This news made my week: Denise is here at Patheos!

This news made my week: Denise is here at Patheos! May 22, 2015

That would be Denise Johnson-Bossert, who makes any selfie look better:

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That was the two of us at JFK Airport, picking up our baggage after the 10-day religious blogger trip to Jordan  last month. (Moments after I snapped that picture, security came by and barked, “No pictures!” If Denise had not been so sweet and obliging, we’d both now be at Rikers begging Frank Weathers to send us a cake with a file inside.)

Anyway…all this is a roundabout way of introducing this wonderful gal and saying “Read her! She’s now here at Patheos!”

Denise is an accomplished writer, essayist and published author; her first book, Gifts of the Visitation, was published this spring. As if that weren’t enough, she’s also a gifted speaker, tour leader and—I kid you not—grandmother. Oh: and she’s a convert, which just adds to all the fun. She’s written about it here at her self-titled blog: 

I am celebrating my 10th anniversary as a Catholic writer this month.

As I look back over the years and the growth in diocesan syndication, my becoming an author and a Catholic travel writer, I feel a sense of unworthiness. I feel overwhelming gratitude.

When we become Catholic after spending our entire lives in another faith tradition (I am the daughter of a Protestant minister), we are not received like some Hester Prynne. We are not forced to wear a large red “H” that marks us as a former heretic as Hester was forced to wear the Scarlet Letter. “A” for adulterer.

We are welcomed.

Our gifts are embraced.

Our journeys inspire cradle Catholics who marvel at God—how He’s still moving in the hearts of people who did not grow up with the Catholic faith. He’s still showing them the way to the Eucharist, which is His Body, His Blood, His Soul, His Divinity.

And we can get a little puffed up on account of all the attention.

Read on for the rest. You can thank me later.

Denise was a breath of fresh air during some of the long jaunts around Jordan: sunny, kind, sweet, thoughtful, prayerful and just plain great to be around. I enjoyed her company immensely. I think you will, too. Run, do not walk, over to her blog and remember to bookmark it.

Again: you can thank me later. It’s great to have her here and I’m delighted to call her my friend and now, at last, my blog neighbor. Welcome, Denise!

Below, she’s seen with me and Frank Why I Am Catholic” Weathers at the Dead Sea, probably thinking, “I’m at the lowest point on earth with THESE guys? Isn’t that redundant?”

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