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Screwtape Letters and the Catechism of the Catholic Church
I'm all for using the Catechism of the Catholic Church, especially in unconventional ways. That's why when I came across this article by Marlon de la Torre about Using the Screwtape Letters to unpack the Catechism for high school students, I had to share it with y'all.
One of the biggest barriers between Catholics and the Catechism that I hear most often is that it isn't accessible. The language is either too complex or too theoretical.
In C.S. Lewis' renowned The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape is a demon advising fellow demon Wormwood about how to tempt and lead a man to damnation. Marlon takes chunks of Screwtape's letters and lead the students in debunking his advise using the Catechism. Engaging the Catechism in this way makes the content immediately practical and exciting to read.
Read the whole article here to get a better feel for what a typical lesson of this type would look like.
As I did some more research, it turns out Marlon wrote a book that does just what he does in class: open up the Catechism using C.S. Lewis' mesmerizing book. Go buy it here like I just did: Screwtape Teaches the Faith. This Marlon guy deserves a raise.
Check out Marlon's blog at Knowing is Doing.
(Hat tip to Marc Cardaronella of Evangelizing Catechesis who sent this article my way.)
Strange Notions: Atheist and Catholic Conversations
You need to know about the launching of a new website, Strange Notions, spearheaded by Brandon Vogt who knows a thing or two about "new" media and the new evangelization. (Check out his book here: The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet)
After St. Paul preaches in the Areopagus in Athens to the intellectual elite, they respond saying "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? You bring some strange notions to our ears, we should like to know what these things mean." (Acts 17:19-20)
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With a website trailer like that, the adrenaline is already flowing just at the idea of a site that sets out to bring intellectual conversations between atheists and Catholics to an internet in dire need of it.
StrangeNotions.com is designed to be the central place of dialogue online between Catholics and atheists.
Its implicit goal is to bring non-Catholics to faith--especially followers of the so-called New Atheism. As a 'digital Areopagus', the site will include intelligent articles, compelling video, and rich discussion through its comment boxes.
The site is laid out in blog post format, with by-topic articles from a team of contributors presumably written with an atheist audience in mind.
The list of main contributors for the site is world class, with some of the best of the best as far as Catholic writers and thinkers go. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best lineups I've ever seen for a Catholic website of this nature.
I also like the extensive recommended books list that doesn't pull punches and is intellectually demanding.
I'm very interested to be watching this site unfold and participating in the conversations.
I do wonder, however, what will draw intelligent atheists to this site and the conversations and not just your normal trolls that lurk on Catholic websites. It would be great to see this website reach out to atheist bloggers and speakers to engage them in open dialogue in a way that goes beyond just the comment box. To have a thinking atheist write a response or article defending his position would add to the website's claim to be an open forum of reason and dialogue. Maybe even a HuffPoLive-esque Google Hangout would work well.
This is a site to watch and get involved with, learn a thing or two, and even send to your skeptical atheist friends challenging them to engage in dialogue with the authors and thinkers. Pray for this "digital areopagus", because it is a much needed space in the mission territory of the internet.
The Brains Behind It All:
Brandon Vogt is an award-winning author, blogger, in speaker. In 2011 he released his first book titled The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet (Our Sunday Visitor). The book includes a Foreword by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, an Afterword by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and was endorsed by a several other cardinals, bishops, and leading Catholic thinkers.
Since then he’s established himself as an expert on Catholic new media and in May 2011, Vatican officials invited him to Rome to discuss social media. At the meeting, Archbishop Claudio Celli explained that the Church's mission today is to "open a conversation with the world." That's precisely what StrangeNotions.com is designed to do.
What if I Were Drunk ALL the Time?
Waiting on four pepperoni HARs (hot and readys) to be...well...ready (Little Ceasar's was back-logged) I moseyed over to the bar next door to find a bar bathroom. I found and entered a small closet with two urinals and a stall and an older gentleman followed close behind and grabbed a urinal before I did.
Now I have to tell you that the events that transpired were not normal Edmund-Bathroom Protocol. Normally in a two-urinal-one-occupied situation I choose the stall. I take the high road. I take one for the team.
I normally go with the stall to give the urinal man some peace of mind and free flowage. Its an act of charity. A humanitarian endeavor. Have some courtesy. No man wants to stand inches away from a stranger who is also urinating.
But today was different. Today I felt sassy.
Plus the stall looked dirty and gross.
So I went with the urinal right next to him. And the most amazing thing happened. Staring at a wall full of ads, a bar calendar, business cards, and other pleasantries, the guy broke the tension: "Boy, April sure has flown by fast."
He was right. April had flown by fast.
Caught off guard by his candor and insightful observation, and noticing that I could practically taste the beer he'd been drinking, I went into talking-with-intoxicated-strangers mode. I love talking to intoxicated strangers. Okay let me clarify. This guy was about two beers away from swimming, so he was not really drunk-drunk. A better description would be "I love everyone in this bar and want to talk to everyone because I'm happy" intoxicated.
Let me tell you, for those few golden moments while relieving ourselves, we chatted up a STORM. Your Church rosary making group had nothing on us that day. I mean we were REALLY communicating on a deeply personal level. Chuckles were had. Heartfelt questions were asked. Comradery abounded. No eye contact though. That'd be weird.
As we parted ways, I couldn't help feeling that my life was just a smidge better than before I entered the bar. Instead of entering a crowded room full of people and pretending all of them were as real as Manti Te’o's girlfriend, I actually existed in a personal way in a room full of crowded people. Okay, in the bathroom next to a room full of crowded people.
Jefferey Kahn argues that beer gave us civilization because of its ability to put us all on the same social "playing field" by lowering our inhibitions. Which made me realize, a lot of the greatest Saints went through life sans inhibitions. In fact, the first Christians were mistaken for 4 a.m. Waffle House customers. (Look up Acts 2:13, I'm loosely paraphrasing sort of.)
Which made me THEN realize, all Saints are just drunk people!
Think about it. What made St. John Chrysostom call out the Emperor's wife publicly? Lack of inhibition. What caused St. Nicholas to think it was perfectly okay to slap the ever-living heresy out of Arius? Lack of inhibition. What made St. Francis Xavier travel door to door in a foreign land telling thousands of natives that they should make hamburgers instead of worshiping cows? Lack of inhibition. It goes on an on.
Its like Jesus is saying "Let them come to me, for the kingdom belongs to such drunks as these."
But it makes you wonder, what if we chose to act that way all the time? What if we chose to not have social inhibitions? (You weird extroverts that act this way on a regular basis can stop reading, this is for the rest of us. We can still be friends. Lower your voice. Yes, you can tell that one story again.)
In an increasingly technological society (how often have you heard THAT paragraph opener...) where we are more virtually connected than ever, we are also more physically disconnected than ever. When it comes to human interaction, inhibitions abound. Why am I more comfortable tweeting to thousands of strangers about my son pooping an uncomfortable amount, but I am super uncomfortable talking to strangers who say "Hey"?
Drunk people LOVE social interaction. They love talking to people they just met about anything. Some guy in a bar asked me what fancy store I got my jacket from. I told him Goodwill. He then proceeded to tell me all the articles of clothing he was wearing from Goodwill as well. Now THAT'S some social interaction for you people. We were the Goodwill crew from then on up in that place. We were companions.
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa devotes a whole book to this drunkeness thing, echoing Pope Paul VI who echoed St. Ambrose during a world congress of charismatic renewal in 1975: "Let us drink the sober intoxication of the Spirit with joy!"
"Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it" says the Catechism. And if our conscience is that desire to do good and avoid evil, shouldn't it make sense that the devil would have a sort of anti-virtue to fight our conscience? An impulse that tells us to avoid the good?
You are right, being drunk is a sin. We are talking here about a sober intoxication. I'm being metaphorical and incendiary. I'm feeling sassy. But there is obviously some connection between what happens to a drunk person and what happens to a person filled with the Holy Spirit and consumed with love of Christ. Otherwise St. Ambrose is just being silly. This intoxication we are talking about knows no restraint from pursuing the good, it knows only wild reckless love. St. Paul tells us to be a fool for Christ in 1 Corinthians 4:10 for goodness sakes.
I hope this rant has taught you a few key life principles.
1) In a two-urinal-one-occupied situation, go for the free urinal. No one goes for the free urinal. You may be delightfully surprised. Or scarred for life. Who knows!
2) Talk to people! Be outgoing and friendly and if people get weirded out, just tell them you are sloshed, or soberly intoxicated, or in love with Jesus Christ. Whatever.
3) Stop avoiding human interaction. In an increasingly privatized, digitized, secularized world, human interaction is a saving antidote. People who drink beer know this well. Why do more people go to bars and drink over priced cocktails when they could be at home drinking the same thing at a fraction of the cost? Its not the peanuts. Its the human interaction. Bars are a refuge for the lonely. Being drunk is an excuse to know people and be known by people. So get out there and start giving people some attention!
4) The next time you feel some inhibition sneaking up in your skull, ask the Holy Spirit if this is your conscience trying to warn you to avoid evil, or if this is your weak flesh trying to tell you to stay comfortable, soft, and warm.
Stay soberly intoxicated, my friends.
[Video] Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church
http://youtu.be/pCXrMBejH2c I came across this fantastic intro to the Catechism created by the Diocese of Birmingham Catechetical Institute. David Anders (Ph.D, Church History) provides some revealing insights into the origins and structure of the Catechism, with some very practical tips on how to use it and pray with it.
USE THE CATECHISM!
The Home Rory Owns
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/39346243 w=500&h=281] Home - Rory from Mick Kirkman on Vimeo.
Owning property is a natural human longing. You can't beat it out of human persons. And maybe Rory is refusing to own property precisely so he can really own property.
The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons...
The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goodsremains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.
"In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself." The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.
G.K. Chesterton wrote “property is merely the art of democracy.” For him, property means that “every man should have something that he can shape in his own image, as he is shaped in the image of heaven. But because he is not God, but only a graven image of God, his self-expression must deal with limits; property with limits that are strict and even small.”
Just give me three acres and a cow.
Being Catholic Isn't An Excuse for Crap Writing: Lessons from a Journalist
If you've read my post about evangelization and cheese, you might not be surprised when I say that evangelistic efforts can't lack quality. Regardless of how true the Catholic faith is, if you can't communicate it effectively the truth will fall on deaf ears.
I'm not the greatest writer (shocker I know) and wanted some help in this area so I asked good friend Arleen Spencely to share some of her knowledge and experience as a writer, blogger, and journalist. Listen up!
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Five Blogging Tips from a Journalist - Arleen Spenceley
Lots of what I know about blogging is what I learned in a newsroom – what I learned at the first desk on the left side of a Tampa Bay Times bureau, where on July 23, 2007, I marveled at the privilege of my new reality: “I can’t believe I work here.”
That day – my first as a Times staff writer – I was a college kid, now with Pulitzer Prize-winning colleagues, a press badge and a dream come true. That semester, the summer before I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in journalism, I discovered what I never expected I would:
You learn a lot more in newsrooms than in classrooms.
I wrote in Times newsrooms until December 2012, when, after five years on staff, I resigned to finish my master’s degree. I look back with gratitude, for great memories and a skill set I still use. What I learned in newsrooms, I’ve discovered, transfers seamlessly to blogs. Here are the four lessons I use most:
If you’re gonna write, you’ve got to read. And you’ve got to read good writing. At the paper, I’d spend 20 minutes browsing Times archives for stories by better writers than I before beginning to write my own. I’d read stories by Pulitzer winners and nominees, riveted by the result of their talent and experience. Then, I’d emulate it (or try). This also works when you blog (but don’t just read blogs! Read books, good newspapers, and/or magazines.)
Talk to strangers. We are surrounded by the people who surround us for a reason. We are also surrounded by good stories. One morning, I parked outside a Tampa bureau of the Times and crossed paths with a handful of young cyclists, circling the lot on bikes. My gut said “talk to them.” So, I did. As it turns out, the cyclists were siblings (among them, the drummer from rock band Anberlin) preparing to train for a 5k with their grandfather – the last one he intended to run, because knee pain pushed him to retire from running. It became one of the favorite stories I wrote – and I only wrote it because I talked to strangers.
Your senses are your friends. Whether what you write reads well might depend on whether you use them. Without senses, the 9/11 first responder you write about couldn't see through smoke. With senses, “Pulverized debris settled like dust on the city. (He) breathed it in. His mouth tasted like metal, but he worked.” Facts are fabulous, but details – which we find by using our senses, or borrowing the senses of the people about whom we write – are better. If you aren’t there to see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it, ask your story’s subject what they saw, smelled, heard, tasted, or felt.
Writer’s block doesn't exist. One afternoon in a newsroom, I buried my face with my hands and shook my head in front of a blank screen. A seasoned colleague noticed. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Writer’s block,” I said. “But writer’s block doesn't exist,” he said. If you’re a writer, you can write. When you feel like you can’t, it isn't because you can’t. It’s because you need more information. Gather it. Browse the web for blog fodder. Conduct a follow-up interview. Talk to strangers again. The ability you thought you lost will come back when you do.
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Arleen Spenceley is a Roman Catholic writer who primarily writes about love, chastity, and sex, and wrote for the Tampa Bay Times for five years. She blogs at arleenspenceley.com, tweets @ArleenSpenceley, and Facebooks (is that a word?) here. Click here to read the feature story about a 9/11 first responder she quoted above and wrote in 2011.
Pope Francis Search Engine-a-fide
You all need to know about the Pope Francis search engine put together by the same creator of the wonderful Catholic Cross Reference website that is home to search engines for the Catechism, the Summa, and Church Fathers.
The Pope Francis Search Engine, or PFSE for short, is updated daily and has a search bar so you can search words like "latin Mass", "SSPX", "same-sex marriage", "Bono", "my favorite flavor of gelato", "kittens and gelato", or I don't know whatever else you want to search.
Thanks for all the Catholic geeky goodies Jeffrey Pinyan! And a gentlemanly hat tip to Angela for bringing this to my attention.
Check out the Pope Francis search engine here.
By the way, we need a catchy nickname for our beloved pope. JPII and B16 had their own, its about time someone came up with one for our humble Pope. Any suggestions?
Photo by Abode of Chaos
New Big Project Announcement...
...making sure this kid gets to Heaven. Two boys now! 12 more and we'll make a complete rugby team...
Dominic ? Mitchell Born on Holy Saturday at 12:24 a.m.
"The grace of our Lord has been abundant" 1 Tim 1:14
Any suggestions for a middle name?
Happy Easter! (Soundtrack)
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Happy Palm Sunday, #CaptureEaster Begins!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/Qqhe4yRCGIE] And Holy Week begins! Help Catholics everywhere #CaptureEaster in order to share the beauty of God during Holy Week with the world! We've even thrown in some sweet Catholic books you could win.
Step 1) Take a sweet picture of your experience of God during Holy Week. Step 2) Upload it to instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #CaptureEaster Step 3) Checkout the site CaptureEaster.com to see other pictures of the world expereincing Holy Week, as its happening. Step 4) Get your friends in on the action! Step 5) Photo with the most (legitimate) comments gets 4 free Catholic books delivered to their door!