Catholic Blogs

Review: Come My Beloved

Some articles, blog posts or songs come very quickly.  Others tend to percolate for a longer period of time.  This post was on my mind for a couple of years, and in my draft folder for about 7 months when Ellen Gable sent me a review copy of her recent book, Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship, an anthology of courtship and engagement stories from committed Catholic couples.

I love hearing people’s proposal stories, and birth stories, … and conversion stories, … and wedding stories, … and vocation stories.  What do all these events have in common?  They are  milestone moments in a person’s life and people can easily relate to them.  Each of these events is unique.  They are deeply personal and yet anyone can relate.  Because they are so personal, when someone shares one of these life stories with you, it feels very intimate.  Over the past couple of years I have been impressed by the witness to faith offered by several young Catholic couples on their blogs:  Jeff and Natalie, Kyle and Kathleen, and Blaise and Heather.  A common thread in these engagement stories is that each of these couples treated their courtship as a process of discernment, not just in the secular sense of “Is this person The ONE?”, but in a deeper faith context of whether each of them were called to the vocation of marriage and to a call to grow in faith though a lifetime together.

Over a year or so of reading courship stories such as these I began to wonder if I should begin to chronicle such stories of faith filled courtship on my blog or commemorate them during the Celebrations portion of the Catholic Roundup podcast.   Then this winter, Ellen Gable Hrkach, began to feature Catholic courtship stories on her blog, Plot Line and Sinker.  These stories were exactly what I had been contemplating– stories of Catholic couples coming together to discern their vocation to marriage, of falling in love, and of growing deeper in love with each other, and deeper into their love of Christ and His Church.

 

This spring, Ellen Gable and Kathy Cassanto released  Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship, a short volume containing interviews with 12 different Catholic couples about their experience of courtship and engagement.  The couples range from young married couples, to those with young children, all the way to a couple married for over 50 years.   They chronicle both the joys and challenges of courtship– of wondering whether there is anyone out there, if this is the one, of struggles with chastity, of challenges with family planning and NFP, and of mixed reactions from family and friends.

Taken together, these stories paint a picture of  living experiences of the Catholic concepts of sexuality, marriage, family and vocation which differ greatly from the secular understanding of marriage which is commonplace in popular culture.  From a Catholic perspective, the ultimate goal of  the sacrament of marriage, is for each person to grow in holiness in their own faith, to call and support their partner to a deeper faith, and to foster the same faith in their children and families.   Indeed, this call to holiness is at the root of all vocations whether to religious life or for laypersons.

Come My Beloved  may be purchased though Full Quiver Publishing.

 

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Letters from Rome

Sorry for the long delay between podcasts.  We did record a podcast about 10 days ago but we had technical difficulties with the audio.  We have been really enjoying a family camping vacation in the Rockies.

Until our next podcast, please enjoy, Letters from Rome, a talk I gave at the PAB2011 conference on June 26.  The talk was a brief introduction to the Catholic Church’s teachings on Social Communication and the annual World Communications Day Letters presented to a secular audience of podcasters, bloggers and media creators.

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Quick facts about the blogs selected for the Vatican blogger meetup

This weekend the Pontifical Council for Social Communications published their invitations to 150 Catholic bloggers to attend the Vatican blog meeting on May 2.  They received over 750 applications and selected 150 bloggers from across the world.

Notable English bloggers include Father Roderick Vonhögen from SQPN, Lisa Hendey from CatholicMom.com, and Katrina Ebersole, from the Crescat. Congratulations to all 150 bloggers who were selected to attend this meeting.

It is a great honor for all the bloggers who have been selected, but more than that, these blogs represent a world-wide cross section the variety of Catholic blogs available.   I inputted these blogs into delicious and google reader for easy subscribing.   You can find the whole list in my delicious links at http://www.delicious.com/ductapeguy/vaticanblogmeet2011 .

The 150 sites represented come mostly from Europe and North America with one Tamil language blog.   This could be partially due to the fact that there is was very short notice to apply for this event and for bloggers to arrange to get to Rome.

The breakdown by language is as follows.  There are 17 languages represented on the websites, with Italian (41) being the most predominant, followed by English (32) and Spanish (28).

 

Over the next few days I am planning to sort through the blog list by blog type, vocation and theme. These blogs represent a great cross section of blogs from across the world. They will also be wonderful “Go To” sites for on the ground coverage of Pope John Paul IIs beatification and the blog meet from Rome.

I have also done my regular google reader bundle for Vatican Blogmeet 2011.

SubscribeCategory"Vatican Blog Meet 2011" subscriptions via ductapeguy in Google Reader
CategoryVatican Blog Meet 2011

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I’ve been tagged

I have been tagged with a Lenten meme. Puff the Magic Dragon (love the nickname) from the New Toronto Catholic Blog and The Sword’s Spirit has challenged 5 bloggers to share why they love Jesus.

Da rules:

Those tagged will share 5 things they “love” about Jesus/ Or why they love Jesus Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.

 

Here are my 5 reasons:

1. Because when I look at the statue of the Holy Family in our church it reminds me of the example my family aspire to emulate. Also the love of the Holy Family reflects some of the mystery of the Trinity.
2. Because His love sustains me. Particularly in the Eucharist.
3. Because Jesus probably does not want me for a sunbeam… but he does call me to take up my cross and follow him.
4) Because he can take my heart of stone and put a new spirit in me… (Ezekiel 36:26) … and I believe he has.
5) Because He is the man I would most like to be like. (Note that I said ‘is’– not ‘was’).

And my wife’s,

1)  I love Jesus because he came to earth to save me and others.

2) He gives me the things I need.  Maybe not in the ways I think I need them, but he gives me what I need.

3) He has always been there when I needed him.

 

 

Now I’m  supposed to tag 5 bloggers and spread this meme.  I’m going a step farther.  I’m tagging all the bloggers and podcasters who are journeying along with 40 Days of Catholic Media.


You’re it.  Remember the rules.  Make a post giving your reasons and report back with a link here to share your post. And don’t forget to share the meme love with 5 others.

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Guest Post: 11 Degrees to Susan B Anthony

Today we have another guest post by Suzanne at Six Degrees of Pope John Paul II who makes a connection between Pope John Paul II and Susan B. Anthony is just 11 steps.  More importantly, she reminds us that the early suffragettes were staunchly pro-life.  An excerpt of her post is below.

 

Susan B. Anthony
Men – Their rights and nothing more 

Women – Their rights and nothing less
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her
daughter
- Susan B. Anthony
I grew up with this woman’s profile on my dollar coins.  I knew that she was a feminist, but I am just now learning what Susan B. Anthony brought to my world.  A Quaker, Mrs. Anthony was dedicated to all people living with dignity.  While not quite as enlightened as her good friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony fought for the downtrodden, especially women.  Both women were married.  Both women became mothers.  Both women were champions for women’s suffrage.  And both women were staunchly pro-life.
As we teach our sons and daughters about the founding mothers of feminism, let us teach how they fought for the dignity of women’s bodies, and their natural ability to bear children.
“When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.”  - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe’s diary at Harvard University Library

“Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive (for abortion), love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!”
- Susan B. Anthony
Please go over to Six Degrees of John Paul II to read the entire post on  Susan B. Anthony.
If you would like to make a guest post for the 40 Days of Catholic Media, send a note to catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com .
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Meeting Friends “In Real Life”

One of the things I love about doing these special advent and lenten projects for Catholic Roundup, is the new people I meet through the projects.  I first met Daniel from the Special Chronicles Podcast 2 years ago when he joined us for our online day of reflection.

Yesterday we got to meet Ellen Gable and her husband James from  Plot Line and Sinker and Full Quiver Publishing.  We had only met online during last year’s Catholic New Media Advent Calendar but yesterday alot of our conversation centred around discovering all the people we knew in common and experiences we had shared both online and in our daily lives, including taking our families to Cana Colony at Madonna House (though never at the same time).

We met Ellen and James for St Patrick’s Day Mass, at a basilica named for St. Patrick.   Several times we have shared mass with online friends when we meet in person the first time.  During our conversation afterwards, I was continually struck with a sense of awe about what it means to belong to a universal Church.  Although it was our first meeting in person, we share so many common experiences, beliefs, and know so many people in common.  The other night, friends we knew from Cana Colony, who we keep in touch with online but had not seen in eight years, welcomed us into their home for dinner and a wonderful visit.  Thanks Rob and MaryEllen.

 

Again and again I’m reminded that our baptism and our Catholic faith unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Last week Jerry reminded me on the Callified Podcast, that we should not make a distinction between our “online” and “in real life” activities.  It’s all real.  However, it  is a great joy when we do get to meet our online friends in person.

 

I have a guest post from one of my new online friends today.

Denise works with Loyola Press and blogs over at Ignatian Spirituality.  She sent me a note outlining some of the great lenten resources they have to explore Jesuit spirituality.

Dear Sean,

I applaud your good idea of the 40 Days of Catholic Media. As I introduced myself on your blog, I work in Catholic media at Loyola Press, so naturally, your concept caught my attention.

The Web team here at Loyola strives to provide excellent resources in catechesis and spiritual readings for the season of Lent and throughout the year. Perhaps the Lunchtime Examen, in particular, might be something the Catholic Media audience would appreciate. It’s a series of Flash presentations that explain elements of the Daily Examen prayer and lead the participant through the experience of praying that way. The link is available here: http://ignatianspirituality.com/lent/

We also have several sidebar badges that people might be interested in, to follow along the Lenten journey.

http://www.loyolapress.com/lent-widgets.htm

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to getting to know others in Catholic media better through this Lenten season.

Sincerely,

Denise

 

 

Thanks Denise.

 

Your turn to reflect:

Do you find a difference between your online and offline friendships and interactions with people?

How can you respond to the Holy Father’s challenge in his World Communications Day Letter to maintain an authentic online persona?

 

If you have an idea for a guest post or topic of discussion for our 40 Days of Catholic Media, please drop me a line at catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or in the comments.

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Guest Post: Anonymous Girl

Today I have our first guest post of the 40 Days of Catholic Media.  Suzanne over at The 6 Degrees of John Paul II has an inspiring post about Anonymous Girl, a young lady who had the faith and courage to write a prayer to the Blessed Mother on the wall of a Gestapo cell in Nazi Germany.

Here’s a brief excerpt from her post.

March is Holocaust Remembrance Month and Women’s History Month

Little Girls who suffered and died in the Holocaust

So much of women’s history is lost because it was not written down or was oppressed.  This first story of the month is a perfect example of that.  It also speaks to the indomitable spirit of womankind and the love within her that transcends history books.   We’ll explore several fascinating women this month.  Let’s start with one whose name we’ll never know.

Second Degree: Anonymous Girl

These words were written on the wall of a Gestapo cell by an 18-year-old girl.  Take a moment to pray for this girl’s soul and for the millions of women who died in the Holocaust, calling on the Most Blessed Mother to protect and guide them.  No doubt, She did and still does.

Head on over to The 6 Degrees of John Paul II to read the rest of the  story about Anonymous Girl.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on the 40 days of Catholic Media, drop me a line at catholicroundup@gmail.com.

 

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Catholic Roundup 91- Catholic Media Promotion Day

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March 15 Catholic Media Promotion Day http://www.facebook.com/promotecatholicism

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day . I produced a special episode of the Catholic Roundup Podcast featuring about 10 people telling about their favorite Catholic media.

  It’s time to get out there and  share your favorite 3 blogs, 3 podcasts, 3 other media, 3 random Catholic things online, and your own projects on your blog, podcast or facebook. Be sure to post a link to your list on the Catholic Media Promotion Day page.

Then head over to iTunes and leave at least 3 positive written reviews for various Catholic podcasts and 3 positive written reviews for Catholic mobile applications.  Lisa Hendey has also suggested that people write reviews of their favorite Catholic books on Amazon.

  • If that wasn’t enough, I have a few reflection questions/ action items related to our ongoing discussions on 40 Days of Catholic Media.
  • How do special days of action or barnraisings like Catholic Media Promotion Day help to grow awareness of Catholic media and how do they help foster community?
  • Take some time today to use an unfamiliar means to send feedback to a Catholic blogger or podcaster.  ie) If you have never commented on a blog, figure out how to make a blog comment, or leave some voice feedback on a podcaster’s voicemail line.
  • Check out at least one blog or podcast that is new to you from the Catholic Media Promotion Day page and let us know what you think of it here in the comments or on the Catholic Roundup Facebook page.

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