Catholic Roundup

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Shownotes for Catholic Roundup Podcast episode 96

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:14 — 20.4MB)

I found myself awake very early this morning and I also found Jerry Kohlbrand aka Brojer from Bro Jer’s Blog and CatholicPreachy.com online.   Together we offered our morning prayer for everybody affected the Earthquake in Japan today.

Then we recorded a podcast discussion on one of his favorite sayings– “God does not call the qualified.  He qualifies the called.”  Check out his post: Serving Jesus is about being “callified” not “qualified”

Today,take some time to reflect on the dichotomy of striving for excellence in Catholic media and discerning a call to share our faith.  Please share your reflections on this conversation in the comments.

1. Send your feedback, podcast, blog and website promos ideas etc… on the blog at http://catholicroundup.com by email at  (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 20-66-66-73-74 .

2. Theme Song: Lost in Christ (©) Bryan Murdaugh

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Hello Joe, Joe, Paul, Nancy, Daniel, Deacon Tom, Dee, Bob, Jerry, Sandy, Lisa, Maria, Lisa, Father Jim, Father Jay, Judy, Leticia, Sarah, Owen, Patrice, Edgar, Justin, and Gina, and everybody else joining us. I mention you by name because you have expressed an interest in joining in 40 Days of Catholic Media or I have invited you along for the ride. If I neglected your name, please give me a gentle nudge because it certainly wasn’t intentional. It is very important for me to remember that behind every Catholic blog, podcast, book, etc… is a committed person or team of people.

One of the many wonderful things about the Internet is that it changed the broadcast paradigm from a one to many monologue and replaced it with a two way one to one conversation.   Well, it replaced it with many, many simultaneous two way conversations in many different places.

I am experiencing this already at the beginning of this 40 Day journey.   For the past week, I’ve been gathering a community of Catholic new media types (what do we call ourselves anyway?) to grow together in our faith and explore our use of  New Media to spread the Good News.  I have had conversations about this over email, my personal facebook profile, the Catholic Roundup facebook profile, Skype IM, Skype voice, phone, blog comments, blog comments on other blogs, blogposts on Catholic Roundup and on other people’s blog , chatango, one very memorable vlog (Thanks Owen), ustream, face to face, and I can’t quit recall but I believe a carrier pigeon might also have been involved.

The internet facilitates conversations through a myriad of means but they can also get fragmented and hard to follow.   For the purposes of our ongoing discussion, I am intending to primarily use the blog comments here at catholicroundup and the Catholic Roundup Facebook Page.  Keep in mind that both these pages are publicly accessible (and indexed by google .   If the group wishes or the need arise, we could switch some of our discussions to an email list or more private forum, or even skype conferences, but it comes at the cost of increased “friction”– it is more effort for people to participate in the conversation.

Today,  some of our conversation seems to be going on at Paul’s blog, Sober Catholic, and at Owen’s blog, Drawn to Catholicism. Head on over to their sites for their perspective on 40 Days of Catholic Media. Paul is seeking out more Catholics in recovery to grow his community, and he hopes that our tech discussions can include a primer on how to use FTP.  Owen is reviving his drawn to catholicism blog (YAY), and luminous miseries blog and much like me is seeking purpose, direction and listening for God’s will in his new media ministry.

On Skype, Daniel mentioned that he is seeking ideas for reaching out to parishes with our new media skills.   Funny you should mention that Daniel, I have asked the Sandy, who is the secretary and catechist at our parish to read along with the blog and facebook page during Lent and to join in the discussion if she wishes.  Some of you may want to invite your parish secretaries to check out our discussions here.

Joe (and also my spiritual director) have both stressed the need for catechesis and spiritual reading during this 40 days.  I agree, but it is not my forte.  We will begin with a discussion of the Holy Father’s World Communication Day letter on Monday.  After that, I rely on the strengths of some of you to provide some blog posts, discussion starters, ideas for online books or teachings we can study together etc…

God bless everyone.  I am excited about this journey.

Sean

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, our annual six weeks of prayer and pennance in preparation for Easter.   At Wednesday Mass, the priest makes a cross of ashes on each person’s forehead and remarks,  ”Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”   The recipient of the ashes is supposed to wear them for the rest of the day as an outward sign of their repentence.

For years, I was not very comfortable with showing outward signs of my faith.  Not that I was embarassed by it, but my faith was ‘private‘ and ‘personal‘.  Indeed, my faith is very personal, but it should not be private.  As attributed to St. Francis, one should “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”

Back to ashes.  For years, my modus operandi was to ‘rub them in‘ immediately after Ash Wednesday mass.  After all, they are a sacramental and we should dispose of them with reverence.  I think this was more about ‘rubbing them off’ for me than rubbing them in.   This year I am making a firm resolution to wear my ashes proudly and reflect on what they represent for the rest of the day  (It doesn’t hurt that I’m going to a late afternoon mass then home and I won’t likely be out with them in public, but hey-- It’s the thought that counts).

So here’s your assignment for the first day of 40 Days of Catholic Media.   Take a picture of yourself adorned with your ashes.  Then head over to the Catholic Roundup Facebook Page and post it on the wall along with a brief introduction of yourself and your Catholic Media interests.

I’ll start.  I’m Sean McGaughey from catholicroundup.com .  I initially got involved in Catholic podcasting as an avid listener and serial sender of silly feedback.  I initially started my blog “A Catholic Canadian”--  (hence cc.ductapeguy.net)  just as a way to participate in the online Catholic community.  I did not at that time feel a vocational “call” to do a Catholic podcast.  But over many months, as I was doing more and more short audio and video podcasts shining a spotlight on great Catholic resources online, I began to discern a call to help support and promote others who were spreading the Good News online.   For me, “The Call” to evangelize was not an event, but an ongoing and gradual process of discernment and awakening which led 2 years later to my wife assisting me in drafting our formal vision statement for the Catholic Roundup, “To support and encourage those using new media to spread the Good News”.

How did you begin your journey to share your faith online?  How has that developed over time? Let us know over on the Catholic Roundup Facebook Page.

One more request. I have done only the bare minimum of promotion for this project. If you know other online Catholics who would like to join us on this journey, please invite them. And feel free to blog, podcast, tweet, plurk or facebook it as well.

Update:

And one of the first to dive into the conversation is Owen Swain from drawntocatholicism and luminousmiseries with a VLOG acceptance to join in this 40 day journey.  Thanks Owen.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:10 — 5.7MB)

This is one of 2 advent reflections for today. Also check out Two Advent-ure Stories by Judy Ferguson.

A Cancon Advent reflection from Sean McGaughey

I have 4 or 5 boxes containing a couple hundred Christmas novels, picture books, and anthologies gathered from gifts, thrift shops and garage sales over the years.  Each December 1, I haul them out of the over the stairs closet and cart them to school where they serve as my classroom library for the month.  On the last day of school before the holidays, I cart them all home and set up a bookcase for them in our living room until Epiphany.   Now I am familiar with all my Christmas books, but I must confess that I have not read them all.

Saturday morning,  my wife and daughter were out shopping, I was doing some chores and Christmas decorating around the house.I had Bruce Cockburn’s  brilliant Christmas album on the CD player.  Although I only got this CD a couple years ago, this album first released in 1995, is a gem among contemporary Christmas albums.  Eschewing the more mainstream and secular Christmas songs, Bruce Cockburn assembled a collection of traditional Christmas hymns and carols in a variety of  languages, including Jesus Ahotonia (The Huron Carol) sung in the original Huron.  I have often stated that the Huron Carol is one of my favorites because it was written in the town where I live.

While setting out the Christmas books in the living room, I was drawn to read,  A Northern Nativity by William Kurelek .  I have owned this book for years and never cracked the spine.  Why,  I do not know?  William Kurelak is one of my favorite Canadian artists and his Catholic faith is intertwined throughout his work.    The Northern Nativity is a series of 20 paintings of the Holy Family set in 20th century Canada in various humble and uniquely Canadian settings.

The juxtaposition of the wonderful Christmas hymns sung by Bruce Cockburn, and the Kurelek’s images of the holy family in ordinary Canadian scenes led me into a deep prayerful reflection on the birth of Jesus.  How  ordinary and human is the story of His birth to a young couple so impoverished that they seek shelter in a stable.  But in the ordinary, common event of the birth of a child lies the great mystery of our faith,  that the Son of God would choose to become human, and be born in such a humble manner.

The capper for me was when I turned the page, and there was a painting of St. Benedict’s Acres Farm at Madonna House.  In my youth I spent a winter at Madonna House discerning my vocation and working at St. Benedict’s farm.  I was deeply touched by Kurelak’s words,

“Why are these people not caught unawares by their Holy visitors?  It is actually very simple.  Inside the house near the doorway, William finds a little notice which reads:

Receive every visitor as Christ Himself.”

- A Northern Nativity — The Welcome at the Country Mission

Receive every visitor as Christ Himself.  A lesson I learned at Madonna House which I need to remember each day.

When I was googling Kurelak’s Nativity, I found a youtube video somebody posted of the paintings set to the music of Chris De Burgh’s “Nativity”.

The fine folks at True North Records understand the value of sharing music.  They have a Share Page where they regularly release promotional mp3s by their artists with the notice,

“All the mp3s on this page contain no DRM and can be downloaded for free and can be shared via P2P and social networks and used for any non-commercial purpose on a royalty free basis, including podcasts.  Please share this music with your friends, add to your iPod, your website, blogs social networks playlists and your podcast.  Thank you for helping us spread the word about these artists!”

Hooray!  A record company that understands how selectively sharing some free artist mp3s can be part of a business model.  Therefore, I have included Bruce Cockburn’s Silent night with this post.  If you like it, head on over to True North Records to purchase downloads of the whole Christmas album.

Join us tomorrow for more reflections produced by great Catholic New Media personalities as we journey through the advent.

1. Send me your feedback on the blog at catholicroundup.com by email at catholicroundup.com> (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 206-666-7374.
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2. Go to the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar

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Today we welcome guest host Gemma aka Dymphna from Dymphna’s Well. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, today Dymphna brings us a story of faith told with a dozen pictures.

Welcome to all who access this post from Catholic Roundup’s Advent Calendar! It is a privilege to be able to contribute to this Catholic New Media effort!

Join us tomorrow for more reflections produced by great Catholic New Media personalities as we journey through the advent season.

1. Send me your feedback on the blog at catholicroundup.com by email at catholicroundup.com pan> (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 206-666-7374.
   .

   Go to the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar

   Subscribe to CNMR (RSS).

   Subscribe on the Itunes Music Store

   

1. Send me your feedback on the blog at http://cc.ductapeguy.net by email at (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 206-666-7374.

   .

2. Go to the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar

Subscribe to CNMR (RSS).

Subscribe on the Itunes Music Store