These past couple of weeks seem to have been an emotional roller coaster for Lino.

A couple of weeks ago, some idiotic woman wrote him a horrible e-mail on one of the dating sites. She basically insulted his looks and his height and then told him she wished him good luck. Lino admitted he had already had enough of the online dating and now he has decided to give it up. Good for him - he doesn't need it anyway.

On Sept. 1, "Sinner" came out to rave reviews and big sales on all fronts. Lino was a bit put out because people (including his own mother) got a copy of it before the release date. Actually, he was more than put out- it really drove him nuts!

But, now that it is has gone "nationwide" as they say, all seems to be well. Except for some unknown people who want to crash the party. Lino mentioned on Wednesday these people, who were "friendly" to him on the surface, were really itching to stop his success. On air, he struggled against the temptation to expose those people for who they are, and rail against them publicly. He sought advice from Fr. Rob and from us, his faithful listeners. In the end, the "sinner" did not give into temptation, but took the high road.

As I was listening to the podcast where Lino read the e-mail from that awful woman, and then to the show hearing that these people were out to destroy him, I found myself feeling like a member of my own family was being abused and insulted. It really made me mad! I had to ask for grace to forgive these people who were mistreating my "brother."

"Sinner" is breaking the records left and right. Next week really oughta be better.

Received this from Vindictive Vince (hell of a guy). I thought I'd post it since Vince doesn't yet have the keys to the city that is catholicguyshow.com

After Lino issued his forgiveness to A Rod and his going on about all the hate mail he would receive I wanted to post something on the blog site but since I am not a contributor it does not allow an original post only comments. So I thought I would write to you and suggest that you address the subject on the blog.

I read in Galatians 2: in this mornings office about how Paul got on Cephas for trying to hide what he was doing when the Jews came around. Paul writes:

“We are Jews by birth, not sinners of Gentile origin. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by legal observance but by faith in Jesus Christ, not by observance of the law; for by works of the law no one is justified. But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we are shown to be sinners, does that mean Jesus is encouraging sin? Unthinkable!”

Well in this same light by acting in a Christian manner and offering forgiveness for a fellow sinner does not mean we are encouraging the sin just that we are all weak and need the strength of Christ to live and to be justified. Our offer of forgiveness is only to encourage our moving forward.