Catholic Roundup

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Today is a day of preparation and waiting. The 40 days of Lent is almost over. We wait with the church as Christ waited in the tomb. At the Easter Vigil tonight we will celebrate the risen Christ.

But you have all waited enough for me. The podcast file today is an early listen to my For the Sake of the Song episode with Kyle Heimann from Popple. I will not be releasing it on For the Sake of the Song until April 20.

Enjoy

Last night, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kyle Heimann of Popple for my songwriting podcast, For the Sake of the Song. Popple are getting quite well known around the Catholic podosphere for their quirky, funny nerdy songs about life and faith. Kyle and I also talked about the importance of the season of Lent in our Catholic journey.

You can listen to that interview here.

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The whole 30 min interview on For the Sake of the Song is scheduled to release on April 20, BUT, if I get an overwhelming amount of requests in the comments here or on the For the Sake of the Song blog, or email to: ductapeguy AT hotmail DOT com, I might be persuaded to release it here on my 40 Days blog.

Today is Ash Wednesday. We begin our 40 days in the desert leading up to the death and resurrection of our Lord. As part of my Lenten reflections, I’m going to try to prepare 40 short posts or media clips highlighting Catholic media and find some ways to enrich my spiritual life during Lent.

Here’s the first one. In my Christmas Special of my For the Sake of the Song Podcast, I featured an interview with Karl Kohlhase. Karl Kohlhase is a Contemporary Christian, Catholic songwriter from Minnesota who has released 6 CDs of his original music for free download at his website k4communications.com. He Just released a new Lenten themed CD, entitled For Me on his website. He is giving this CD away, and 5 others, as free downloadable Mp3 files. He views it as a ministry, as his way to spread the Good news. Here is what he says about sharing his music.

Listen to

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (32.9MB)

“You may burn as many copies of the CDs as you like for family and friends. I only ask that you give them away free of charge. Freely you have received, so freely give…“

Thanks Karl for the wonderful gift of your music.

Listen Here to Episode 36 of For the Sake of the Song with Karl Kohlhase [35:55m].

Over at my other blog and podcast For the Sake of the Song, I’m dedicating my podcasts during the month of December to interviews with Catholic and other Christian songwriters. As a songwriter, I identify as a folk and children’s entertainer who is Catholic, but I deeply admire songwriters who can write a good CHRISTIAN song. Over the month, I will be speaking to folk singers such as Bri-Anne Swan , and Tim Chesterton, as well as Bryan Murdaugh, and a couple of other influential Contemporary Catholic Songwriters. Join me over at ductapeguy.net this month as we talk about faith as one of the strongest motivations for writing a song (or for producing any kind of art for that matter).

I started this blog because I was fascinated by the growing Catholic podcasting and blogging community and I wanted to be a part of it and investigate how social media is being used to nourish and strengthen a worldwide Catholic community. Early on I realized that social networks, “Internet Community” and internet relationships in general resemble face to face relationships but there is a qualitative difference. However Internet friendships can turn into genuine friendships and Internet Community can foster “Real” Communities. I think we are particularly seeing this in the online Catholic Community. In an upcoming interview with Bryan Murdaugh on For the Sake of the Song, I mentioned that the Catholic Community we are developing through blogs and podcasts seems to be more substantial than other ‘Internet Communities’. He replied that this is because we are all members of The Body of Christ: The Church, and that distance is not a barrier to that relationship. Whoa. My wife and I have found the Internet Catholic Community has been wonderful because we found it very difficult to become accepted within our parish community. But as we have become more involved in the online community, we have also become more involved in our local community and we are slowly building friendships within our parish.
Scott Maentz over at Real Wise Friends has a fantastic post about why he joined the Knights of Columbus.

While there are numerous reasons for a Catholic man to join a charitable organization such as the Knights of Columbus, there are few reasons I can find not to do so. …

Yet, perhaps they do not. Perhaps in the long run the Knights of Columbus and organizations like it will prove to be essential in the survival of those characteristics that make us truly human. With its practical dedication to the principles of Charity, Unity, Fraternity and Patriotism, the Knights make a difference in their communities by reaching out to those in need and supporting their local Catholic communities. They also support one another in a mobile society where so many people barely know their next door neighbors. The organization’s goals can be accomplished by like minded men with limited technological experience. You don’t need to use an iPod to be a Knight. We’re talking about helping our neighbors and our church, which is done most effectively in dozens of low tech ways at a local level.

It is my opinion that as technology advances, organizations such as the K of C will continue to offer old-fashioned social networking, a proven alternative to the on-line social networking we see emerging in cyberspace. These are places to meet and get to know your brother personally, in the flesh, and not within the somewhat contrived on-line world of Facebook, Second Life and other internet meeting places. It’s a place to affect good in your local community with other real people striving to live out their faith in practical ways. It seems to me that organizations like the Knights of Columbus are more necessary than ever in today’s high-speed on-line society.

I think Scott hit the nail on the head. There is something about the flesh and blood “community service” that only a group of commited people within your hometown can provide. Social media is just a tool to be used to serve this kind of community.

After I read this post, and reflected on it, I spoke with my wife about it. Then I spoke with one of the Knights I know in our parish, and I’m going to further investigate joining the Knights. I too can’t see many reasons not to join an organization committed to community service, fraternity, family, and a deepening of one’s faith.