NaNoWriMo

So I haven't been writing a whole lot in this space as of late. Although there are many excuses I can and will give, I personally accept none of them. I took up this blog as part of my mission as a Christian. Now that I am a priest, it has taken a while for me to reorganize and refocus this particular part of my mission. Priesthood, like parenthood, has many demands on its time. I am continually inspired by parents of many children who still are able to be prolific in their writing.

Being that I have been out of the habit of writing (other than with homilies) I felt I needed a jump start, a way I could get a little rocket boost to propel me back into the writing which I so enjoy, where I find rest (the biggest attraction), and that can also be a means for evangelization (which is always on my heart). I have heard over the past few years from different corners of the info feed that is my time on the internet of something called NaNoWriMo. This immediately conjured for me images of rhinos listening to tiny iPods and had little other importance other than an inside joke with myself. Needless to say I didn't pay much attention to it. As November moved closer to being actualized, I began to see small snippets about NaNoWriMo in the days before, well, today. Now normally I don't shave during the Man Month of November, which really means I don't trim my beard as often. I decided due to the aforementioned desires NaNoWriMo would be the little rocket boost to propel me back into creativity.

For those who are still thinking of rhino's and iPod's NaNoWriMo means National Novel Writing Month, or sometimes called November. People from all around the country decide that in one month they will write a rough draft on a novel that has been floating around in their overstimulated underused brains. The goal: write 50,000 words in 30 days towards the completion of a rough draft of a novel.

Now being that I'm Catholic. I decided the rules didn't apply to me. I don't have a novel idea, or rather, an idea for a novel. What I do have is a blog (thank you for reading), a promise to write for another blog (I'm super excited about fulfilling that promise), a new parish website that goes live next week in which I will be writing on the documents of the Second Vatican Council for the Year of Faith, and an unfinished short story in the vein of Father Brown and Sherlock Holmes with an American, New Orleans variant. Amongst those I will have ample opportunity to write 50,000 words. The novel will have to wait and I will not 'win' per se because there will be little cohesion to the topics about which I will be writing.

I'm also glad that I am not alone in this endeavor. I have connected with a local group of NaNoWriMo's here in New Orleans, two of which are serendipitously parishioners. I will also be supporting and getting support from two friends, Erica who writes for Writers Read and Readers Write and Emmy who writes for Journey of a Catholic Nerd Writer.

I will take all the support I can get from you. Feel free to drop me an encouraging tweet @colonel4God or even an email at reverencedreading@hotmail.com

Catholic Bloggers Summer Reading Extravaganza

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are starting something new (well I don't think it's been done before but if you know link it in the comments). After speaking with some fellow bloggers who like to read, we decided to do a blogger summer reading club. I've done reading clubs before where we read a book and talk about it. We attempted here on the blog, a few years ago, a summer reading thing which turned out to be a monologue (mine, sorry) for way too long (3 months of posts).

After learning from those mistakes, we taken up again the goal of a collaborative and communional reading and writing on a book. We have chosen the book: The Father's Tale by Michael O'Brien.

My sister has raved about his writing for the last few years and I was given some of his books, as an ordination gift, by some friends of mine. Despite that, I felt drawn to this story of a father who had lost his son, having recently become a father (of souls). This novel is no 200 page detective yarn (to which I'm naturally drawn) but rather a 1,200 page tale.

Joining me on this libraventure (I just made it up but I'm thinking of coining it) is:

Angelica Quinonez from Through a Glass Onion

Claudio Mora from Greater Love Has No One Than This

Emmy Cecilia from Journeys from a Catholic Nerd Writer

Jeff Young from Catholic Foodie

Lisa Schmidt from The Practicing Catholic

Sarah Reinhard from Snoring Scholar and New Evangelizers

Sarah Vabulas from Catholic Drinkie

We will be posting bi-weekly thoughts on the book and (hopefully) responding to each other. Start following each of the blogs and get to see this in action. We will be posting things on Twitter as well. If you want to pick up the book and follow along with us go here. Feel free to chime in as you read the book or if you've already read the book share your thoughts.

Here's the reading plan:

There are four sections in the book. We will be taking each section in bi-weekly increments so you will definitely see posts on:

Section 1 - July 23
Section 2 - August 6
Section 3 - August 20
Section 4 - September 3

There will be sporadic posts here and there about it but you can expect writing at those times. You will also see links to the other posts on each of the blogs bring things full circle. Then at the end, I hope to gather some thoughts from each of the readings for a sort of meta-review.

Aquinas and More

If you look over to the side you'll see a few things different on the sidebar. There is a badge that says Tiber River. I have become an official Tiber River reviewer of books. I am very excited about this. I love the resource that Tiber River provides. They pool together book reviews on thousands of books. All the reviews are from a Catholic perspective. They even have an orthodoxy meter. Which is pretty sweet.

Tiber River was designed by Ian Rutherford, the owner and operator of AquinasAndMore.com. I was first turned on to them when I went looking for the insert for the newer feast for the breviary. They were the only ones that had that in stock. From then on I would return to purchase things. I am so confident in their selection of Catholic goods and customer service that I have joined their affiliate program. You might notice me referring to them a lot more in my posts. I did this for two reasons.

1) To practice what I preach. I'm constantly telling people to support local businesses here in New Orleans. The same applies for online shopping. I want to support Ian, his family, and those who work with him when it is at all possible.

2) Whatever money does come my way will be what I use to purchase more books to talk about on the blog.

Abby Johnson, Catholic Convert

I try to write outside of space and time, i.e. I don't normally cover news stories. I let other much more qualified people cover such, but I just read something I must share you.

If you remember at the beginning of the year I posted two reviews of Abby Johnson's book Unplanned. You can find them here and here.

I saw on Facebook today that on December 4, 2011, the Second Week of Advent, the second week of the implementation of the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal, Abby Johnson, Planned Parenthood director turned Pro-Life Advocate, will be accepted into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. She will be confirmed and receive her first communion.

Praise be Jesus Christ!

I was so moved by Abby's human conversion, her trial with her faith as a pro-choice woman, how she encountered Christ in the tender love of the sidewalk counselors at her Planned Parenthood facility. Here she is preparing this Sunday to experience the full sacramental life of the Church. I cannot but give glory to God.

There is a painful caveat. Her friend and Catholic spiritual mentor, Fr. Frank Pavone, will not be able to give her her first communion. This indeed must be difficult for her. No matter your stance on his situation prayers should go up for her. I'm sure it feels like her father is not there. Let her know that you are praying for her and rejoicing with her this Sunday December 4th.

Catholic Media Promotion Day

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day.  Being that, in some small way, this blog is Catholic media.  We are participating.  I speak for myself and not my colleagues with regard to the following picks:

Three Favorite Catholic Blogs:

The Sacred Page, which is co-author by Dr.'s Michael Barber, John Bergsma, and my own Scripture professor Brant Pitre, has been the blog that I have followed the longest.  As a man studying for the priesthood, their Scriptural insights help in reflection and will help in preparation for preaching.


Matthew Warner's Blog hosted by National Catholic Register provides me with constant reflections on Catholic media and how to be Catholic in the digital age.  Matthew always has great insights and garners many comments, which provide for great conversation.


Quiet, Dignity, and Grace is probably not a well know Catholic blog having just got off the ground 4 months ago, but I love its content.  It's written by a friend of mine, Luke Arredondo, who's a Catholic high school religion teacher and masters of theology student.  Luke gives great insights on theological topics. 

Three Favorite Podcasts:

All of which can be downloaded for free from iTunes

The Catholic Underground is the Catholic Media anything that I have followed the longest.  I had the pleasure of being on a show back in 2007.  Fr. Chris Decker, Fr. Ryan Humphries, Joshua LeBlanc, and Daniel Kedinger talk tech and talk all things Catholic.  They always have interesting conversations, and lately they have streamed them live to allow for chatroom interaction from the listeners.  

The SaintCast has been inspirational, helpful, and a downright enjoyable listen.  Dr. Paul Camarata, a medical doctor and surgeon, talks saints.  He introduces the English speaking world to the world of the saints.  I have learned many great things from his podcast.  

The Catholic Foodie brings together the two best things about New Orleans, food and the Catholic faith.  Jeff Young brings much more to the table than merely recipes and reviews. The show highlights how food - good food - can be a sign to us of God’s love and care for each of us and our families. The tagline, "where food meets faith," speaks volumes about the importance of family, which is so often developed around the kitchen table. 

Three Random Catholic Media:

I would be remiss if in a discussion of Catholic media I didn't mention the first national Catholic media presence, EWTN.  This television station pioneered Catholic media in the United States.  Mother Angelica's tiring efforts paved the way for many others to attempt authentically Catholic media.  EWTN has now branched out onto the internet with a great database of Catholic writings, Catholic news, and Catholic film.  

In this, I feel the need to mention my favorite Catholic book publisher, Ignatius Press.  This San Francisco company is not only the pope's American publisher, but has republished classic Catholic works from the early twentieth century.  They always have great books, fiction, non-fiction, theology, and philosophy.  They also have built up a small but solid group of films about saints.  Along with all of this, their blog Insight Scoop provides excerpts from the books it publishes as well as very as sundry things from the mind of Carl Olsen.  

Three Catholic Apps:

iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta is by far one of best apps on the market for Catholics.  I provides daily updates of the Liturgy of the Hours, the prayers and readings for each daily liturgy, it has all of the rites used by a priest, as well as some of the blessings from the book of blessings.  It is one the most used apps on my iPhone.  

iPieta , though, tops even iBreviary.  Not only does it have the full Douay-Rhiems translation of scripture, but all the daily readings (in the D-R translation, not NAB).  It also has the full host of prayers you would find in the Pieta prayer book.  It has most prayers that you would ever need, including the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  These things alone would make it a great app, but its developers didn't stop there.  It also contains a library of the great works of Catholic spirituality from St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. John Vianney, St. Therese of Liseux, St. Louis de Monfort, and many others.  And that would enough for app, but why stop there.  It also contains the full texts of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, his collection of commentaries on the gospels by the fathers named the Catena Aurae, the 21 Ecumenical Councils, the Haydock Bible Commentary Series from Genesis to Revelation, Encyclicals from Gregory XVI (1835) to Benedict XVI, and writings from many of the Church Fathers.  

Here I have to support the work my diocese has done in Catholic media.  They have created an app, iFaith, that allows anyone in the area to access info about mass times and confession times.  It uses the GPS of the phone to locate where the person is and recommends the closest churches.  It also provides news, an events section for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a connection to Archbishop Gregory Aymond's v-logs, and a connection to the Archdiocese's Twitter feed.  

MacJournal

I decided to go a different direction for my blog creations. I want to spend less time on the internet in general. Writing in web browser on the blogspot site means I could easily click to another tab to be distracted or such. It inhibited writing and growth in virtue.

I shopped around for a blog creation program for Mac. I looked through many things, but I was most impressed by a program I already had, but didn’t realize it’s full capability. I had downloaded a trial version of MacJournal, not soon after I got my Macbook in 2007, from the beautiful site, MacFreeware.  MacJournal allowed for journaling and the funneling of ideas into one space. Over the past four years, it came into disuse because, well, I like writing with a pen as opposed to typing. As I was searching for blog writers, I came across an updated version of this wonderful piece of software that offered so much more than the small trial version that I had. So I bought it.  It works with many different blog sites.  I am so excited with all the possibilities it holds​.

Check out the program and others here.

Do you use something different?

Lenten Reading

We're a less than a week away from Lent.  This liturgical season provides so much possibility for growing in virtue, especially the virtues of faith, hope, and love.  I'm sure many of you have things planned.  You will give up this or take up that devotion.  

I would like to let you in on something.  A group of friends from the bibliophile social networking site, Goodreads, have gotten together to do a Lenten reading.  We've chosen Jean-Pierre de Caussade's famous work Abandonment to Divine Providence.  If you would like to join in the discussion or join in the reading, be our guest.  

You can find discussions and reading schedules somewhere around here.  

10-10-10

Sorry for the lag in posts.  All of us are adjusting to new situations, which hopefully will provide new insights to publish here.  Soon we will be adding another contributor who will probably eclipse all of us with his writing style alone.  As for books and the such here's a few books to check out

Dr. Michael Barber suggests a new book for the biblical scholar in you.  It is a very important look at the role of the Temple in the Gospel of Mark.  It is called The Temple in the Gospel of Mark written by Tim Gray, who is a scripture professor at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver.

For the one desiring fiction, Ignatius Press put out a novel featuring the famous Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams.  It centers on a look for the spear of destiny through the lens of research on the Authorian legend.  It seems like a good read.  Written by David Downing, it's called Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel. 

Summer Reading Book 1

Today we start reading Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper. I'm not going to lie. I already started reading the book. I was so excited about reading that I just couldn't help myself. It's fantastic. Fr. Schall's introduction alone is worth a read. I can't wait to discuss this with y'all over the Facebook discussion board on Reverenced Reading's fanpage. Get started reading the book.

Summer Reading

Hey everybody. We are doing a Summer Reading Forum this summer on Facebook.

The three books are

Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper

Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Father Brown of the Church of Rome by G.K. Chesterton

Check out the event here.

The Role of Service in the Life of a Deacon in Commemoration of the Diaconal Ordination of One of Our Blog Writers

So today one of our blog writers Brent (has no cool nickname) was ordained to the diaconate. His soul is now marked with Holy Orders forever changed. As I was listening to the readings (actually I had the privilege of reading one) and the prayers during the liturgy, I couldn't help but meditate on the role of service both in the diaconate and in the priesthood.

Stemming from Dr. Brant Pitre's class on the Pentateuch that I had last semester, I couldn't help but think about the Hebrew word abodah, which is usually translated into English as some form of the word serve. In the Pentateuch it is always in reference to sacrifice and serving at the altar. Today's first reading (which was read quite well I must say) was from Numbers which recounted the calling of the tribe of Levi to serve Aaron and his sons who were the high priests. They were there to assist those men who were consecrated and set apart by God to offer sacrifice. It requires a great deal of humility and reverence for the sacred to maintain and fulfill this duty. One with this role is always close to the altar but never makes the sacrifice. A weak man can easily be led to jealously or anger for not being able to offer sacrifice. For instance one can look at Korah and company in Numbers 16. Korah was a Levite who took offense at the priest who were set apart, or consecrated, to do the work of the Lord. Indeed, then to take up such a duty as to serve at the altar of Christ with he who is alter Christus requires great humility (even if one is on his way to becoming a priest). So first I ask all of you to pray for all deacons who serve at the altar of God that they may be men who are humble just as Christ humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples in John 13. I also ask you to pray for Brent that he may humbly serve at the altar of God.

Shift the focus just slightly

The entire staff (I can't type that with a straight face) here at Reverenced Reading announces a slightly augmented focus.  

We love books and we love God.  In fact, we love books about God.  Nonetheless, we also love movies, music, and other forms of media.  God being the creator of all men reveals himself through the thoughts and actions and words of men.  We read these signs and symbols and find in them a deeper understanding of revelation or a better way that we can evangelize.  

You will notice.  We have a new focus up top.  Check it out.  We hope you continue to read this blog and continue to read other thing.  Peace.

Epilogue to the Year of the Priest

A friend of my keyed me in on another very helpful and informative site on the Year of the Priest. Check it out. It would help to be part of Facebook

The Year of the Priest

The Year of the Priest is upon us. As a seminarian I am doubly excited about a year dedicated to what God is calling me and to what I truly desire. Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI chose this as the theme of this year because it is the 150th Anniversary of the death of the Cure de Ars, St. John Marie Vianney. He was a humble parish priest who barely made it through seminary because of his difficulty with Latin. His trust in the Lord and his desire the the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ led to a resolve even his bishop could not deny. His ministry as a priest in the small French town of Ars was just what the town and the country of France needed. St. John Vianney grew up during the French Revolution and the tumultuous times following it. As a child he renegade priests who would move around the countryside celebrating baptisms and masses for the faithful while the utterly atheist government tried to stamp out Holy Mother Church. He knew the France and the small town Ars needed to be reintroduced to the healing and redemptive love of Jesus Christ.

He started his ministry as a humble priest doing his duty trying to bring his flock to Christ. He ended his ministry doing the same. In between he fought with demons and reintroduced countless souls to the grace pouring forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the sacrament of Reconciliation. It was said that in his last years he heard upwards of 16 hours of confessions a day.

Seeing such a great model for priesthood, both ministerial and universal, Pope Benedict XVI has welcomed us to this year of the priest.

The Vatican website has set up a sub-site just for the year of the priest. It has all of the addresses of Pope Benedict on the subject as well as documents from the Second Vatican Council, Servant of God John Paul II, Pope Paul VI, Blessed John XXIII, Pope Pius XII, Pope Pius XI, Saint Pius X, and Pope Leo XIII. This will be invaluable resources for anyone preparing something dealing with this wonderful year of the priest. Here a link to the site

http://www.vatican.va/special/anno_sac/priests_doc_en.html

St. John Marie Vianney

PRAY FOR US

New Direction

If anyone reads this, then I have some news.  From the obvious lack of posts in the past 9 months, I have not been active in the blogosphere.   However, with a new desire willing co-workers Reverenced Reading will take a new direction.  This direction will have multiple facets, but the main one is this: to let people know about what there is out there in the great wide world of books.  We will begin posting book reviews of the books we read.  We will post other things, such as our thoughts on life and other such things.  Hopefully the new direction will continue and be somewhat more successful.