Catholic Media Promotion Day: Easy as 1, 2, 3

Greg Willit's great idea. Via Lisa Hendey.

1. On March 15, everyone with a blog, podcast, or Facebook page should list their favorite 3 blogs, 3 podcasts, 3 other media, 3 random Catholic things online, and their own projects.
2. Then post the link to the list here on March 15th. Additionally, to help get the word out, press are asked to write articles and press releases for this day.
3. Lastly, on March 15th, go to iTunes and leave at least 3 positive written reviews for various Catholic podcasts and 3 positive written reviews for Catholic mobile applications.

So that's tomorrow.

Put your thinking caps on, get your engines ready ... and tomorrow we'll go promotin'.

My Lenten Sacrifice

It occurs to me that my Lenten sacrifice this year may affect some of you.

Therefore, I will share. (Plus, I just like sharing! As you know by now.)

I gave up checking email at home for Lent. Which gives you an idea of just how distracted I get because I then begin following links, writing other emails, checking my Google reader. You know the drill. It is part of the big internet time-suck that steals an hour at a time from me when I'm not looking.

I have a similar problem with looking for new podcasts, new downloads for podcasts I already listen to, and suchlike. Therefore, in a related sacrifice I have given up checking iTunes.

As happens with such things, I have discovered just how addicted I was to those time wasters as I am continually having to fight the urge to just check email once more before doing anything like ... oh ... sweeping the floor.

As a result, I got a record amount of housecleaning done on Saturday. Which just goes to show it was the right thing to give up.

That also gives me much more time for things of the spirit ... which was part of the point ... such as prayer. So I'm better off overall, I think we could all agree.

Anyway, why do you care? Only if you regularly email me and don't get an answer back over the weekend or until the next day. At work, I'm kept from checking personal email as much by ... well ... work.

Earthquake-Tsunami Relief for Japan

Catholic Relief Service personnel throughout the Pacific are standing ready to assist those affected by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan early Friday morning.

“We know from 2004 the devastating impact that these tsunamis can have,” said Sean Callahan, CRS’ executive vice president for overseas operations. “As with all such disasters, CRS will help people recover from the emergency and stand with them as they recover in the months and years to come.”

Caritas Japan is beginning to assess the needs in that country where the tsunami has caused extensive damage. CRS has programs in the Philippines and Indonesia and works with Caritas Oceania that is active in numerous islands in the Pacific that might be affected. Central American countries where CRS works could also be in danger.

“We will reach out to our Caritas partners to help them in any way we can,” Callahan said.

Go here to donate.

Remember the obligation for almsgiving during Lent and be extra generous ... because we'd have all given something anyway, right?

From Alice Cooper to St. John Vianney to Battlestar Galactica ... and beyond: Announcing Happy Catholic - the book!

Why did it take me so long to see the truth that floods through everyday life? -- from the Introduction.

As she does in her blog, Happy Catholic, Julie Davis taps into quotes ranging from The Simpsons to John Paul II, Battlestar Galactica to Scripture and The Princess Bride and discovers all around her glimpses of God. Her reflections on pithy quotes (Trashing your hotel room is easy, but being a Christian--that's rebellion. -- Alice Cooper) draw back the veil, letting us connect with God in unexpected ways. Intriguing to both Christians and non-Christians alike, this book is also an unexpected source for daily prayer.

Can you believe it?

Happy Catholic is now an actual book.

It takes one of the most popular features, the daily quotes, and combines that with my reflections on them. These are the sorts of thoughts that go through my head when I put the quotes in my journal and on the blog. I just don't usually share them.

 I wrote all but a couple of these 149 reflections specifically for the book, most of them while sitting in front of the tabernacle in our Church. So if you especially like one or two of them, then you know who to thank for the inspiration. (Hint: it ain't me!)

Here's a sample that gets you from Alice Cooper to St. John Vianney.

Still Countercultural After All These Years

Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that’s a tough call. That’s rebellion.

Alice Cooper

If you care about what people think of you, then you should not have become a Catholic.

St. John Vianney

It is astounding that as far as we have advanced, there is still nothing more shocking to the world than a faithful Christian. Jesus was radical in his time. Following Christ makes us radicals in turn. We’re called on to slice through all those neat little boxes that people use to make things more understandable. There is no political party we can trust. There is no nation that gets it right. There is no cultural group where we are going to completely feel at home. We are the ultimate outsiders. That’s OK, really. If we’re doing it right, then we’re upsetting things because we won’t “settle” and we won’t conform. We answer to a higher power.

Take another look at that crucifix and remember the only really original rebel, the one whose watchword of “Love one another” casts the world into confusion. Then prepare to be fully yourselves in Christ and watch the confusion spread, along with the love.

Another excerpt: Knitting Madonna (actually this didn't make it into the book, but only because of space)

Pick it up from your favorite Catholic bookstore like Aquinas and More. It is also at Amazon.

Update
In response to a couple of questions I received in email ... we didn't design the book. The publisher (Servant Books) did all that.

Cross the Bridge to Heaven

Every work day at lunch, Tom and I have been taking turns reading aloud to each other from A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina. Considering that we don't do it on weekends, it will take us more than a year to get through it but that doesn't matter. It does explain why we only read Day 39 on Ash Wednesday, though.

This struck both of us as particularly appropriate for Lent so I thought I'd share it.

Cross the bridge to heaven

In a striking metaphor, St. Ephrem the Syrian imagines
Jesus the carpenter making his own Cross into a bridge
to heaven. Because the tree in Eden brought death, it is
fitting that a tree also brings us to life.

This is the Son of the carpenter, who skillfully made his Cross a bridge over Sheol--Sheol that swallows up all--and brought over mankind into the dwelling of life.

And because it was through the tree that mankind had fallen into Sheol, so upon the tree they passed over into the dwelling of life. Through the tree in which bitterness was tasted, through it also sweetness was tasted; so that we might learn of him that among the creature nothing resists Him.

Glory be to your, who laid your Cross as a bridge over death, that souls might pass over on it from the dwelling of hte dead to the dwelling of life!

St. Ephrem the Syrian, Homily on Our Lord 4

In God's Presence, Consider...
Does it help my resolution to imagine the Cross as a narrow bridge over a gaping chasm?

For I Was Blind But Now I See: Reviewing "Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist" by Brant Pitre

You've got to have proper context to really understand anything well. It's a lesson I seem to have to learn repeatedly.

Years ago our family hosted a Japanese teaching intern who could not comprehend most of the jokes in "The Simpsons." They were so cultural that they flew over her head. We'd never given context a second thought until that point. More recently, we learned that when we thought our dogs were simply playing, they were actually acting upon a complex pack hierarchy. Watching with our eyes newly opened, we suddenly understood why the gentlest dog always got his way. The other dogs all knew what we didn't: he was the pack leader.

When I converted to Catholicism, one of the most joyful, enriching experiences was learning that there were more levels of context to scripture than I would have dreamed. Obviously parables about weddings, seed sowing, and wineskins required explanations of customs of the day for full understanding. However, the more I learned about what lay contextually behind seemingly simple concepts, the more eager I became to learn as much as I could about the faith.

No statement ever needed context more than Jesus' statement that leads directly to the key Catholic teaching that the Eucharist consumed at every Mass is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

"For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (Jn. 6:53-54).

Those words taken without context might lead some to think Jesus was advocating cannibalism, or only speaking completely symbolically. Brant Pitre's Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, however, will put the rest to that notion, and will make even those Catholics who believe they have fully explored and understood church teachings on the Eucharist feel like they'd been merely scratching at the surface of this deep and mysterious gift.

The belief that consecrated bread and wine can become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ is hotly disputed by non-Catholics. It can be supremely difficult to defend when encountering a well-prepared challenger, as Brant Pitre discovered while a college sophomore. Shaken to the core by an attack on Real Presence, which he had never questioned, Pitre changed his major and became a biblical scholar. As his knowledge grew, he realized that the key to understanding Jesus' words, deeds, and identity was in his Jewish roots and the Jewish people to whom he proclaimed his message.

Pitre began concentrating on 1st-century Jewish history to bring context to everything that Jesus taught about the Eucharist; this brought Jesus' teachings into hi-def focus in a new and fascinating way. What readers of Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist will find are surprising revelations that add a powerful, exciting depth to everything about Jesus.

Pitre builds his case painstakingly, so that readers clearly understand what the Jews would have believed that God promised about the Messiah, the new Moses, the new Passover, and new exodus. He demonstrates how Jesus' words and actions reflected the foundational expectations of the Jews, and pointed toward his role as Messiah, the fulfillment of them. He then shows how the apostles, Church Fathers, and the Catechism all refer to these key expectations as well, although they are not usually spelled out in a way that modern believers find easy to identify. Those authorities knew the ancient sources very well, while the average modern Catholic lacks the same informing context.

Pitre invests all of this with an immediacy and accessibility that will deeply impress any interested Christian. His research challenges many modern purveyors of "historical" biblical exploration, and even those who think that they know the sources well will find surprising depth and details brought to light, including:

• How the lamb was prepared for the Passover meal
• Why the manna in the desert was truly miraculous
• The ancient Jews' mandatory ceremony celebrating the Bread of the Presence in the temple
• The meaning of the four cups of wine of the Passover
• The less-than-accurate translation in the Our Father that is key for Eucharistic understanding

There is a thrill of discovery at seeing the pieces fall into place, and that makes the book a surprising page-turner; the reader eagerly wonders where the next revelation will take them. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist makes it crystal clear why ancient Jews and early Christians alike understood Jesus' outrageous claims about the Eucharist, that he is truly present in it now and forever.

This book made me look at the Eucharist and Jesus' promises with new eyes and new appreciation for the truth hidden in plain sight in the Catholic Church. It answers the question that Brant Pitre encountered so long ago as a college student, "How can you Catholics teach that bread and wine actually become Jesus' body and blood? Do you really believe that?"

Beginners or scholars, believers or atheists, Protestants or Catholics, skeptics or the faithful can now follow the inescapable logical reasoning of Pitre, which leads to opened eyes and an emphatic "yes."

==========

This review ran initially at Patheos as part of their book club.

If you've just plugged up the holes in your attic and you see a racoon or squirrel frantically trying to get back in ...

... it may not be just that they are mad because they can't have their own way.

It may be because they left something behind. Something so well hidden and so tiny that you didn't notice it.

Like these little tykes. Their eyes aren't even open but they have adorable masks already. Adorable.

Read about their reunion here.

"In an eight-decade study, parental divorce in childhood was the strongest predictor of early death in adulthood."

The early death of a parent had no measurable effect on children's life spans or mortality risk, but the long-term health effects of broken families were often devastating. Parental divorce during childhood emerged as the single strongest predictor of early death in adulthood. The grown children of divorced parents died almost five years earlier, on average, than children from intact families. The causes of death ranged from accidents and violence to cancer, heart attack and stroke. Parental break-ups remain, the authors say, among the most traumatic and harmful events for children.

Wall Street Journal review of The Longevity Project

What makes that fascinating is that the study, begun in 1921 and which studied 1,500 people, was actually to try to identify early glimmers of high potential. They certainly don't seem to have had an agenda. It was not as rigorously scientific as we might like these days but I think that the discoveries based on 80 years' worth of observation of trends are worth considering. It's a book worth looking for, based on the review.

Atheist Convert: Jeff Miller (a.k.a. The Curt Jester)

I was at the apogee of my conservatism based on Randian positivism. To me, radical selfishness was the highest virtue. The pinnacle of individualism and being a self-made man were my highest ideals. The natural virtues helped to modify this idealistic positivism toward how I related with others, but it was not enough. My nose had long before achieved orbit as I looked down at those poor superstitious mortals who still believed in hunter-gatherer myths such as God.

I love reading conversion stories and best of all are those of the people you know. Now, I've never met The Curt Jester in person but I've been reading him since before I began blogging and we have a certain amount of give and take in the Catholic blogging community. I'm quite fond of him.
I also thought I knew his story better than I did. It is a fascinating combination of slow percolation and 2-x-4 to the head from God. Read it all at Why I Am Catholic.

While you're there, browse around. There are many other good stories, each that show God's knowledge of us individually and that He never gives up.

Michaelangelo. Is There An App For That? There Could Be ...

Lifted from Ironic Catholic ... and it isn't a joke but a great idea.

• Love art?
• Love theology?
• Love apps?

Then you may want to help my friend Eileen create this app for instant interpretative help for Christian art in museums all over the world.  Eileen teaches theology at Loyola in Chicago--she is incredibly talented and knows what she is talking about (both in art interpretation and theology), and a born teacher.  She's looking for crowd-sourcing funding.  So I ask you--check out her pitch video and stick with it until the end (five minutes?)--and prepare to be impressed.

Spread the word to religious art lovers you know!  Thanks!

Shrove Tuesday Pancakes, Anyone?

Here's a full helping.

When No Fault Divorce Leads to Spousal Abandonment

Imagine your brother Jim discovers that his wife of 17 years, mother to their four children, is leaving him for another man. He pleads with her to stay. He asks that they get counseling to heal their marriage. He calls every priest he knows, along with family and friends, to try to get the help he needs to keep his family together. But your brother’s efforts are in vain.

Jim learns that his wife has retained a lawyer, and is suing him for a divorce. His mind races back to the day he made his vows before God and the community of believers.

“I don’t want a divorce,” he cries out in despair. “And I will never sign a paper stating that my marriage is over.”

Over the next few weeks, Jim’s wife keeps asserting that she has left because their marriage has been “hell.” She says he is the only thing standing in the way of her happiness.

[...]

What we may not know is that most divorces are situations in which one person wants to end the marriage while the other is fighting to save it.

I only wish I didn't know of actual families who this has happened to but I do. Read the entire article at CNA. I especially like the practical suggestions at the end as to how people can stand in solidarity with abandoned families. (Please note that the author is not speaking of those cases where there has been abuse, etc.)
 
The example given in the article about speaking in charity but with clarity resounds to me especially since Hannah did that very thing this weekend to a friend who is planning on moving in with his girlfriend. She did so by saying to him, "That's a terrible idea."  He wasn't offended and said, "You're the first person who's had the guts to tell me that you thought this was a bad idea." He isn't changing his plans but at least that seed has been planted.

Weekend Joke: At the Circus

 

From Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine

Squirrels Playing Cards (is it the weekend yet?)

Cribbage actually. They're playing cribbage.

Via Thomas L. McDonald at State of Play where you may see many more amusing "caught in the act" photos of squirrels in card games.

Goons, Giants, and Magids

Episode 150 of Forgotten Classics is a big, big show with three samples of Diana Wynne Jones' books. Get it while it's hot!

First Friday Fast for an End to Abortion: March

Here's the background info.

If you're not already fully involved in working toward this goal, I invite you to join me in a monthly day of sacrificial fasting and prayer for the unborn, the mothers and fathers who are tempted to make the mistake of abortion, those who work to end abortion and for the souls of those who have been so lied to that they work for abortion.

Here is something that I ran in 2008 which I found inspiring and am sharing again to remind us that a "less than perfect" baby is a blessing we simply don't have the capability of imagining ... until they are right there in front of us.

On the ninth day, she came home, and I began to realize that my feelings of fear and anxiety had changed in a way that no prenatal screening could ever have predicted.


I now believe Genevieve is here for everyone. I believe Genevieve is taking over the world, one heart at a time — beginning with mine. I believe that what was once our perceived damnation has now become our unexpected salvation.

When Gregg Rogers heard that their baby would have Down syndrome, he was terrified. Until she was born. A life-affirming story that reminds us that what we often fear turns out to be a great blessing. Read or listen to this short essay here at This I Believe.

New Blog: Wake up Dave

You may recall that after I attended our parish's Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat, I was so lit up that after a time I began this blog. It is rather odd to think that was so long ago (in blog time), almost 7 years ago.

Now, there is another who has been similarly inspired after attending CRHP. His new blog is Wake up Dave. Drop by and welcome him to the blogosphere!

Is It Real? Is It A Fairy Tale? Reviewing Angel-A

Andre is an inept con artist who has made a lot of bad business deals with a lot of  bad people. When we meet him, Andre's luck has run out and his time is almost up as he faces multiple death threats. Despairing, he decides to end it all by jumping off of a bridge into the Seine.

At the point of jumping, Andre notices a tall, gorgeous woman who jumps from the bridge, and Andre's thoughts turn from suicide to saving her as he jumps and drags her out of the water.

Thus we meet Angela. She pledges to help Andre in any way she can as thanks for saving her life. Andre says that no one has helped him in his entire life and, therefore, he's skeptical as to why such a gorgeous woman would want to help him at all but agrees. He becomes increasing alarmed at the lengths she is willing to go to in order to get the money he needs to pay off the thugs on his trail. Meanwhile, Angela continually tells Andre that beauty is on the inside, not the outside, and that he is good deep down. As Andre begins to believe her and to act accordingly, his fortune changes, and he begins to want to change Angela's fate in turn.

Beautifully shot in black and white, this movie was directed by Luc Besson who is known for movies like La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, and Taken. In an interview at Movies Online, Besson commented on the black and white format by saying:

Black and white because yin and yang, because tall and small, introverted extroverted, blonde brown, the good the bad, the black the white, everything is in opposition in the film. And I need the film to have this little poetry. Is it real? Is it a dream? Is it a fairy tale?

The key message of Angel-A is that you don't have to be good for life to be sacred, and you can begin to be good even if you have failed to be.

This movie is extremely straight forward in plot line. There are a few surprises but they are foreshadowed for the most part. I found the plot rather simplistic, but enjoyed it well enough and can recommend it on those grounds. My key problem is that the ending was a cop out because there wasn't the proper set up or story-line logic to make it a realistic conclusion. Along those lines, a much superior movie which communicates the same basic message is In Bruges.

For those who don't mind a tacked-on ending out of nowhere, I can recommend this movie. I specifically enjoyed the humorous moments such as at the American embassy where Andre cannot even con the US official (and where they both spoke fluent French the entire time) and at the police station where Andre pleads to be arrested. If nothing else it is simply beautiful to look at in composition and photography, although there is more to recommend it to the viewer than that. (Rated R for language and some sexual content.) 

For the Love of God - Shut Up!

If the church is not on fire, you should not be talking.

There's more, of course, written by Pat Archibold for National Catholic Register and I encourage you to read it. (Found it via Sr. Lisa Doty whose thoughts on the subject I also encourage you to read.

However, that pretty much says it.

I have to admit that I am guilty of a very lax attitude in this area. Coming up on my 11th birthday as a Catholic this Easter, I have generally had only that "chatty" post-Mass experience. Now I know intellectually that I shouldn't be talking then but it is very easy to forget if the other environment is all you have known.

That's why it is good for me, and doubtless for others, to be reminded. We are in the presence of the King of Heaven. A little reverence is good but I don't think we can show too much. Restraining my tongue until I get out the door is a small gesture to offer but I am going to try (again) to make this my new habit.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow ... For Answered Prayers Last Night

This is the sort of story that strains the credulity of anyone who prefers coincidence over God's providence, but I am so thankful that we're charging ahead with it anyway.

You may recall my speaking about Hannah's rescue dog, Kif, who was abused and is spooky as can be around everyone except her. He's part Staffordshire Terrier (pit bull) and looks it but is as gentle toward people as can be.

He got out last night and Hannah wasn't home. A combination that strikes fear into the heart of anyone in our family.

I was bringing in the groceries, during which the other three dogs (our two Boxers and Hannah's other rescue dog who is German Shepherd-Chow Chow and something else) go in and out with me for entertainment. Kif's been increasingly curious about the good times those dogs have in the garage and is always close to the door to the garage when I come in laden with bags. I was at the back of the van, pulling out the last of the things, and a white shape ghosted past the corner of my eye.  (Did the door just come open? Did I not shut it? Who cared. The thing was done.)

"Nooooooo," I howled to the heavens. Softly. I howled it softly. Because there was still a chance I could lure him back to the house.

"Kiffer. Kif boy. C'mon back in ... goooood dog."

Gently. Sweetly.

He came back to the bottom of the driveway and looked at me. The person who gives him raw hamburger, dog treats, and whatever else is around when he's in the kitchen. But yet the person he just can't bring himself to trust. *sigh*

Nope. He ghosted away down the alley.

I cried in my heart but wheedled again, "Kif boy. Kiffer. Here, boy."

He reappeared. Looked at me curiously again from the bottom of the driveway. I could tell he wanted to go back in. I thought of how it took the entire volunteer fire department of the little town of Garrett to catch him. I though of how terrified he was of people. That he would never come to anyone. Of the fact that people would see nothing but a "stray pit bull" slinking in the bushed and ... Texas has many homeowners who have guns.

I sweetened my tones. Stood aside from the door. Made myself as inconspicuous as possible and tried to make myself sound like Hannah, who he adores (not out of the bounds of reality because we do sound alike).

No good. He couldn't make himself do it and ran down the alley. toward the six-lane street we live two houses away from, naturally.

I sprang into action, grabbed a handful of dog treats, ran down the alley, calling. Got Hannah's other dog, Zap, and walked him around the driveway and that bit of alley, thinking that dogs were "safe" and might lure him back.

No good again.

Called Hannah, who was on her way home from work and about 15 minutes away. Called Tom, who dropped everything at work and sped the five minutes home to begin looking.

We began canvasing the neighborhood in our cars, Hannah and I calling, Tom silent because he knew Kif would never respond to a male voice. Cell phones, bless them, were on and ready to call Hannah to wherever we might spot him. I'm not sure what was worse, calling and calling with no response or stopping to ask people if they'd seen a medium-sized, white dog running loose and having to answer the inevitable, "what does he look like" with a reluctant "kind of like a pit bull, but he isn't one, he's really sweet." Ah, the stigma of that breed name.

Hannah prayed. I prayed. I reminded God about the sparrows he looks after and that this terrified dog needed some looking after. I asked my guardian angel to go find him (I had a definite impression of refusal over that). Ok. Fine. Back to God, then. That if we didn't find him, and who knew how far this dog could run in his fear, that some nice family would find him. Someone who would have the patience and kindness to invest in him.

As it turns out, a nice family did find him.

Tom was broadening his search yet again, after 40 minutes of looking, and saw Kif slowly going from bushes to house, bushes to house, bushes to house. It was clear that he was trying to find his way home. It was equally clear that he was scared to death.

Hannah was not even one minute away, got there, and called to him from the car. That stopped him. She got out of the car and the joyous reunion took place.

What a relief.

Tom called me to end the search. I, too, was converging on the spot where the other two had been looking. Clearly we would have all been at the very same spot within minutes of each other.

This isn't out of the realm of possibility. It was near enough to our house after all. But for Kif to have stayed in the neighborhood, for us to all be coming on that spot when he was finally obvious and looking for the house ... that all smacked of a little divine guidance to me.

Whether or not, my heart filled with joy and thankfulness.

And you have never seen such a happy dog in your life. When I sat on the kitchen floor and held out my hand, he came up to have his ears rubbed.

Which, in itself, was some kind of miracle.