Congratulations, Joe!

Tonight I had the immense pleasure of gathering with about 12 other Catholic bloggers and Twitter users at the NCCL convention in Atlanta, Georgia. We sat around, enjoyed some great local beer, and discussed everything from the Blessed Virgin’s role as the model catechist to WordPress configurations; Twitter clients to the Civil War War of Northern Aggression; protecting yourself online to the number of hits our sites get.

It was a very diverse group, but I was amazed at how quickly we fell into easy conversation. That is, I think, one of the gifts of Catholicism: a shared culture and experience that allows us to relate to one another despite any superficial differences. It is also a gift of social media: I knew several of the people even though we had never met face-to-face. Combined, Catholicism and social media make a potent combination. I’m convinced that we’ve only seen the beginning of what we can accomplish with these new tools.

Thank you again to everyone who came out for the TweetUp. Hopefully this will become an annual event; for my part, I will certainly work to see that it is.

1. When you find something you’re passionate about, jump into it.
2. Be inquisitive. Ask questions, read books, visit museums.
3. More children means more messes, more noise, and more love.
4. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish when you don’t know you have to ask permission to try something new.
5. When crossing train tracks, keep your hands out of your pockets.
6. Honesty in all things. Even the hard things. Especially the hard things.
7. Admitting ignorance and asking questions is a great way to get answers.
8. People who believe in something greater tend to be happier than those who focus on themselves.
9. Confidence and a clipboard make you look successful.
10. Play to your strengths. Don’t sweat your weaknesses.
11. Failure is just another data point.
12. Success means meeting your own expectations, not what others impose on you.
13. Don’t take criticism personally, unless it comes from your wife or your mother. They’re usually correct.
14. Always tell your mother and your wife that they are correct, even when they are not.
15. Consequences come from making choices, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make them.
16. Love is an action, not an emotion.
17. Admit mistakes, apologize when necessary, confesses regularly, and move on.
18. Change is inevitable. If you’re the same person you were five years ago, something’s wrong.
19. Some people resent the success of others. Minimize contact with these people.
20. Pass on what you have to others.
21. Don’t take your work too seriously, unless you’re the safety inspector at a nuclear power plant.
22. Don’t take yourself too seriously, period.
23. Prayer works, but not always in the way we expect.
24. The  bad times never look so bad in hindsight. Even high school.
25. Trying even when the odds of success are slim breeds experience and success.
26. Knowing how to cook is a surprisingly effective way to impress people.
27. Everyone needs a mentor, a colleague, and an apprentice.
28. The only people who can tell you “You should be doing this” are your parents, your spouse, your priest, and your immediate supervisor. Even then, you always have a choice.
29. People are basically good.
30. Never be afraid to try something else if what you’re doing isn’t working.
31. Be flexible when dealing with others, but never at the expense of your convictions.
32. Joy is an extremely rare character trait. Cultivate it.
33. When all else fails, bake a cheesecake.

That’s what I’ve learned; what have you learned in X number of years on this planet?

This will be an opportunity to meet with other Catholic bloggers and Twitter users to network, discuss catechesis and social networking, or just enjoy a cold drink at the end of the day!

This is completely unofficial; it’s not in the conference program, so please help me spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, or your blog!

If you plan on joining us at the Tweet-Up, please send me a quick RSVP via my contact form so that I can let the bar know how many to expect. Be sure to wear your conference name badge (if you’re not attending the conference, I’ll have some name tags for you). Contact me for more information, and be sure to follow the conference on Twitter via the #NCCL2011 hashtag!

When they first set out to write the film the Pythons started with, in their own words, a lot of blasphemous jokes about Christ. But the funny thing is that, as they reviewed what they had written, they realized it wasn’t really that funny. The funny stuff tended to happen around Christ rather than to or because of Christ — the humor is in how people misinterpret Christ’s words. And, in the final product, Christ only appears twice (at his birth and at the Sermon on the Mount) and is portrayed just as he appears in Sacred Scripture.

The Pythons spend several minutes in the documentary reflecting on why humor about Jesus doesn’t work, but I think John Cleese makes the most astute — and Christologically relevant – point. Working from the Henri Bergon theory of comedy, Cleese explains that character humor arises from the conflict between an inflexible character and the situation around him. Think of the upper-crust aristocrat who refuses to acknowledge the chaos in which he finds himself. Christ, on the other hand, would not have been inflexible. In Cleese’s words he would have been “infinitely flexible” because he had no ego.

I think this is a profound insight into the nature of Christ and our own attempts to imitate him. Christ didn’t fall into the legalism of the Pharisees; neither did he attempt to water down God’s expectations of Man. He showed us the path of justice and mercy; judgement and love. If we are called to imitate Christ, then we must be equally flexible — not in our beliefs and doctrines, but in how we apply them in the real world. We must be ready with a word of condemnation for sin, but love for our brothers and sisters. We must seek to decrease so that Christ may increase in us. We must rid ourselves of selfishness and self-centeredness so that the Holy Spirit can work in our lives. As  Heather King recently wrote:

Here’s how, in my experience, you know you’re becoming a follower of Christ. You begin to want to be seen less, not more. You begin to want to be quieter, not louder. Knowing you’re on the right track doesn’t come from scoring points among your “friends.” Knowing you’re on the right track doesn’t come from winning  useless arguments. You find yourself making tiny sacrifices. You find yourself experiencing tiny moments of joy. You find yourself mysteriously drawn to the Gospels, to Confession, to Mass.

Unfortunately Cleese’s remarks are only in the extended version of the documentary available on Netflix; this YouTube video features some reflections from the other members of Monty Python about why Christ is “not pervious to comedy.” (Warning: video is NSFW due to language and non-sexual nudity.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzUYRoDxY90

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day, a day when when Catholics list “their favorite 3 blogs, 3 podcasts, 3 other media, 3 random Catholic things online, and their own projects.” Here, in no particular order, are my favorite Catholic:

Blogs (Catechetical)

This is a hard category because there are so many great ones! Among the ones I rarely miss:

• Catechist’s Journey
• Marc Cardaronella
• The Religion Teacher
• Scrutinies

Blogs (Non-Catechetical)

• Building Cathedrals
• Domine, da mihi hanc aquam
• Whispers in the Loggia

Podcasts

This is another hard one for me, because I don’t listen to a lot of Catholic podcasts. This no doubt reflects a defect in my moral character. Lately I’ve been sampling

• The Catholic Warthog
• The Catholic Underground
• The Catholics Next Door

Books

An exceedingly difficult category. I’ll limit myself here to popular books, rather than theological books or spiritual classics. (It should also go without saying that I’m not including the Bible here.)

• Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI
• From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolton, the First Black Priest of the United States, by Sr. Caroline Hemesath, SSF
• Five Loaves & Two Fish, by Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguễn Vǎn Thuận

Random Catholic Things Online

• Biblia Clerus – Best Scriptural Commentary Repository Know One Seems to No About
• Validation – Favorite Non-Catholic Video with Catholic Themes
• In Which Fair Food Makes and Appearance – Favorite Penny Arcade Comic Featuring Jesus

Last year I offered five books I had read in the previous year that I recommended for the new year. If doing this two years in a row makes it a blog tradition — well , so be it!

Here are five books that come with my highest recommendation:

• Doers of the Word: Putting Your Faith Into Practice, by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan (2009) — In this wonderful little book Archbishop Dolan offers short reflections on Christ, the Church year, the saints, the Church, the Blessed Virgin, and other topics. His short, pithy stories are a great example of his ability to explain the faith clearly and concisely — an ability also reflected in his excellent blog.
• The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter, by Jason Kersten (2010) — OK, this isn’t a Catholic book per se, but it is a fascinating (and true!) tale of a young man from a broken home who finds joy in becoming a craftsman of a dying art: counterfeiting money. In perfectly replicating the new $100 bill he reunites with his estranged father, with terrible consequences for both.
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, by Matthew B. Crawford (2009) — Crawford offers a profound treatise on how the “useful arts” — work that requires real skill and practice to master — combines the best of both manual and intellectual engagement. This book has made  me want to learn some real manual skills, starting with some basic woodworking.
• Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer, by Thomas Dubay, SM (2006) — This “required reading” for our Totus Tuus team last summer has helped me deepen my prayer life and better appreciate the deep wisdom of the Church’s spiritual traditions.
• Mariette in Ecstasy, by Ron Hansen (1992) — This book was recommended to me by a friend and colleague after he saw A Canticle for Leibowitz on last year’s list. Hansen’s portrayal of the disruption of a religious community’s orderly life by a young novice prone to trances and visions is haunting, gripping, and strangely moving.

Recently I’ve been having some fun using ChatRoulette as a sort of evangelization tool/sociology experiment. For those unfamiliar with the site, ChatRoulette pairs you up with a random stranger in a chat room. If you both have web cams you can even see each other. (Note: Many people take advantage of this function to display highly inappropriate material. Enter ChatRoulette at your own risk.)

Using a piece of software called ManyCam I’ve replaced my image with that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (see above). The fun has been in seeing people’s reactions to Christ appearing on their screens. Most people quickly hit the “next person” button; some people laugh, ask “Really?!” or show a sign of disapproval. Some people smile or even write back messages like “I know!” or “Thanks.” Some just give a thumbs up. One young man actually made the Sign of the Cross and prayed. (As near as I could tell he was sincere.)

It’s been fascinating to see the wide range of reactions and responses — ChatRoulette really offers an interesting cross-section of people. If you’d like to get a sense of the reactions, you can follow the adventures of ChatRoulette Jesus on Twitter under the user name @ChatRTJesus.

To ensure that the book has a few more years of life, I’d like to recommend the following books that I read in the past year:

• A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter J. Miller, Jr. (1960) – This Hugo award-winning novel traces 1200 years in the life of a monastic order following a devastating nuclear war. The monks seek to preserve scientific and cultural knowledge against a world that has descended into barbarism.

• Five Loaves and Two Fish, by Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan (1997) – Cardinal Van Thuan spent 13 years incarcerated by the Communist government of Vietnam before being exiled in 1991. This book is a series of reflections he prepared for the 1997 World Youth Day. It is a simple, profound and moving reflection on suffering and hope.

• The Clown of God, by Tomie dePaola (1978) – dePaola retells and lavishly illustrates the story of a poor beggar boy who finds joy and fame in his juggling – and surprising blessings as well. Sure to delight old and young alike.

• Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn (2006) – This science fiction story follows a 14^th century German priest as he seeks to communicate with – and minister to – a group of aliens who have crashed in the woods outside his tiny village. The priest must ask: “Can an extraterrestrial be a Christian?” and, “Where is God when tragedy strikes?”

• From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolton, by Sister Caroline Hemesath (reprinted 2006) – Sr. Hemesath presents the life of Fr. Tolton, the first African-American priest in the United States, in a series of fictionalized vignettes (a sort of “speculative biography”) from his youth in Quincy to his ministry and untimely death in Chicago.

I, for one, welcome our new hagiographic overloards.