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During the Wednesday audience by Pope Benedict XVI on praying the Psalms.

Finally, the Pope explained that, in the course of his catechesis dedicated to the Psalms, he had sought to focus on those “that reflect the different situations in life and the various attitudes we may have towards God. I would like to renew my call to everyone to pray the Psalms, to become accustomed to using the Liturgy of the Hours, Lauds, Vespers, and Compline. Our relationship with God can only be enriched by our journeying towards Him day after day”.

One of the authentic renewals in the aftermath of Vatican II is a greater emphasis on the laity praying the Liturgy of the Hours. While it was never restricted to priests and religious it seems to have been seldom practiced by the laity. Though devotions like “Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary” a kind of stripped down LOTH was common enough. I myself started with this “little office” and after incorporating it into my daily prayer life moved up to the 4-Volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours which I bought one volume at a time. This has remained a daily practiced from before I officially entered the Church and is part of my rhythm of life.

The 4-Volume set can be imposing for some with the multiple ribbons and the various hours and multiple page changes. Though each year they print a guide book that tells you the page number for the hours of the day and this quickly helps a beginner to start.

Nowadays I simply use the Liturgy of the Hours on my iPad which makes praying the hours dead simple. There are versions available for iOS and Android such as iBrievary which is free and Universalis which is a little pricey. There are also other websites that help you do the same.

Like all devotions in the Church they are not for everybody and so your mileage may vary when it comes to the LOTH. Though I would strongly encourage people to give it a shot even if you start with only reading one of the hours each day. They are so chock-full of the Psalms you can hardly find a better daily devotion. Being immersed in the Psalms each day is a very good thing. Plus I really enjoy the Office of Readings which takes you through the scriptures, the Church Fathers, writings of the Saints, and other Church documents.

[Via Father Z]

You hear lots of complaints about the varying quality of homilies. Though this is to be expected with the variance in the abilities of preachers. Certainly though in this day and age we don’t just have to get all the catechesis for the readings from the homilist. Instead of complaining we can look at all the resources available now concerning homiletics and the readings.

For example I have long been a fan of Fr. Robert Barron’s Word on Fire podcast which covers the Sunday readings. iTunes link

New on the scene is the The Sacred Page podcast from Michael Barber and friends. Not only does this podcast cover the weekly readings but other subjects concerning biblical theology. I’ve quite enjoyed this podcast.

link

So even if you have a gifted homilist the readings can be enriched from multiple viewpoints.

There is nothing like unsolicited praise so it was quite nice to see a blog post title “Y’know I just love the Curt Jester” from Mark Shea. Thanks Mark, the feeling is mutual.

Considering that Mark’s blog was the first blog I started reading back in early 2002 and that his blogroll pointed me to the core blogs in the infancy of the Catholic blogosphere I especially enjoy the compliment. If there is blame involved, I blame Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, and Victor Lams for wanting to start a blog in the first place.  Commenting on their fine blogs got me hooked.

Now I need to go and place my swelled head in under cold water though to get it back to semi-normal size.

Brandon Vogt previously posted a list Fr. John McCloskey’s ‘Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan. Now he has updated it to link to ebook versions on Amazonin his post Building a Catholic eBook Library on the Cheap.

The Lifetime reading plan is a pretty decent list with some notable exceptions, but you can never come up with a perfect list of this type. I’ve read the majority of the books listed and so can concur. Brandon Vogt also lists some other sources for free ebooks related to the faith.

Though a notable one he left out is Project Gutenberg which has a wealth of Catholic material considering that most classics our out of copyright. Project Gutenberg also has the books in multiple ebook and just plain text/html formats all of which our free. Many of the books Brandon has listed as not being free on the Amazon Kindle store are actually free at Project Gutenberg.

For those with Nooks, Barnes & Nobles does have very similar prices on the books listed for the Kindle. In fact it seems to me there is a lot of price fixing going on in the ebook world.

To his list of ebook resources I would also add Aquinas & More which does offer ebooks for downloads. There is also the The MOST Theological Collection which has the complete works of Fr. William G. Most available online – though not in ready ebook format.

A related area is Catholic Audiobooks. Since many of these classics are on Project Gutenberg this means that sites such as LibriVox have made available audiobook versions of these titles done by volunteers. There is also Maria Lectrix “public domain audiobook podcast – for people with catholic tastes” which has many spiritual classics.

For most of my life Easter was an important holiday that had no importance attached to it for me. I was the odd man out at Easter and even as a child the Easter Egg hunt could not fill the void of what was missing. My father was great at finding odd places to hide an egg and it was a thrill to fine one he was placed, but afterwards the void continued. Other kids in the neighborhood would go off to Easter services so usually there weren’t even other kids to play with. One Easter my Grandmother did drag my brother and myself off to Easter services in some Protestant Church – but the whole thing was incoherent to me since I knew nothing about Christianity other than maybe a name or two of major figures like Jesus.

Things did not change much as an adult. Easter was still annoying and it didn’t even make for a three day weekend and not only that stores were most always closed. Hiding Easter Eggs for my own kids was certainly a delight and the most delight was in them searching and finding them. After the last egg is found – what next? While I had come to know a little more about Easter and its connection to Jesus – I was still more interested in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans than what I thought of as the mythology of the Christians. Even secular Christmas has some power to let you hear the Gospel even if only via the Carols and the watered-down version of Christmas in a Christmas movie. Secular Easter is another story where hardly and bits of the Gospel make it through into the culture. On the pantheon of holidays Easter for me was less than President’s Day. At least for President’s Day you don’t feel that loss of something you feel should be there, but don’t know why you are lacking something.

Fast-forwarding to my beginning conversion to Christianity and my way onto the Church all of a sudden Easter was gaining what I thought it lacked. Protestant radio, the books I were reading through, and of course primarily grace was finally opening me up to the meaning of Easter. I was actually looking forward to Easter and when it arrived I did not feel the whole I use to, but I was still missing something. When I finally decided to become Catholic it was a couple of months before Easter and my Pastor told me that I would have to wait for the following Easter to come into the Church since I had missed most of R.C.I.A for that year. That was a torturous year in a half since when I had decided to become Catholic I had already come to believe in all that the Church taught. I know now that R.C.I.A is not an absolute requirement and that I could have probably demonstrated to my Pastor that I already accepted Church teaching, but I also came to enjoy my R.C.I.A. experience. Like I said that year and a half was quite difficult since my wife and I started attending daily Mass and her as a cradle Catholic could go and receive the Eucharist while I had to remain in the pew. Fr. Groechel’s book on the Eucharist had initially inflamed my longing for the Eucharist and everything I read after that only added to that. Finally the Easter Vigil in 1999 arrived where I was received into the Church and that was certainly a night burned into my mind. Receiving the Eucharist for the first time licitly was a great joy! Waking up the next day realizing it was Easter made me want to announce that news through the streets and reacting like Scrooge realizing it was Christmas morning. I longed to approach strangers saying “He is risen” and have them reply “He is risen indeed” or vice versa.

That void that I felt during Easter was a shadow of the acknowledgment that I needed a redeemer. My stoic ideas had fallen flat on their face time and time again and while an atheist has a tenuous view of sin I certainly recognized what I would have thought of as major failing. I can now experience Easter Joy because we had such a redeemer who actively loved us and actively died for us and rose again to provide the remedy for our sins.

Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.

I’ve been tagged with a Lenten meme by Fr. Jay Finelli at iPadre.

The 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.

1. Because he first loved me.
2. Those who have been forgiven much love much, though I doubt if my love will ever match what I have been forgiven for.
3. That he left the sheep hold to bring me back.
4. That not only did he die for my sins he offers himself in the Blessed Sacrament in such a wonderful way.
5. I have always loved truth even when I did not know he was the truth. It was a joyful surprise to find out who truth was.

I tag:

1. Acts of the Apostasy
2. Catholic Fire
3. Happy Catholic
4. St. Blogustine
5. AdoroTeDevote

Looking over the list of bloggers invited to the Vatican-Bloggers conference I guess that I will have to get over the fact that the Papal Helicopter will not be landing in my yard to take my wife and I on an all expense paid trip to this conference. My one critique of this event is that is was announced with such a short lead time seemingly assuming any bloggers wanting to attend would already be there for the Beautification of John Paul II the day before. Oh well – I guess it can’t always be about me – wah!

Looking over the list I was unfamiliar with most of the blogs invited. Yet it is a good reminder that St. Blogs extends far beyond just the English-speaking Catholic blogosphere – the Church is truly universal.

Some of the names I did recognize at first glance were:

Thomas Peters at The American Papist
Fr. Roderick Vonhögen at SQPN
Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress (Patheos)
Katrina Ebersole at The Crescat
Susan Windley-Daoust at The Ironic Catholic
Taylor Marshall at Canterbury Tales
Lisa Hendey CatholicMom.com
Rocco Palmer Whispers in the Logia
Joan Lewis of EWTN
Anna Arco of The Catholic Herald,

Certainly an excellent choice of representatives for English speaking Catholic blogs and I wish them all a fruitful trip. Thomas Peters speech at the last Catholic Media Celebration shows he has thought deeply on the subject and can provide good input. Fr. Roderick is of course the perfect choice being so involved in Catholic media and evangelization. Lisa Hendey has done great work and I got to meet her when she asked questions of Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, and myself at the first Catholic Media Celebration. The Crescat being there just makes a heart smile! So I will be very interested to follow the coverage by these capable bloggers.

Greg Willits of the “The Catholic’s Next Door” radio show came up with the idea of Catholic Media Promotion Day where people promote their favorite Catholic media.  Most people are listing three in each area of Catholic Media.  As someone who consumes a lot of Catholic media limiting to three or really any number is like asking which is your favorite child.  Instead I will just list what comes to mind and are my daily obligations to the world of Catholic Media. Really though you can look at the side of my blog for a more extensive list.

Blogs:  Happy Catholic. Catholic and Enjoying It!,  Conversion Diary, American Papist, Creative Minority Report, Disputations, Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!, What Does The Prayer Really Say?, Acts of the Apostasy, Aliens in this world, In Light of the Law, Jimmy Akin, John C. Wright, Patrick Madrid, Ten Reasons, The Anchoress, The B-Movie Catechism, The Crescat, The Sacred Page, Orthometer, Ignatius Insight

And that is just a starter.  There are so many other blogs not listed that if they would stop blogging I would feel like I lost a dear friend.

Luckily there are less podcasts to list only because the total number of Catholic podcasts is much smaller.

SQPN: They have a wealth of podcasts and notable mentions are The Break with Fr. Roderick, Catholic in a Small Town (hilarious), iPadre, The Saintcast, plus a collection of excellent  “Secrets of” podcasts that views popular media via the Catholic faith.

Catholic Underground – faith and technology and I can hardly wait for each episode. The Catholic Hack, Forgotten Classics, The Catholic Laboratory, A Good Story is Hard to Find, Prairie Rome Companion, Uncommon Sense, Word On Fire

Radio:  The following radio shows also are available as podcasts. Kresta in the Afternoon, Catholic Answers Live, The Catholics Next Door *, EWTN’s Open Line

Note: * Podcast is a weekly best of show.

EWTN: The Journey Home *, The World Over *, Sunday Night Live *.   G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense.

Note: * These shows are also available as podcasts.

Newspaper: National Catholic Register. This paper has gotten even better since they now have blogs from people such as Jimmy Akin.

Twitter: I have a Twitter list of some of my favorite Catholics to follow.

Books are media too, but I won’t even attempt to list my favorite Catholic books.

One of the books I am currently reading is St. Teresa of Avila’s “The Book of the Foundations”. After reading so many news stories and articles from dissidents it is so cleansing to read this great saint. The comparisons between modern pant suit nuns and this Doctor of the Church are hard not to notice, though the comparisons are more in the order of an antithesis.

If you read or hear a progressive religious sister use the word Mother – the following word is almost certainly to be Earth. St. Teresa of Avila though had no problems talking of Mother Church with devotion and love. The way she talks of obedience is also a joy to hear and that the only problems with obedience she encountered was with who own Nuns to take something to literally when it came to an instruction from an Abbess.

Obedience was rightly seen as being of high importance for anybody trying to grow in holiness. The type of obedience where answered immediately even if you were not totally onboard with what you were told to do. The type of obedience where you only do what you agree with is no obedience at all. Being in the military I learned this type of obedience which was often difficult when given an order by some junior officer that you knew was just plain stupid. Though obedience in the Church is also like obedience in the military in that in the military you have to obey a lawful order and that it is your duty go not obey an unlawful order.

Progressives seem to be proud of their disobedience. Recent National Catholic Reporter headline “144 theologians confront hierarchy” where German theologians demand women’s ordination etc. When it comes to the magisterium they describe it like it was the enemy and words like hierarchy are loaded with so much sneer they require a warning label from the Surgeon General. Yes, denying an infallible teaching of the ordinary magisterium is to be met as good news. The good news or Gospel of Dissent. Progressives talk of the conscience like the saints talked of Holy Obedience. Only problem is that following an improperly informed conscience is too much like obedience to your self-will. Informing your conscience and adhering to Mother Church gives you the opportunity to die to will and to be obedient to the truth.

Reading St Teresa of Avila I can find many ways that I can improve my own obedience like trusting more in Jesus. She tells several stories involving trust in Jesus where she was impressed by somebody else’s virtue in this regard compared to her own. It is so easy to worry about problems and not to place your trust in Jesus through prayer to help to resolve some issue and instead to worry about how you were personally going to fix it.

I really do try to work on my humility, and then I remember I’m a blogger.

Eric Sammons of the blog The Divine Life and recent author of Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew has updated his list of the Most Popular Catholic Blogs.

His metric for this list is the number of subscribers to the RSS feed of a blog as per Google Reader.

Third, after running the program last time, a few people noted that there were some discrepancies between their Google subscriber number and what I posted. This happened in a few cases where Google’s “default” feed for a blog was different than the main feed for the blog. The most egregious case was The Curt Jester, who wasn’t even on the list last time (having only 14 subscribers in his “default” feed), but is #4 now (with over 4,800 subscribers). Mark Shea’s blog also was effected by this discrepancy. I tried very hard to find any of these “missing” feeds and incorporate them into the updated list, but it is possible I missed a few again.

Thanks Eric.

No doubt some more tweaking is needed since I am pretty sure American Papist gets more traffic than my blog. But there will be no perfect ordered list and the order is not as important as a solid listing of popular Catholic blogs.

Thankfully to help prevent cranial swelling due to bursting ego the Pope has some wise words in his recent message “Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age.”

The task of witnessing to the Gospel in the digital era calls for everyone to be particularly attentive to the aspects of that message which can challenge some of the ways of thinking typical of the web. First of all, we must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its “popularity” or from the amount of attention it receives. We must make it known in its integrity, instead of seeking to make it acceptable or diluting it. It must become daily nourishment and not a fleeting attraction. The truth of the Gospel is not something to be consumed or used superficially; rather it is a gift that calls for a free response. Even when it is proclaimed in the virtual space of the web, the Gospel demands to be incarnated in the real world and linked to the real faces of our brothers and sisters, those with whom we share our daily lives. Direct human relations always remain fundamental for the transmission of the faith!

Amen to that!