Saturday, June 24, 2006
    Absent be the blogger
I’ve always tried to be consistent about posting up daily. There are times, however, when I need to step away for a break, either self-imposed or determined by the conditions around me.  I’m away until next Friday night participating and serving banana pancakes on the Justice Action Week (JAW) program.  Say a prayer for all the kids.  Thanks. [blogging]
  blessed be the bloggers
The popularity of faith-based blogs is challenging the way religious institutions function and leveling the field between clergy and laity. Blogs give ordinary people a pulpit and make clergy one of a crowd. Read more here.  [blogging]
  Happy balto-versary
Yes, I have been working for the Archdiocese of Baltimore for exactly one year as of yesterday.  I spent a majority of the day driving the red-bird home from a meeting in Washington, DC.  It was a delightful time.  [work day]
    watch adolescent catechesis bloom
During the 2006 National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry (NCCYM), a unique series of eight presentations will be offered for those involved in faith formation at the parish, school, and diocesan level. This special track will examine some of the best models and methods being used today to help form the faith of younger and older adolescents.  Read more here.  [youth ministry]

  Friday, June 23, 2006
    More inconvenient truth
Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years. Read more here.  [culture]
   Is "MySPACE" a SAFE(R) PLCE?
MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users. Read more here. But, will the new security measures for young users of MySpace.com be enough to stop online child predators?  Read more here. [blogging]
  Think Archbishop Wuerl would sign my yearbook?
Church hierarchy stalkers, have I got something-something for you!!! The USCCB (note: Two posts in a row about the USCCB.  Your diocesan taxes at work!) has just published the 2006 Membership Photo Directory which includes photos of the approximately 400 U.S. Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops, together with biographical information, mailing addresses, office phone and fax numbers, and where available, their e-mail addresses. Read more here. [church]

  Thursday, June 22, 2006
  catechetical Sunday change up
Dan Mulhall from the USCCB recently announced that the Bishops’ Committee on Catechesis has made some minor changes regarding the themes for future Catechetical Sundays. Since at least 1991 Catechetical Sunday themes have been developed from the Sunday readings of the day. These themes were often determined and publicized several years in advance.
The Committee on Catechesis decided that it wanted to change the practice for selecting the Catechetical Sunday theme. Because the focus of the day is on catechesis and the role of catechists, starting in 2007 the theme will now be taken from one of the Church’s catechetical documents. In addition, the Committee has decided to select each year’s theme no more than a year in advance to allow the theme to better reflect current issues within the wider Church, such as the recently completed Year of the Eucharist.
The following, previously announced themes for Catechetical Sunday 2007 (Seek the Lost) and 2008 (Summon the Laborers), will not be used. Please make this change in your records. The new theme for Catechetical Sunday 2007 is "Catechesis: Encountering the Living Christ." The theme for 2008 will be chosen in January 2007. Catechetical Sunday 2006 will be celebrated nationally on the third weekend of September (September 17, 2006) with the theme "Who Do You Say That I Am." [church]

  Wednesday, June 21, 2006
  summer has arrived
** In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.  ~Albert Camus
** People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.  ~Anton Chekhov
** Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.  ~Henry James
** Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.    ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow    [culture]
  only one more week to go
It very well might be the movie of the summer. I have three paragraphs of an article already written and the movie has yet to be released. Coming soon to a theater near you: Superman Returns. [culture]

  Tuesday, June 20, 2006
  wake up, America
The sunbeams wake you with dance and song.  Wake up, you sleepyhead, it’s a happy morning and you can sleep when you are dead! Watch Folger’s Tolerate Mornings commercial here. [funny stuff]
AAN inconvenient truTHh
Just saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth. "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Al Gore. Besides that the film involves an incredible power-point (which you know I loved), it also allows Gore to connect his own human story to our environmental crisis. It is a must-see. We’ve got to focus up on this and help lead our young people’s vision towards it. "It’s not a political issue," Gore indicates, "it’s a moral issue." 
* See Gore’s interview with Katie Couric on Today here.
  * USCCB’s Environmental Justice Program here.
* US Catholic’s article Environmental Justice 101 here.
  * America’s article Environmental Justice: A Catholic Voice here.
  * Find the National Religious Partnership for the Environment here.
  * Read the May cover story of Vanity Fair here.
The most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution. Often, the interests of production prevail over concern for the dignity of workers, while economic interests take priority over the good of individuals and even entire peoples. –Pope John Paul II, World Day of Peace Message, 1/1/90  [culture]

  Monday, June 19, 2006
church baby jumping
In this age of child protection, it is reassuring to know that elsewhere in the church (Spain), we celebrate Corpus Christi by jumping over babies.  Read more here if you are confused as I was. [church]
My new favorite line
There we are, at a World Youth Day meeting, planning for Summer, 2008.  Some express concern about the very long trip to Sydney, Australia. Can we stop for an overnight in Los Angeles?  Sure, we’ll take that under consideration.  How about Hawaii?  That would be a lei-over! (This morning, leis showed up on my desk!) [funny stuff]

  Sunday, June 18, 2006 (Father’s Day)
the blessing of children
Truly, I have been blessed with three great kids. The youngest Meghan sent off a multitude of great Yahoo e-cards this morning and started my day off with song and happiness.  She bravely loads up on bouncy planes to occasionally visit her old man and seems to genuinely treasure the time she spend with me (as I do with her.) Clark called in yesterday from somewhere in Wyoming.  It was a luxurious call with stories, things learned, and updates on life.  Nichole, the oldest, would be surprised to learn that she reminds her father most of himself- she is working her way into adulthood with trial and error and in the company of friends.  Truly, I have been blessed with three great kids. [friends and family]

  Saturday, June 17, 2006
Award winning friends
The NFCYM has announced the recipients of the National Catholic Youth Ministry Awards to be presented in Las Vegas during the NCCYM.  They include:
* Artist Performer Award – Anna Scally, Cornerstone Media
* Athletic Award – Joe McNesby, Diocese of Wilmington
* Diocesan Award – Joyce Gillooly, Diocese of Pittsburgh
* Girl Scout/Camp Fire Award – Phyllis Willerscheidt, Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis
* Gospel Values Award – Jerry Goebel, ONEFamily Outreach
* Multicultural Gifts Award – Rey Malave, The National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, La Red
* National Award – Tom East, Center for Ministry Development
*  Trainer Award – Mike Patin, Animation, Facilitation and Coaching Ministries [friends and family]
is mary beth really selling real estate?
Seemingly, yes.  Mary Beth Bonacci is (still doing chastity gigs, but also) selling real estate. Read more here. [youth ministry]

  Friday, June 16, 2006
Prayers requested for Bishop Fran and Family
This morning, Bishop Fran Malooly and his family will celebrate the mystery of life in a funeral liturgy for his mother.  Please keep him in your prayers. He’s one of the many good ones.  [church]
And with your spirit
After 15 years of heated argument with the Vatican over how best to translate the Latin liturgy into English, the nation’s Catholic bishops voted 173-29 to accept a new translation that hews more closely to Latin wording than the prayers now in use. Read more here. [church]
  Will you still need me, will you still feed me?
On Sunday, Sir Paul McCartney turns 64.  Hopefully he can find the hints of serenity that he pined for when he sang "When I’m 64" on the landmark 1967 album, "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band." "You can knit a sweater by the fireside, Sunday mornings go for a ride, Doing the garden, digging the weeds, Who could ask for more?"  Read more here. [culture]

  Thursday, June 15, 2006
Welcome youth specialties friends!!!!
Isn’t this the way it always is???  You are a daily blogger for months on end.  When you walk away, you let your dozen or so usual readers know you stepping away from the keyboard.  But, you suddenly get into a very busy week leading into a staff overnight at a campground sans wireless. But. . .  what difference does it make?  Your dozen or so readers will forgive ya’, and wonder where the heck were ya’ were. This, of course, is the time that your heroes at Youth Specialties declare your site as the featured blog on this week’s YS Update!!! Your readership increases twenty-fold. Awesome!  Thanks, YS!  and WELCOME to all brothers and sisters in faith!  [blogging]
   Encuentro update
The church must help Hispanic youths "escape from the morally ambiguous environment" of U.S. society, said Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange, Calif. They want a solid religious education that allows them to live according to "human and Christian criteria," he said in Spanish June 10. Society’s moral ambiguity is especially acute for young people who cross the border into the United States, he added. Bishop Soto, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Youth and Young Adults, spoke during the June 8-11 National Encuentro for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry at the University of Notre Dame. The "encuentro," Spanish for "gathering," was the first national meeting of its kind. Its theme was "Weaving Together the Future." [church]
   We know we are not perfect
"Let us resolve to deal with the world as it is but never to accept that we are powerless to make it better than it is – not perfect, but better. America will lead the cause of freedom in our world not because we think ourselves perfect. To the contrary, we cherish democracy and champion its ideals because we know we are not perfect," – secretary of state Condi Rice, to the Southern Baptist Association.  [culture]

  Monday, June 12, 2006
regime change
Yesterday, Megs and I went to Mass.  (While acknowledging that most of our usual crowd had attended Confirmation the night before. . .) there was a whole slate of unrecognizable (to me) folks who were taking up a collection for a youth ministry fund-raiser yesterday. Ministry continues in the parish. [parish]
The day of naps
Twice, Meghan attempted to pack her bags yesterday.  Twice, her efforts were interrupted by a nap. It was that kind of day.  [family and friends]

  Saturday, June 10, 2006
Encuentro update
Some 2,000 young adult Latino adherents are meeting with U.S. Catholic leaders this weekend to find ways to keep Hispanics in the church at a time when many are growing inactive or converting to other religions. Close to half of all Catholics in the United States under age 25 are Hispanic, but a 2002 poll by the Pew Hispanic Center found that younger generations were more likely than their immigrant parents to adopt non-Catholic religions or to become agnostic. Read more here. [church]
welcome home nicole
Nicole Kidman’s marriage to country singer Keith Urban this month will mark a new stage on her spiritual journey. A close religious confidant to the actor – Sydney Jesuit priest Father Paul Coleman – has revealed that Kidman’s wedding preparations have helped deepen her Catholic faith. Read more here. [culture]
  Camp for mis-spent youth
Woke up this morning to an apartment filled with four young women sleeping over. Fed them all banana pancakes and sausage. [family and friends]
my mis-spent youth
Last night, I was up at the Msgr. O’Dwyer Youth Retreat House volunteering for the annual Raffle and Silent Auction.  I spent about two hours pouring beer and wine, something for which I discovered I seemingly have a latent talent. [work day]

  Friday, June 9, 2006
encuentro
Please extend a prayer for our many brothers and sisters who are gathered for the First National Encounter for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry in South Bend this weekend.  [church]
Youth Ministry Philly Style
The Philadelphia Inquirer has done an extensive series on the Catholic Church. Cardinal Justin Rigali declined an invitation for an audio interview but did submit some soundbite responses to questions. He was asked "What can Church leaders do to steer young people, and future generations, toward greater orthodoxy, piety and practice?" Listen here for his answer. [youth ministry]

  Thursday, June 8, 2006
Youth Ministry OLD school style
The Church Fathers had a distinctive approach to youth ministry.
Now, don’t jump to conclusions. I haven’t uncovered any evidence that St. Ambrose led teens on ski trips in the nearby Alps. Nor is there anything to suggest that St. Basil sponsored junior-high dances in Pontus. (There’s not even a hint of a pizza party.) In fact, if you check all the documentary evidence from all the ancient patriarchates of the East and the West, you won’t find a single bulletin announcement for a single parish youth group.
Yet the Fathers had enormous success in youth and young-adult ministry. Many of the early martyrs were teens, as were many of the Christians who took to the desert for the solitary life. There’s ample evidence that a disproportionate number of conversions, too, came from the young and youngish age groups.
How did the Fathers do it?
They made wild promises.
They promised young people great things, like persecution, lower social status, public ridicule, severely limited employment opportunities, frequent fasting, a high risk of jail and torture, and maybe, just maybe, an early, violent death at the hands of their pagan rulers.
The Fathers looked young people in the eye and called them to live purely in the midst of a pornographic culture. They looked at some young men and women and boldly told them they had a calling to virginity. And it worked. Even the pagans noticed how well it worked. Read more here. [youth ministry]
New school of thought on Youth Ministry
The Holy Father then highlighted the importance of the new generations feeling that the Church "is a company of friends, one that is truly trustworthy and remains close in all the moments and circumstances of life, … and that will never abandon us even in death, because it carries in itself the promise of eternity."
Young people and adolescents, he went on, "must be disabused of the widespread prejudice that Christianity, with its commandments and its prohibitions, places too many obstacles to the joy of love, and in particular that it prevents the full enjoyment of the happiness that man and woman find in their mutual love. … The Ten Commandments are not a series of ‘nos’, but a big ‘yes’ to love and to life. Human love must be purified, it must mature and go beyond its own limits in order to become truly human, to be the origin of true and lasting joy, to respond to that demand for eternity it carries within itself and which it cannot relinquish without betraying itself. This is the fundamental reason for which love between man and woman is fully realized only in marriage."
Another dimension of the faith, the Pope went on, "is entrusting oneself to a person: not to any person but to Jesus Christ" Who "fills our hearts, expanding them and imbuing them with joy, spurring our intelligence towards unexplored horizons, offering His decisive standpoint to our freedom, thus raising it up from the straits of egoism and making it capable of authentic love." Read more here. [youth ministry]

  Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Because John loves a good shout-out
www.dscottmiller.com covers a wide variety of services but should never be confused with I.T.! (information technologies.)  [family and friends]

  Tuesday, 06/06/06
she’s giving me a devil of a time
It occurred to me this morning that we rarely if never use female pronouns when speaking of the devil.  Why is that? [funny stuff]

Report from Clark
who has called from "on site" at the Totus Tuus program.  He is in a small town somewhere near the Colorado-Nebraska border. He described it as a town with one stop sign and a citizenry that shares one of four possible last names. All is well.  Offer a prayer for the lad and his team. [family and friends]
he’s coming, but not here or We can breathe again looking towards May 2007
It was suggested that if Baltimore wasn’t mentioned, then most likely Baltimore is not on the itinerary. [pope]

  Monday, June 5, 2006  
here he comes or As if May 2007 was not already looking busy enough
This was in LaStampa on Saturday.  The time frame does not mention Baltimore specifically but the time frame (two weeks) would allow for it and the basilica would be along B’16′s northward path.
Pope Benedict to pray at Ground Zero: Pan-American trip in 2007 takes shape  By Marco Tosatti
  Benedict XVI wishes to go to New York, to Ground Zero, to pray for the victims of terrorism and to launch from that symbolic place an appeal for planetary reconciliation.
  At the Vatican, they are studying the possibility of having the Pope complete a major pan-American journey in early 1977 to end in New York, with a speech by Papa Ratzinger before the General Assembly of the United Nations and the prayer at the site where once stood the Twin Towers.
  The take-off point for the project, which is expected to take final shape this summer, is Benedict’s promise to open, in May 2007, the fifth General Conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops in the Marian sanctuary of Aparecida, Brazil (South America’s second most visited and famous Marian shrine, after that of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico). 
  This is an appointment of great significance for the Church in that continent, which will be deciding its strategy for the years to come.
  It will be a tiring trip. The Pope is 79; he will be 80 in April 2007. It is obvious that he should marshal his energies as best as he can. Therefore, it means optimizing this trip to avoid having to repeat a similar trajectory in the near future. 
  He will be in Brazil 2-3 days, after which he will head north to Caracas. Why Venezuela? Because, beyond its geopolitical importance, it is the nation that is carrying out political leadership activity aimed at all of Latin America; because the Church, which has a watchful attitude, if not open opposition, towards President Hugo Chavez, is in need of support in that country (it was not by chance that Benedict XVI made the Archbishop of Caracas a cardinal, to give him power and prestige with respect to the government); and because from Venezuela, the Pope wishes to address himself to all of Central America and Cuba.
  From Caracas, Benedict will travel to Mexico City and the Sanctuary of Guadalupe, very famous and much visited (millions of pilgrims every year), the place where the native Juan Diego had a vision of the Virgin, whose image was imprinted on his cloak, according to tradition – the first image of a native Indian Madonna.
It simply is not conceivable that a Pope would travel across the  Atlantic – for perhaps the only time in this case – and not visit Mexico, semper fidelis (always faithful), a nation which lives with an intense popular devotion as well as an equally strong secularism. The tensions between Church and state are permanent. On his first trip there in 1979, John Paul II could have been arrested for wearing a cassock in public, something that was prohibited by law. Scott comment: But will he stop at the Basilica of the Assumption, America’s first cathedral and the premier see of the United States?
  Finally, the last stop – New York, with two very important moments. He will address the United Nations General Assembly, where Paul VI in 1965 and John Paul II in 1995  both delivered historic speeches. 
  Above all, however, he will be there to pray at Ground Zero, for the victims of terrorism. This is a mission that his predecessor had wanted to do in July 2002 on his way to World Youth Day in Toronto.
  But two things decided against it: The first was the Pope’s health which had already started to decline. But the bigger reason was the political climate. It was the peak of polemics over the “clash of civilizations.”  A few months earlier, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Pope’s Secretary of State, had said: “They cannot ask us to place ourselves behind cannons,” and the image of the Pope praying at the still-smoldering ruins of the Twin Towers would have immediately become the icon of an anti-Taliban crusade.
  Now it is different. The context in which Benedict XVI will find himself will be very different: “Freedom Tower”, a crystal needle that will project a ray of light heavenwards, will be under construction, along with its surrounding urban amenities, its gardens, the memorial pools containing the names of all the dead, and other buildings in the complex.
  The Pope’s presence will be a gesture of remembrance and homage to the victims of the attack, but also a sign of hope for the future. From New York, the Pope will return to Rome.
  The travels (except the trans-oceanic flights) should all take place along a narrow longitude that allows for the minimum difference in time zones (just 1-2 hours from one country to the next). They are also studying how to alternate days of activity with a rest period in order to minimize travel fatigue on a trip that is expected to last about two weeks.  [pope]

  Sunday, June 4, 2006  Pentecost
former youth ministers
Went to the annual National Association for Lay Ministry meeting in Cleveland over the weekend.  Offered a workshop connecting the past, present, and future of Catholic youth ministry to the Co-Workers in the Vineyard document. See the powerpoint here. Last night, Bob McCarty of the NFCYM received the "Spirit of the Conference" award. In his acknowledgement of the award, he ask the approximately 250 present how many had at one time in their lives served in youth ministry.  Almost half the room raised their hands. Bob credited this as youth ministry’s contribution to the church.  Hopefully, the hand-raisers are all have better post-youth ministry experiences than this one.  (Speaking of hand-raisers, kudos to John for keeping the NDDI commitment. You’ve been in my thoughts and prayers!) [youth ministry]
happy birthday church
And, on the vigil of Pentecost, Benedict offers these reflections on the mission of the Church: Dear friends, I ask you to be – even more, so much more – than collaborators in the universal apostolic ministry of the Pope, opening the doors to Christ. This is the best service that the Church can do for men and especially so for the poor, so that a person’s life, a more just order in society, and peaceful coexistence among nations may find in Christ the keystone on which to construct an authentic civilization, the civilization of love.
The Holy Spirit grants to believers a higher vision of the world, of life, of history, and makes them guardians of the hope that never disappoints. [pope]
refocusing timeline
Yes, editing will be done today, meeting my own self-imposed time-line.  Worksheets and training session outlines… well, soon. Countdown to Pentecost: 0 days.

  Friday, June 2, 2006 
The web site giveth, the web site get-eth
And so in those moments where you question the effort of an avocation, see Morning below, ya gets a freebie power-point (good job, Chris! Thank for sharing.) on the DaVinci Code and ya gets a weekend training offer for the fall.  OK, the web site stays up for a while longer. [blogging]
Papal Rainbow 
He goes to his predecessor’s homeland to acknowledge their gift to the Church. Then, a German Pope visits Auschwitz in Poland. Amidst the embodiment of evil in this world, God still offers a sign of His promise.  Well played, Lord! [pope]
   Marriage is for white people
This stunning editorial comment, from no lesser a paper than the Washington Post, is making the rounds again on the internet.  I understand Dr. Dobson took it on recently at Focus on the Family. Read more here. [culture]
world youth day themes 
can be found for 2006 through 2008 at the Vatican’s website. Read more here. [pope/world youth day]

  Thursday, June 1, 2006 
Morning
Has it really been this simple all along?  I’ve been commenting on malaise in the catechetical field for the past year and been prescribing the fix of a claim of a new morning.  Yet, in the past seven days, I’ve been personally suffering malaise. I’ve done a brilliant job rationalizing it, explaining it, even embracing it. I just haven’t been able to kick it. . . and yet, it’ morning in dscottmiller.com land and suddenly the heaviness has lifted. Has it really been this simple all along? Game on. [blogging]