Blogging+-+Why+Do+Ministers+Blog?

Assignment #1 (A&B)

Using the Catholic Blog Directory ([]), scan through the various titles. Pick three titles that interest you. Read about the author and pick one or two blog posts to read.

Expected time to complete written assignment: 20 - 30 minutes  After you have attended the webinar and read the blog pages about //Blogging: Sharing My Personal Faith Story//, your individual homework assignment this week is to identify one or two blogs that are interesting to you and to share why these ministers blog.

What are you noticing about the blogs you have scanned? In a paragraph or two, identify what you notice about the author and the mission of the blog. What is their passion?

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** Please sign in, select the "Edit" button, and add your thoughts below. When you are done, be sure to click on "SAVE." I have added the first bulleted item to get you started. ** ======

=Part A: What is their passion? =
 * Please remember to include the Name of the blog (and URL) with your comments. If possible, try to pick blogs that others are not commenting on. The main focus of this assignment is to identify WHY these authors are writing their blogs. What is their passion?
 * Name:
 * Blog title + URL
 * Why is this author writing their blog? What is their passion?

Example:
 * Name: Caroline Cerveny
 *  Catholic Web Solutions - []
 * Sr. Susan Wolf is a blogger who wants to help religious communities think strategically about integrating the Internet and Social Media into their mission; to develop a plan and then implement it. Using these new media we can enhance our member services, our membership recruitment and our outreach.


 * Name: Sheila Patenaude
 * Carl McColman's blog: []
 * Carl is a lay associate of a Trappist monastery in Georgia whose blog I have been following for about a year. I also enjoyed his recent book on the history of Christian mysticism, which received very good reviews from Fr.Richard Rohr, OFM, among others.Besides publishing 12 books, Carl has just started a new blog that educates readers on many aspects of spirituality. His passion is to share the treasures of Christian prayer and spirituality not only with Catholics, but with those of all religions. As a result, he is often asked to give talks and sessions to ecumenical audiences.


 * Name: Paul J Thomas
 * Stacy Trasancos []
 * Well, contrary to my own best interest & discernment, I decided to present my opinion on the Catholic blog by Stacy Trasancos Ph.D. She is a self described scientist who apparently ascribes to the __geocentric__ view of our life on Earth. With skillful argument and determination, she maintains the heliocentric view that the Earth is in motion has in fact never been proven. She cites various scientific experiments to support this view generally for the purpose to discredit Galileo and stick up for the 17th century fathers of the church, without question. I noticed she was originally from Texas then educated and in residence in the Northeast with her husband and 7children. I clicked on the blog name, Accepting Abundance, thinking it to be an inspirational blog on living gratefully with thanksgiving. Imagine my surprise when I started reading her thoughts, which she also publishes regularly as a contributing writer to several other Catholic publications. There were several other excellent blogs I stumbled on, but I thought it important to illustrate this example of what I would consider the type of "Catholic" blog to avoid. Someone with educational credentials and established circulation does not exempt us as readers to be extremely cautious and discerning when it comes to accepting as truth even what might be labeled as "Catholic". As great a resource tool the internet has become, blogging is an open vehicle that invites anyone, often with a mixed degree of integrity, to circulate distorted personal views that may be skewed in the light of sound faith and reason.


 * Name:Lorraine S. DeLuca
 * Fr. Christian Mathis - Blessed is the Kingdom []
 * Blessed is the Kingdom is an online forum for the exploration of the Christian faith. Fr. Mathias is a priest and considers himself a pilgrim, attempting to walk the path of conversion. He is writing the blog to encourage others to journey with him to conversion. His post vary much and he uses such things as media, podcasts of his homilies and other people, comics and many pictures that makes his blog pleasing to the eye and much more than just words. During the Lenten season he is including some writings on how to make the season more productive for growing our faith. He has a theme running through his blog, that of maxims, and is up to #36 as he continues to reflect upon Fr. Thomas Hopko's 55 Maxims for Christian Living. Fr. Christian does not just preach to others as he reflects upon these maxims but states: "I find myself running into several in a row which are extremely difficult to practice." For this reason his blog is very appealing to me - he is a journeyer just as all of us are and reflects that in his posts.


 * Name: Madeleine Vessel
 * Ron Rolheiser, OMI []
 * Ron Rolheiser, OMI, is a Roman Catholic priest, member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. His blog is in the form of a monthly column, which comments on the meaning of a word, such as "consecration" or expand on a quote, such as "When grace enters, there is no choice--humans must dance" by W. H. Auden.He writes to connect with the souls of his readers, to build a community of believers. Some of his themes are similar to the titles of his books. I have read **//The Restless Heart, The Holy Longing,//** and others. In **//The Restless Heart,//** he explores loneliness. In **//The Holy Longing,//** he takes on the "fire of desire within us." Also available on his blog is a place to subscribe to his twice-weekly meditation. I signed up for it and look forward to receiving my first installment.


 * Name: Joanna Haston
 * Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs L.A. [|cardinalmahonyblogsla.blogspot.com]
 * Cardinal Mahony is writing this blog to let people know what is going on in the life of the Church in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and beyond. Almost every post has a link to an article or other source of information making the topics of his posts very timely and quite interesting, for example, the latest is about the Alabama law that keeps the undocumented or illegal from working, driving, or attending school and the repercussions on the Alabama economy. An earlier post was about the trip to Rome in June of the L.A. delegation witnessing the giving of the pallium to "new" Archbishop Jose Gomez. What is a pallium, you ask? That is exactly what Cardinal Mahony asked and answered with a link to an explanation! It seems to me that Cardinal Mahony's passion is being Church and sharing his enthusiam and love - and the challenges - for being so.
 * I found the variey of the blogs we choose to speak about quite interesting! Paul, you are so right in stating that we have to be cautious and discerning. Lorraine, I want to learn more about those maxims. If there are this many "identified" Catholic blogs, no wonder there are so many out there. No wonder so many people are "lost" on their computers. Blogs might just be more interesting than the people sitting across the table!


 * Name: Joanna Haston
 * Diana Macalintal - Work of the People [|dsj.org/being-catholic/worship/work-of-the-people]
 * Diana is the director of the Office of Worship in the Diocese of San Jose in California and her blog is about EVERYTHING of liturgical interest in the diocese. She is technologially and liturgically and in almost all ways AMAZING. Her passion is, of course, liturgy celebrated well. (I would love to make the Office of Liturgical Education page for the DLC something like hers. That would be my capstone project!)

=Part B: Do you agree or disagree? =

After listening to Scott Rosenberg's video, //10 Myths About Blogs//, do you agree or disagree with what Scott states in the video? Why? Please post your name with your answer.
 * Sr.Sheila Patenaude


 * After listening to Rosenberg's video, I agree with what he says. Though my own experience in reading and replying to blogs is still rather limited, I have also discovered that blog sites are like a huge library. One must be selective and choose sites that are compatible with one's interests, ministry, personality, etc. The fact that there are millions of blogs out there, some of which are not true "journalism", and some of which might seem trivial or obscene to me personally does not detract from the reality that I can choose WHICH blogs to open, read, and comment on--just as I can choose which book to read and which TV show to watch.


 * Name: Paul J Thomas
 * Overall I am in agreement with Scott Rosenberg's statements on the 10 Myths. I found them fairly obvious in terms of debunking any of the 10 as absolute. I'm not sure what his source of the 10 myths are, but even without his thoughts I would not personally accept any of the 10 as absolute either. That being said, if I had to choose one that I came close to agreeing with it might be a toss up between number 4 or 5. The trust issue of every blogger and the amount of blogs in existence are legitimate critiques (in my opinion). But still, myths 4 & 5 strike me as basically subjective reactions that certainly deserve more thought. It comes down to an individual's own common sense and formation to determine the credibility of anything they read; blog, book, or other. In any case, I found Mr. Rosenberg's video both entertaining and thought provoking.


 * Name: Lorraine S. DeLuca
 * Having just begun investigating blogs, it is hard for me to agree or disagree with Scott Rosenberg's debunking of the 10 myths about blogs. Just looking at the list of Catholic Blogs through the link above does make me think that his #4 of there are too many blogs may be true. But we have to learn how to discriminate between what is a good blog that is in tune with Church teaching and what may just be personal opinion. My concern is that some people without theological background will accept what is said because a website/blog is listed as Catholic. I also looked at one called "Beautiful Day" that mainly contained pictures of her children and then a link to "Catholic" recipes for Lent, and assume it is included in the list because the person is Catholic. In this case she is not presenting any teaching but that may be going on in other blogs. So I guess I would agree with Scott's myth "Bloggers Can't be Trusted" by adding the word ALL.


 * Name: Madeleine Vessel
 * I enjoyed Scott Rosenberg's debunking of the //10 Myths About Blogs,// and, though I do not have much experience reading blogs and have no experience writing blogs, I felt comfortable with his rebuttal. I was particularly amused by the myth, "Blogging Will Kill or Replace Journalism." It's more likely, in my mind, that journalism is more threatened by its own practices than by blogging. The myth, "Bloggers Can't Be Trusted" struck a chord in that this statement could apply to almost anything we pick up at the bookstore, the newsstand, or light on while surfing the Web. One must conduct sufficient background research on any writer to ascertain their reliability. And, as a researcher, I am used to relying on triangulation to test any content I read. By this, I mean I make it a practice to use three different, reliable sources to verify any doubtful facts I come across.


 * Joanna Haston
 * Can I just "copy" what everyone has already said? Never having explored blogs until this class, I have no experience, and like Lorraine and Madelaine, not much to go on. However, I have watched David Letterman's "Ten Reasons Why" and Scott Rosenberg's "debunking" seems almost as tongue in cheek. (But then maybe I miss the point?) So, do I agree or disagree? If blogging is dead #8, I am going to be behind the times. If bloggers can't be trusted #6, then why are there so many? Blogging is not going to kill or replace journalism #2 in terms of the traditional media; it's going to enhance it, as I saw in the blogs I investigated. Scott's making and posting this video is just another way to promote blogs by getting people to read and think about them, it seems to me!

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