oh my goodness, that poster brings back memories!!!

Amen amen.

What a good reminder, Danielle.  I had just gotten into watching a few of the early episodes of Jon and Kate’s show when all these news stories started breaking.  After watching their seemingly happy family from a few years ago, the news of their divorce just makes me so sad.  I will now remember to pray for them.

The need for prayer and confession being his ultimate point, at Mass this morning our priest spoke a bit about these people and how most of the world has them in heaven. I was thinking how sad that is. Will no one be praying for the souls of these people, who as Danielle stated are really children of God before and above anything else?  So there I was at 7:00am praying for Farrah & Michael…who would have ever thought?! Don’t you just love Catholicism?

This is as close as a post has come to capturing how I felt yest. about Jackson’s death. I was never a fan & it’s been obvious for quite a while he was not a healthy or happy man. But mostly I felt sad that he wasted his life. (I know, that’s a pretty controversial thing to say!) But really, my son’s kindergarden teacher has already done more with her life than he ever did. I think it’s important to pray for celebrities, as I pray for some famous rock stars whose music I really liked as a young person (okay, Ozzy & RJ Dio, I confess). For me, it was a reminder not to waste my life on things of no importance.

Amen, Danielle.  I wonder about the children who will be so deeply affected by this.  Having been brought up in so strange a fashion thus far, how will they adjust.  Pray God they will be happier than their father.

Dear Danielle,
I agree with you soooo much; everyone needs our prayers.  Farrah, although not one of my “favorites”, ~became to me~a person to respect so much when she did her story on her cancer; maybe respect isn’t the right word—but I admired her and saw a different side of her…...as for Michael Jackson—I just well—I couldn’t understand his “fame” although my one daughter liked his music; but I do realize that he never really had a happy life and it is a shame that he wasted his.  I think several of your readers’ comments have hit the nail on the head with their words.  God’s Blessings to you…Patty

I’m wondering, perhaps their suffering here on earth was their purgatory - for Farrah, her 2 year battle with cancer and for Michael, years of hurting from his lost childhood, not to mention the accusations and constant criticism and being severely misunderstood I’m sure.    And I think Don is exactly right, we can never know a person from afar the way God knows a person.  Just because the media shows us a certain perspective, obviously we can’t take it as absolute truth - for example, news coverage of Pope Benedict!  I think that is something we tend to forget if we don’t feel the urge to fiercely defend a person, if we weren’t a fan or cared much for the decisions they made in life. 

As for Jon and Kate, it is a pity they gave up so easily on their marriage but I feel that their decision to divorce and NOT the tv show is the worst decision they could have made for their children.  Let us not judge each other when it comes to the decisions we make for our children.  Short of violent abuse, where do we (people who do not know the situation or the kids, and because we can’t see into the future) draw the line as to what we look down upon as far as parenting decisions are concerned?

Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed and informative article. It has given me a lot of inspiration and I look forward to more like this in the future.

They will be remembered. Many of the people at our office had a Michael Jackson day where they dressed up like him (even some of the gals dressed up). Kind of a nice way to remember his passing. It seems like there are way to many people dying early.

Thank you so much detailed information. Will never forget both the celebrity.