All Catholic bloggers are invited to write on a common theme on the same day. By speaking with many voices on a common aspect of the faith, we can help evangelize the digital continent and demonstrate the powerful presence of Catholics online.

The theme for February 22 is: penance. Possible points of departure for writing your blog post include the three traditional methods of penance (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving); a memorable experience in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation; or how accepting the call to repentance has made a difference in your life.

My hope is that Catholic Blog Day will occur two or three times each year; much will depend on the feedback I get from other bloggers, so if you have a comment please leave one here!

You can get more information and sign up for updates at www.CatholicBlogDay.org.

Head over to the Catechetical Leader Podcast to listen to the whole interview!

A quick note: you may have noticed that the Amazon-powered book recommendations in the right sidebar have returned. I removed the Amazon links a few months back when my affiliate account was shut down in response to my state legislature’s decision to start taxing Amazon purchases.

(It wasn’t a huge loss for me as I never made much off the links; at the time the account was closed I had a little over $7 in the account.)

I’ve linked the new recommendations to the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership‘s Amazon account. This means that every time you click an Amazon link on this site and buy a book you’ll be supporting that worthy organization.

Old Testament (September 25 through October 29, 2011) – “This course paves the way for students to develop deeper personal understanding and appreciation for the biblical context, structure (Canon), authoring, meaning and historical impact of the Old Testament. Students are introduced to methods of reading biblical texts, understanding the story lines and process of interpretation with cultural contexts, and current trends in biblical research. Students are encouraged to respect the wholeness of the biblical texts. This approach assists students as they acquire new skills and tools to navigate through the Old Testament and apply its wisdom to their spiritual lives and ministry.”

Registration information is available at the VLCFF web site. Courses are $90, or $40 if you live in a partnering diocese. I hope to see you there!

Survey of Catholic Doctrine (August 7 through September 10, 2011) – “This course will look at some of the major doctrines of the Catholic Church. Participants will come to a better understanding of the Trinity, original sin, church, salvation history, and the communion of saints. Participants will be asked to identify the meaning of magisterium, ecumenism, eschatology, and other Catholic terms.”

Registration information is available at the VLCFF web site. Courses are $90, or $40 if you live in a partnering diocese.

1. I’ve been getting some friend requests from people I’ve never met. While I appreciate that people want to connect, I only “friend” people on Facebook that I’ve met face-to-face or that I’ve had significant online contact with (e.g., that I’ve interviewed on the Catechetical Leader podcast).
2. My personal profile was starting to get overrun with my blog posts and other “professional” endeavors. I’m not convinced that my old high school buddies want that flooding their wall; a public page will help me use my personal profile to more clearly communicate with family and friends.

So if you’d like to connect with me via Facebook, please head on over to my public page and hit the “like” button. And thanks for being interested in what I do!

Old Testament (June 19 through July 23, 2011) – “This course paves the way for students to develop deeper personal understanding and appreciation for the biblical context, structure (Canon), authoring, meaning and historical impact of the Old Testament. Students are introduced to methods of reading biblical texts, understanding the story lines and process of interpretation with cultural contexts, and current trends in biblical research. Students are encouraged to respect the wholeness of the biblical texts. This approach assists students as they acquire new skills and tools to navigate through the Old Testament and apply its wisdom to their spiritual lives and ministry.”

Registration information is available at the VLCFF web site. Courses are $90, or $40 if you live in a partnering diocese. I hope to see you there!

The latest episode of the Catechetical Leader Podcast is on the air! I had a wonderful conversation with Joe Paprocki last week about his new book: Practice Makes Catholic: Moving from a Learned Faith to a Lived Faith. We talked about a number of topics, including

• why Catholics need to commitment themselves to community;
• how to maintain hope and joy in the faith;
• why maintaining a sense of humor is part of a healthy spirituality;
• and the repopularization of sacramentals.

You can hear the complete recording over at the Catechetical Leader web site.

You’ve designed the perfect Catholic school web site, set up your parish Facebook page, and got your DRE on Twitter. Now what?! This free webinar will outline 9½ effective social media strategies for Catholic parishes, schools, and other ministries. Find out the most important piece of information that should be on your home page; how to jump-start your Facebook page; and why your parish shouldn’t be on Twitter — but your pastor should! Sponsored by the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.

Register for free online at www2.gotomeeting.com/register/520350218.

Introduction to Scripture (March 13 through April 16, 2011) – “This presupposes that an individual has not had a general overview of the bible. This is a great place to begin. The course cannot cover everything one needs to know for navigating into the world of the scriptures but one is given a few basic concepts to begin the journey. If you have ever wondered how the Bible came about, what were some of the cultural factors which influenced the events around the writing of the Old and New Testaments, or what Church document today tell us about the Bible, you are about to begin an interesting discovery.”

Registration information is available at the VLCFF web site. Courses are $90, or $40 if you live in a partnering diocese.