyed, for a few moments, before turning away. Americans are still looking away. As a country, we’ve succumbed to “psychic numbing,” as Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell call it in their book Hiroshima in America, which leads to general apathy about nuclear weapons—and pink mushroom clouds and bomb props for selfies.

On this anniversary of Nagasaki, the world stands on a precipice, closer than ever to nuclear midnight. The nine nuclear-armed states collectively possess more than 12,500 warheads; the more than 9,500 nuclear weapons available for use in military stockpiles have the combined power of more than 135,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

If Oppenheimer motivates conversation, activism, and policy shifts in support of nuclear abolition, that’s a good thing. But by relegating the bomb to abstracted images removed from actual humanitarian consequences, the film leaves the weapon in the realm of the theoretical. And as Oppenheimer says in the film, “theory will only take you so far.” Today, it’s vital that we understand the devastating impacts that nuclear weapons have had and continue to have on real victims of their production, testing, and wartime use. Our survival may depend on it.

[a-queer-seminarian]

This church sign is constantly broken — or, as I like to imagine, broadcasting the digital version of “speaking in tongues”

[angeltreasure]

Can yall pls pray for me?

I've been struggling with an addiction/sin I thought I had overcome years ago. I have been very discouraged by this since I thought I was past it. I'm also extremely embarrassed by it, so much so i can barely bring myself to tell the priest in Confession.

I'm also struggling with doubts as to weather I actually can have a good Confession, since I have had so many recurrences.

I am also afraid that this all might have some sort of demonic oppression that I would need a priest to help me overcome. But, if I'm so ashamed to say it in Confession behind the screen, I don't think I could ever explain my situation to a priest face to face.

I know it’s hard and it’s a little scary but there is nothing, absolutely nothing a priest has not heard before. He will not make fun of you and banish you. You must remember that when you go in the confessional it is Jesus who speaks to you through the priest. The priest by the grace of God will not remember any of your sins after the confession and is always welcoming all people to come. This why in scripture we read Jesus is the good doctor because we little lambs get sick with sin. Through a good confession He makes us white as snow.

What you need in your case is a good confession and not one where you feel this anxiety. When we are in a state of mortal sin, we fall from grace until we make a good confession and do penance again.

First, go online and search for Catholic Churches near you. Go to their website site to see the confession days and times. Most of them will have different days and times and some offer to call to schedule one if it’s outside of those hours they post. Make a note of what works best for your personal schedule and write it down somewhere.

Second, the night before you go, open a notebook to a fresh page and grab pen or something else to write with. You will make what is known an Examination of Conscience. That link will provide you with the tools you need digitally. Bookmark this page.

Third, pick which Examination of Conscience firsts your age. When you slowly read each entry you will then write down in your sheet in a list of: WHAT the sin was and HOW MANY times you committed the sin since your last confession. Telling the Jesus what the sin is and how many times you committed it will help the priest pray for you and if he is generous, he will take the time to explain why the sin is wrong and what to do to avoid it’s temptations again. A note for when you name the sin do not go into the details of the sin itself, you are only needed to say the general word for it. Bring this paper with you when you go to your confession. Fold it for your own privacy.

Fourth, also explain to the priest this demonic oppression you feel. He will say a special deliverance prayer for you in the confessional. A good confession is more powerful than a thousand exorcisms.

Fifth, at the end of your list you can say you are sorry for any sins you have forgotten. This helps me especially as I am getting older as I tend to sometimes forget things so Jesus knows all that is in our heart.

Six, a good confessor may ask you if there is anything else. This is your time to ask him if something else that has occurred in your life is considered to be a sin or not. He will be patient and listen to all you have to say.

Seven, follow the instructions of the priest to pray the Act of Contrition (which is provided for you there). Make the sign of the cross, thank the priest, exit the confessional.

Eight, immediately to your penance he assigns. Do not delay this.

Nine, you have now made a good confession and have returned to a state of grace. You will feel all of the anxiety and weight off your shoulders Satan had tried to place on you. Go in peace. Crumble up your paper list and throw it away.

(Some places have confession face to face but most where I am will be behind a screen. Some have options for face to face but I always find it better with the screen option, in my personal opinion.)

I’ll pray for you, absolutely.

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

notes from church this week; no pastor this week, but the elder who speaks like a televangelist and the sermon this time were about the oncoming sunday laws that the government shall impose upon us adventists, as a trial and daunting reminder that we must not be in a sleep to our faith for the time of the second coming shall be soon, sudden, and involve death of all those who properly test the courage of their faiths; that another small sign surely were a small death incurred with each visit to the supermarket as the green new deal slowly replaced good foods with those of strange and alien unknowns that'd nibble inside us as we eat as cancer nibbled at those we have lost just here in the church; that the currency and wealth we had thought to bolster and protect us against the times were already being slyly converted into some invisible digital thing that shall (in anecdote, back in Jamaica, about how power now were done through meters that worked at switch of a button; thousands of which for the government man need to press to keep it on) be used as a lever and as plague itself to make those wish for a death that will NOT come; amen! amen! --but always find these sermons kind-of boring because they feel like a phantom of a passion that has just been as memory and kept around for the speaker to lean up-on when the need come to speak; i like the pastor because it always feels like he speaks from a present warmth and love instead of pulling from a well-learned book of fears about the sunday keepers and which type of spears shall us faithful be rent upon.

[joels6string]

Lavender Haze

Joel Miller x f!reader

Sensory Drabble: Perfume+Lavender Word Count: 620 Content: fluff

It had taken time to adjust to the safety of silence. The quiet had ceased to be a threat as he sat whittling in his studio, the knife perched between his fingers no longer a weapon but a tool of the trade. Wood shavings lay scattered over the surface of his desk, sticking to his worn flannel, decorating it with white and brown specks in place of droplets of red.

Joel had taken his time acclimating to this new version of life. He had no shame in just how long it had taken him, nor was he embarrassed to admit just who had helped him reach this newly adapted air of serenity. He'd begun this project late last night after he'd ensured you'd fallen asleep, the beginning stages of familiarity now becoming evident in the wood.

"I was calling for you,” you chimed from behind him, your nimble fingers sliding over his shoulders down onto his chest, "So focused."

"I'm sorry, darlin',” he crooned in response, leaning back into you, “How was picking tomatoes?"

“I was on wheat today actually."

"That's right. You said that this morning."

As you hummed into his hair, his eyes drifted closed, the air so faintly hazed with the scent of the lavender oil you'd learned to distill just two weeks ago that you'd taken to wearing like perfume. You were warm and soft, the steady rise and fall of your chest enough to lull him into a trance, it never took much.

You began on his shoulders, your fingers kneading into the tension that still remained from years of brutality and sheer survival instincts. He groaned in appreciation and agony alike as you pressed a knot into the surface of his shoulder blade; you’d been working on that one for awhile now–it was as stubborn as he was. When you traveled up to the thick trunk of his neck, he let his chin fall limp against his chest, giving you ample room to ease his long-held discomfort.

That's always what you'd done, from the moment your eyes had met his across the church courtyard. He'd been content as a recluse, Tommy's silent older brother who stayed locked away in his house by the cemetery, the only sign of life the quiet notes strummed from his guitar that flitted down from the open windows on a summer evening. Until you came along.

Fingernails raking against his scalp came next, his long gray locks gliding between your digits with a gentle twinge. This was his ultimate undoing, you were both well aware. He was growling in appreciation now, the low rumble in his chest just barely audible as you kept a slow and steady pace.

The reminder of all he'd gained despite all he'd lost weighed heavy on his mind, as it always did when he let the walls begin to fall. The rhythmic movement of your ministrations always allowed him a moment of reprieve to reflect. His choices returned to haunt him like demons in the dark, it was like you could feel it, your lips drifting down to press to the crown of his head as you wrapped him up tightly in your arms.

"Come help me make dinner?" you asked so sweetly it was impossible to refuse, not that he’d even consider it.

“Course,” he grunted contentedly, your fingers drifting to his chin and directing his lips towards yours.

When you kissed him it blew new life into his lungs no matter how many times he got to experience it. Your lips were satin smooth and soft as velvet. It was always slow and cautious at first, or maybe you just preferred to savor that first gentle press as much as he did.

[holysaintscathedral]

Books for the Hierophile #2

A continuation of the first list. Once again, all titles here are a variety of het, MLM, and WLW romance and erotica and may be purchased in most major in-person and online book sellers in either physical and/or digital form. Everything is listed in alphabetical order and a synopsis.

A Leap of Faith by Mel Gough - South Africa, 1953 – Father Daniel Blakemore is happy on his missionary secondment in a small, rural Providence Hospital on the Eastern Cape. Being away from England makes it easier for him to conceal his homosexuality – a secret that would destroy everything he’s ever worked for.But when Doctor Eddie Raleigh takes up his new position at Providence, the two men are instantly drawn to one another. Their liaison represents both Daniel’s deepest desire and his worst nightmare. If the archdeacon in London learns of his true nature, Daniel’s life in the church will be over.Broken-hearted, Daniel breaks things off with Eddie. And to get away from his sorrows, he leaves his beloved missionary work behind, and returns to Stepney, London.Will time and distance alleviate Daniel’s pain, or will happiness be forever elusive? Or will love, finally, find a way?An evocative tale of love, fear and duty, set against the backdrop of the nineteen fifties, with the emergence of apartheid in South Africa and the criminal nature of homosexuality in the UK.

Blow Me Father, For I Have Sinned (4 part series) by Dirty Mary - This collection of erotic shorts (1. Bad Habits, 2. The Good Wife, 3. Confession, and 4. The Bride) feature various women and their encounters with priests, nuns, and sin. Only available in eBook Format.

Broken Vows by MJ Williamz - Sister Mary Margaret has been a devout nun for twenty years and has never questioned her devotion to the calling. But when she develops a crush on one of her parishioners, Maryann Foster, the passion between them is irresistible and her vow of celibacy isn’t enough to keep them apart. But can she love both Maryann and the Church? She prays for an answer, only to question whether God has truly given her a sign or if she is just afraid to leave the only real home she has ever known. Mary Margaret must reconcile her divided heart or risk losing a love that just might be heaven sent.

Billionaire's Sins: A Forbidden Hot Priest Romance By L. Steele - Part of Big Bad Billionaires series. Father Edward Chase. Brooding. Growly. And... unavailable. He's the hot priest. I am a belly dancer. He's haunted by his past. I am trying to carve out a future for my studio. He’s at war with himself, and I am the casualty. There is nothing he will put before his calling. No stone he will leave unturned for his flock. He’ll never give in to the attraction between us, So what if he stars in all my dreams? He may be a man of God. But for me, he is temptation personified. Making him fall for me is all I ever wanted. Until he reveals his secret.

Cardinal Sins: Seducing the Priest by Liz Steel - “I was never the church going, confessing type—until the hottest priest in a ten state radius showed up. I have to have him. I just need to get him out of his priestly robe…and into his pants. I knew he isn't exactly a saint. But can I pull it off? Will he commit cardinal sins with me? I have to find out. And I'm going to.”

Confessions: Justin’s Penance, Lust and Ecstasy by Luke Jameson - "It can't be wrong if he's a priest." Now, in one complete volume, is the love story between a priest struggling with his beliefs, and his student who goes to great lengths to justify his growing attraction for another man. Justin's Penance tells the story of how Mateo and Justin first meet, and how their explosive attraction forces them apart. In Justin's Lust, our lovers reunite at a monastery in the mountains of Virginia. Both men have taken vows to the church, but as you'll discover, promises are often broken. After an illicit encounter, Justin flees the monastery, praying to a God who isn't listening. In Justin's Ecstasy, Mateo is devastated, and goes to a strange city in search of the man who claimed his heart. Will Justin return Mateo's feelings, or will his promises to the church keep true love apart? ​​Two men are destined to be together, and the only things holding them apart are the vows they have made to the church. Will love win, or will their beliefs be their undoing?

Cardinal Sinner (Divine Domination Book 2) by Megan Michaels - Eliska Petrova grew up as a good Catholic girl in Prague, attending Catholic school, even obtaining a job in the Vatican City working for the Cardinals in the Apostolic Palace. She couldn’t imagine anything better than her job in Rome. That is, until she met the tall, dark, and handsome Cardinal Petr. The problem wasn’t that he was her boss and mentor. The problem was that she was helpless to resist her desire for him. Realizing her deep-seated, dark fantasies of pain and pleasure, power and submission/surrender with a prominent Cardinal seemed like a recipe for disaster. But that hadn’t stopped her from diving in anyway. Her temper got her into trouble with the Petr – often – and he had very creative ways of tamping down her fiery ways, the least of which was an old fashioned, bare bottom spanking. Petr Novak had studied underground in oppressive, Communist ruled Prague, even completing and receiving his doctorate in secret. The Pope ordained him as a Bishop in St. Vitus Cathedral once the Iron Curtain had crumbled, and he’d begun working his way up the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, becoming a Cardinal in Rome. He’d never planned on falling in love with the young flaxen-haired Czech beauty. Her fire called to him though, and he couldn’t deny himself – even if that very fire threatened to consume them both. How could she commit to a man who had his eye on becoming Pope? Would she be enough – or too much? Could they find happiness with each other and the Church? 

E Pluribus Unum Book 1 - Lesbian Lust By Rowan Buchanan-Brown - 1621....Sister Benedetta is very sick. She has become plagued with demonic hallucinations; all telling her she will rot in Hell. As ministers from the government arrive at her convent to investigate; they uncover a secret relationship she has been having with a fellow Sister....2006....Marcia and Naomi are two lovers who stumble upon a dark cult when on holiday in the Amazon Rainforest. Though they escape to civilisation again, they bring back an ancient evil with them, the same evil which plagued Sister Benedetta and which threatens to turn all the women on Earth to its own wicked ways....

Emily and the Priest by Selena Kit - Her first year away from home has been a disaster for shy, awkward Emily, falling in with the wrong crowd, just trying to fit in with the other girls. When Mark, the campus psychologist, takes her under his wing, she's more than grateful, and under his tutelage, Emily blossoms into ripe, luscious fruit, just ready to be plucked. By the time Mark realizes his mistake, it's too late--Emily has fallen for him, and he for her. God help them both. Available only in Kindle and eBook Editions. Part of the Power Play series.

For I Have Sinned: A James Bay Novel by Kathleen Irene Paterka - Cursed or Blessed? A Man of God Must Make a Choice...Father Greg, a Catholic priest and recovering alcoholic, took a vow of obedience at his ordination-but thirty years later, that Roman collar chafes his neck. His love for God is not in doubt, but the same can't be said for his faith in the church. After a young interracial couple joins his parish in the small exclusive resort community of James Bay, Michigan, Father Greg finds himself waging a fierce battle fighting parishioners' prejudices. When an attractive widow from the parish joins hands with him to befriend the young couple, the problems only escalate-and so do the rumors about a romance. Caught up in a war with church leaders and his own guilty conscience, Father Greg is trapped. He's good at standing up for others, but now he needs to learn how to stand up for himself. It's the only way he'll become the man he was always meant to be-with or without the Roman collar. Part of James Bay series but can be read independently.

For I Have Sinned by Alex Grayson - “Twelve years ago, I vowed to stay celibate when I gave my life to the church. For twelve years, I've kept that vow, and not once have I been tempted to veer away from it. Until she walked into my life. Jersey, the homeless girl who sneaks into my church to steal food. From the moment I first saw her, something about her called to me. She was sent to tempt me down a sinful path, and I have no hope of denying her. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” A Part of the Itty Bitty Delights series but can be read independently.

For I Have Sinned by Dakota Rebel - “I’ve never been much for church or religion or faith of any kind really. So I never expected to become friends with a priest. And I certainly didn’t expect to fall for one. I spent most of my life pretending that I was a good son, a good brother, a good man, in an attempt to earn my parents’ approval. And now I’m just tired of pretending. Because the closer Father Luke Stone and I get to one another, the harder it becomes to deny the attraction between us. I’m not sure if he’s fighting it, too, or if he honestly doesn’t feel it. He says he wants to save my soul. But I can’t help wondering. Am I even worth saving?” Available only in Kindle Edition.

Fuck Me Father, For I Have Sinned by Naomi Ace - Warning: This 3500 word shorty story is for adults only and features delicious and vivid interactions between three consenting priests. Available in only in eBook format.

Fall Into Temptation: A Forbidden Romance Between a Naive Catholic Girl and a Transitional Deacon by Katy Fox - She’s a naive catholic girl. He's a transitional deacon. Will they succumb to the wild flames of passion? Christie Hart is raised by strict catholic parents who never let her have her freedom. But when she finally goes to Britain to attend her aunt’s wedding, she falls hopelessly in love with Vincent Knight. Fantasizing over a hot downright sexy transitional deacon? Terrible idea. But Christie can't help it. There are many rules a transitional deacon can't break. A transitional deacon cannot marry. A transitional deacon cannot abandon his flock. Vincent has always been good at following rules until Christie shows up and turns his world upside down. Can they overcome the temptation or will they fall deep into it? Find out how this totally unputdownable forbidden steamy romance ends.

For Love of God by Robin Reardon - It’s Manhattan, 1983. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is going strong at the 8th Street Playhouse. HIV/AIDS is still called “the gay plague.” The Twin Towers still stand tall. And Spencer Hill is convinced God has called him to the Episcopal priesthood. There’s just one problem. He’s gay. Determined to stay the course, Spencer avoids Donald Rainey, a young actor he’s attracted to. Then he tries dating a woman, another candidate at General Theological Seminary. Then, as a last resort, he considers a life of chastity. His attempts to deny his orientation fail, and he has a crisis of faith that nearly sends him over the edge. He’s saved by an insightful therapist and by his relationship with Donald, which he can no longer avoid. Then his life is in disarray again when Donald’s life takes a religious turn Spencer cannot accept, and he must find a path where there is no conflict between God and gay.

Grace but No Mercy by Lynn Cooper - “My name is Father Troy Hampton. From the time I was old enough to talk, my words came out as prayers. My life belongs to the church. It’s true that I’m nothing more than a mortal man made up of all the same parts as other men. However, through my devotion and unwavering commitment to Christ, I have been able to resist that which is carnal. I never succumb to the natural, sometimes overpowering yearnings and desires that rampantly pulse through the veins of all mankind. Daily, I rebuke all that is unholy. I cling to my vestments, resisting all fleshly pleasures. Forsaking all others for Him. Until her.”

Heathens (Heathens Series Book 1) by Amanda Richardson - Lily Damewood is trying (and failing) to claw her way out of her dark memories. Her weekly visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is supposed to be a way to help her move forward, even though she’s far from the praying type. She catches the eye of Salem Tempest, a seminary student at Notre Dame. When an unlikely friendship forms between them—followed by a white hot attraction they desperately try to ignore—a revelation shakes them both to their core. Lily and Salem soon find themselves connected in powerful and unexpected ways. Turns out, Lily isn’t the only heathen, and Salem is just the right person to stoke the fire within her, despite his sacred vow of celibacy.

Her Priest (Divine Domination Book 1) by Megan Michaels - Divorced and working in Amsterdam as a reporter, Chelsea never dreamed that opening a simple social media account could bring the love of her life back to her. Especially when she still isn’t convinced she was his first love. Despite being his devoted submissive—in all things—she’d let him slip through her fingers—and paid the price of ten years of yearning for him. But could an independent, strong-minded woman be just as accepting of his dominance now? A dream one quiet night in college had shown Emerson his true calling. And that calling meant leaving his girlfriend, his lover. His soul mate. But now he’d found Chelsea again, that calling seemed a world away, his need and his lust for her as overpowering as the first day he’d laid eyes on her. He has to have her kneeling at his feet once more. Even if that means leaving the priesthood. His decade long sojourn has changed him in ways he’d never expected. And now he has his Chelsea under his dominion once more, she is going to find he is even more demanding than he was as a young man. Ten years in a position of power have left him with a taste for commanding obedience. And he intends to exercise that power on his yielding, submissive soul mate. She’s won him back, but is she ready for the new Emerson? Is she ready for his particular brand of religion-tinged, taboo kink?

Lead Me Not: A Gay Christian Romance by Ann Gallagher - Isaac Morris has devoted his life to preaching against the sin of homosexuality. But when his sister proposes a documentary to demonstrate once and for all that it’s a choice—with Isaac choosing to be gay as proof—he balks. Until he learns his nephew is headed down that perverted path. Isaac will do anything to convince the teenager he can choose to be straight…including his sister’s film. When Isaac’s first foray into the gay lifestyle ends with a homophobic beating, he’s saved and cared for by Colton Roberts, a gentle, compassionate bartender with a cross around his neck. Colton challenges every one of Isaac’s deeply held beliefs about gay men. He was kicked out by homophobic parents, saved from the streets by a kind pastor, and is now a devout Christian. Colton’s sexuality has cost him dearly, but it also brought him to God. As the two grow closer, everything Isaac knows about homosexuality, his faith, and himself is called into question. And if he’s been wrong all along, what does that mean for his ministry, his soul, his struggling nephew—and the man he never meant to love? 

The Lake Michigan Affair by JacquelIine Thomas - Rosalie fell into her life, a life she didn’t want. She met Richard, her brilliant surgeon husband, and fellow Catholic as a teenager. One night in the back of Richard’s car, her fate was sealed, to be Mrs. Richard Russo. Her strong Catholic family, where faith dictates all actions, left Rosalie no other choice but to marry Richard, a man who she did not love. Rosalie’s life looked perfect from the outside, the brilliant surgeon husband, a tight-knit Catholic community in Chicago, and friends. One evening in the halls of the Field Museum, she meets the man who will change her life forever, Catholic Bishop Sebastian Cole. The Lake Michigan Affair is a story of a woman finding true love, learning who she is, attempting to flee an abusive marriage, and ultimately risking it all to be with the man she loves. Set in a tight-knit, Italian-American neighborhood on Chicago’s Northside, tradition, religion, and culture collide. The Lake Michigan Affair looks at love, not what it is supposed to be, but how raw and powerful it can be and the force it has on the lives of Rosalie’s community.

My Priest, My Husband by Deede Kress- Last night Alaina agreed when Fr. Ryan said they were an exception to the law of celibacy. But this morning she admitted she was a mere woman involved in a forbidden love affair but Ryan was no mere lover. Unwilling to give him up, how could she compete against God?

The Priest's Virgin Sinner: A Taboo Erotic Short (Her Forbidden Men Book 2) By J. C. Hardin - “I never used to be this person. I never used to have these shameful desires. I was an innocent 19-year-old who went to college while living at home with my family. I went to church every Sunday like you're supposed to. I kept myself away from boys and tried to be a good girl. I never used to be this type of person. However, things changed. Dark desires grew within me. I thirsted hard for my family's priest. It wasn't supposed to happen. But it has. Now, the only thing I want is for this holy man to show me just how unholy this world could be.” Available only in Kindle and eBook Editions.

The Priest and the Prodigal by S. Adam - Only available in Kindle Edition, The Priest and the Prodigal: A Story of Taboo Love" suggests a narrative that revolves around a forbidden romantic relationship between a priest and a prodigal. The title immediately sets up a power dynamic between the two characters, with the priest being in a position of authority and the prodigal being a rebellious figure. The use of the term "taboo" implies that their love is considered socially unacceptable or morally wrong, adding an element of danger and risk to their relationship. The title also suggests a story of redemption, as the prodigal character may be seeking forgiveness and guidance from the priest. Overall, the title suggests a dramatic story of love, morality, and the consequences of going against societal norms and religious teachings.

Pleasing the Pastor by Daisy Jane - “The Pastor looks enormous behind that podium. Almost Godly. He looks at me like I'm unexplored territory and his life's dream is exploration. When I look at him, I’m mesmerized. But you can't fall for your Pastor ten years your senior... can you?”

The Priest and the Princess by Kathryn Kaufmann - She prayed to find Mr. Right… but this has to be wrong.Is asking for a commitment-minded man too much? Laura Daniels didn’t think so, but after wasting too many years on too many losers she’s giving up hope. That is until a chance encounter with a childhood friend sparks some new feelings. He’s exactly the kind of man she wants: sweet, funny, handsome… Except Heaven help her, he’s a priest—the new interim priest at her church. Worse, despite his vow, he has feelings for her and struggles with the pain-staking guilt of believing she could be his one true love, while Laura’s heart is torn between her lifelong love for God and her newfound love for Father Carl. It will take nothing short of a miracle to find a happy ending.

Priest: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance By Flora Ferrari - Stand alone novel in A Man Who Knows What He Wants series, available only in Kindle and eBook Editions. “Coming out of the jungle after almost twenty years, I’m not grappling with my faith as I reconsider my future in the priesthood, it's a different sort of calling. Something I don’t even know yet, until I meet her. I’m not grappling with my faith, but I’m sure as hell gonna be grappling with my Grace. In the horizontal position, if I’ve got anything to do with it.  Her dad Carl is my best friend, we grew up together and he’s saved my ass so many times it hurts to think I’m breaking his heart by loving his daughter, but that fresh calling I got? The one that drew me from the jungle, it all makes sense as soon as I see her, and I know, right there and then that she’s my woman and I have to make a family of my own with her. Starting right now.”

The Priest by Erin Pim - When a good-hearted young woman becomes stressed at her workplace, she ends up doing things she regrets. Unhappy with her immoral actions, she decides to visit the one person she knows can set her back on the right path: a male dominatrix known only as ‘The Priest’. This mysterious character advertises an ability to purge women of their sins - exactly what our woman needs. Available in Kindle Edition.

Priest: True Love by Pamela White - Father Daniel is unlike any man Kelly Hall has ever met; while she struggles to adjust to her federal detention at Carlyle. But even within the mysteries surrounding events leading to her sentence, and her wayward boyfriend still living at home, a growing affinity for the priest of Carlyle church mass cannot be avoided forever. Father Daniel, who has been the priest over Carlyle church mass for two years, is stricken with an attraction for Kelly Hall. When the beautiful young woman begins working for him in the chapel, Father Daniel feels drawn to her and despite his protest, is weakening in withholding himself from the attraction between them.

Playing With Her Priests by S. E. Law - When Pastors Jordan and Jason stepped up to the pulpit, the breath caught in my throat. These were the new pastors at the Village Church? The men had perfect lips, tattoos swirling up their forearms, and cocky, knowing smiles that made my heart race. In fact, all the female congregants let out a collective sigh when Pastors Jason and Jordan got up to preach. But Jason and Jordan are no average men of the cloth. The two handsome priests are godliness personified, yet with a taste for sin. Book 3 of the Playing With Them series, available only in Kindle and eBook Editions.

The Priest’s Lover: A Romance by Maria Avery - On the surface, 19 year old Jessica is demure, shy, and retiring - the very image of what a good Catholic girl should be. But the holier-than-thou teen has been in love with Father Damon for as long as she can remember, and she's convinced that if she can light the fire of passion within him, his desire will turn him away from his holy devotion and towards her. As his lust turns blossoms into love, it the relationship is threatened by Jessica's jealous best friend who uses blackmail to get what she wants. Available in Kindle Edition.

Priest’s Curves: Curvy Girl Romance by Kelsie Calloway - “Ten years ago, my best friend and high school sweetheart left me to become a priest. He says he came back to town to change lives, but I know it's because of me. I'll bring this priest to his knees. Sorry, daddy, I've been bad.Or whatever it is you say in the confessional.” Book 11 in the Curvy Girl of the Month Club series but can be read independently. Only available in Kindle Edition.

Rebel Priest by Adrianne Leigh - A priest is expected to protect his flock, observe a strict vow of celibacy, and honor his vow to God. “I've always been good at obeying the rules. And then she came.With her, I'm eager to desecrate every sacrament. One filthy taste of pleasure and pain--one stolen touch of heavenly blasphemy--a lifetime of sacred torment.Forbidden love is more dangerous and more intoxicating than any other kind, and the sweeter the sin, the greater the catastrophe.By the edicts of my church, I am no longer in a state of grace. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I am a priest and she is my obsession. This is my unholy confession.”

Sexpulsion by Jorge Smith - Having been visited by awakened ghosts throughout the night, a troubled single lady feels she must seek the assistance of a local priest. She complies to cruel and sexual rituals after hearing his perverted directions, in order to restore her tranquility.

The Sinful Priest: MM First Time Straight to Gay Age Gap by M. M. Cummings - James couldn’t let the image of last night go. Ambrose was among the pews doing everything but pray with that man. And now Ambrose was ready to confess his sins. But James isn’t prepared for the truth or the sinful words coating the young man’s tongue. Each one unlocks hidden, forbidden desires inside James. Wicked desires to be with someone. Worse, to be with a man. To be with Ambrose and make him scream. Desperation floods the air. Suddenly, the priest’s collar is suffocating. The confession box, too small. Slight flecks of pleasure peak from the lattice barrier with devilish movements. James is losing it and there is nothing he can do to calm his throbbing need. He wants Ambrose. He needs him. And maybe a fall from grace could land him in a world of happiness and bliss. Only available in Kindle and eBook Editions.

Say Your Prayers by Crystal Ash and Cathryn Moon - Hell has taken over. And Earth’s last sanctuary doesn’t stand a chance. A young woman with horns was the last person Father Stavros expected to see approaching his gate, begging for sanctuary. As a man of God, he learned to never turn away someone in need, especially after Hell’s Rising. But the sinful cravings that follow him and his fellow priests are a whole new obstacle. The horned woman is a succubus--aligned with the very evil they are the last stronghold against.Which begs the question, why would a succubus seek refuge in a church?Spat up from Hell, Deyva’s arrival has made the three priests of Bethel question everything from their faith, their integrity, and the very enemy they face. She may not actually be a monster, but a person truly in need of protection, in need of love, and that rattles the Fathers to their very foundations. When Hell’s Kingdom sends the least likely adversary to Bethel’s gate to retrieve the wayward succubus, the priests are faced with a choice. Throw Deyva back to the pit that spat her out, and take a final stance against Hell with everything they’ve got. Or protect her, give in to their feelings, and risk losing the last grip on their faith.

Sweetest Sin by Sosie Frost - “The priest responsible for my salvation is the man leading me into temptation. Or maybe I’m the one corrupting him? Father Raphael St. Lucian shares my desire, but even he can’t fight our twisted thoughts and fantasies. He promises that we will be saved if we confront our lust and resist this dangerous attraction. But an innocent kiss becomes a forbidden touch, and midnight secrets destroy us in beautiful blasphemy. What happens when our faith is tested and my most honest confession threatens to break his sacred vow? How long can we deny the sweetest sin?”

Stepbrother Priest: A Taboo Love Story by Riley Jones - “I didn't care if it was a sin, I had to have him. None of it should have happened the way it did. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with Jonah. Everything about it was wrong. Not only was he my stepbrother, he was also a celibate priest. I had no right to convince him to break his celibacy, but I couldn't help myself. Jonah was sweet and muscular, the perfect man for a girl like me. So what if the church forbade our relationship? The heart wants what the heart wants. At least that’s what I had to keep telling myself. I just hoped that God would forgive us.” Available in Kindle Edition.

To Become a Priest by Den Adler - Thirteen-year-old Danny Bates is obsessed with becoming a Catholic priest, and he enters Southport, Wisconsin's, Resurrection Seminary in 1957. But a tragic fire in Chicago ignites doubts about the God Danny is so eager to serve, and he falls in love with Jessica Fernettan, his best friend Pat's twin sister. As Jessica urges both Danny and Pat to leave the seminary, and with the Church in a period of dramatic change following its second Vatican Council, the young seminarians face agonizing choices.

This is My Body by Elena Graf - The new rector of St. Margaret's by the Sea Episcopal Church has a secret. Lucille Bartlett was a rising star at the Metropolitan Opera, but she disappeared from the stage and no one knows why. Philosophy Professor Erika Bultmann is a confirmed agnostic, who doesn't have much use for religion, but she is fascinated by Mother Lucy. When Erika returns to her summer cottage in Hobbs to finish her last book before she retires, Lucy is drawn to the enigmatic professor, but she wants much more than a casual affair. Erika has been in open relationships; Lucy wants a commitment. Lucy believes marriage is sacred; Erika thinks it's a vestige of the patriarchy. When Lucy's secret is revealed, she needs Erika's support more than ever. Can they put aside their differences and find common ground?

The Temptations of Heaven by Greg Kauffman-Starkey - Father Leo Brannigan has been a man of deeply religious faith all his life. He is a respected pillar of his community and a man everyone turns to when they’re in need, spiritual or emotional. A chance encounter with a disturbed parishioner after a fire-and-brimstone sermon about homosexuality threatens to turn the good Father’s entire world upside-down. He finds himself strangely drawn intimately to the man he is counseling and is constantly thinking of him in ways he’s not ready to admit. The night he has his very first bombastic erotic dream about the fellow quickly has him questioning everything he thought he believes. Is he falling victim to the very lust he preaches so strongly against? Has the man made him wonder what he’s been missing by being a man of the cloth? If so, can Leo remain faithful in his religious convictions while growing closer to having a sexual relationship with this alluring stranger who has suddenly taken over his every waking moment and many of his sleeping ones?

Vatican: A Novel by Malachi Martin - The subject of this long and intriguing novel is the Vatican's elaborate bureaucracy, in particular its powerful financial network, headed by a mysterious figure known as the Keeper. Another central character, who gives the story its slant, is American Richard Lansing, who joins the Vatican as a young monsignore in 1945, and becomes the confidant of five successive popes. When he reaches the apex of his career, he staunchly opposes any Church bargain with Mammon. (Note: this book is not a romance or erotic story but I include it in this list because it might be of interest nonetheless).