Hello Fr. Bloom

How are you?

Well, you do not know me, but allow me to introduce myself to you.

My name is Noel Fernandes. I am of Indian nationality, currently working & living in Muscat - Oman (A Middle East country). I am very much a Catholic, born and brought up in the Faith. Ofcourse, until a few years back, Jesus Christ and Christianity was only a duty that I would fulfil once every week. Now, it is a way of life.

Fr., I have been visiting your site (http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/2964/) for quite sometime now and I have read some of your homilies that you have posted on the site. I must take this opportunity and say that your homilies are very good for the soul. They are simple and practical.

I must share this with you. In my local parish, I teach catechism to children of the age group of 15-18 yrs and as one of the topics of my syllabus, I have been doing some research on the Ill-Effects of Astrology and other related vices. Basically I have been searching for practical answers as to why God and the Catholic Church prohibits resorting to things like astrology etc. I was very much taken up by your homily titled Astrology and the Christ Child. It presents a totally different approach to this issue. Above all, the approach seems to be more Christ-centric. Since astrology is known as something that has been initiated by Satan in order to distract us from our true faith, the explanation we would tend to give to our students also would be on the same lines, but your approach seems to be rather more simple and practical (Well, do correct me if I am wrong in all this).

Fr., there is something else that I have been wanting to talk to a priest about. I was wondering if you could help me out. Well, off late, I've noticed the increase in popularity of this so called art/science (as everyone says and I'm not really sure what it is...) of Feng Shui. As a Catholic, I wanted to know what does our faith have to say to something like this. Is it an occult practice or is it really a science? I've searched for information on what Feng Shui really is... Some say it is a science and some say it is not a science. I was hoping if you could shed some light in this area or if you would know of someone who could do so.

Well, I know that this is my first email to you and in my first email itself, I'm asking you questions. I hope you will pardon me and I also hope I'm not causing you and inconvenience.

I guess I'll stop here.

Many Thanks & God bless

Noel Fernandes
Advanced Software LLC
Sultanate Of Oman

**********