This is the project that I have been working on throughout January.  We released this video on Thursday afternoon and it had 50 hits within two hours.

We have had some initial positive response (not to mention the two office co-workers who caught my verbal mis-speak regarding Mother Mary Lange,and not Elizabeth Ann Seton.)

I’m jazzed about the possibilities here, not only for the program, but for the way to communicate eye-to-eye with our field via video.

Please keep Project Be in your prayers.

Blessed are you!!!

Facebook is fascinating.  (Don’t even get me started on the ten simultaneous FB chats I was having yesterday with people who were all in the same room attending an in-service on Climate Change up in Newport)  Yesterday, I received a multitude of birthday greetings,many via facebook, which was very sweet. No facebook birthday greeting, however, was more interesting than this one!!!!!   Darn it, now I’m wishing I “friended” his Blessed Mother, as well!!!!  Maybe next year!

If you were around the blog last year at this time, you watched my 50th birthday doings with as much bemusement as I experienced living them out.

It’s a much quieter celebration in store for me this year, primarily due to my co-worker and friend Kristin being shipped out of town.

There is a little bit of serenity that has come with age which I have begun to refer to as my “arrogant son-of-a-gun” factor.  (Well, actually I use slightly stronger language than that, but there are ladies and Steeler fans reading the blog, soooo  . . .)

It takes a certain amount of chutzpah or cojones to do this “digital thing;” have a blog, to put out self-produced videos, to facebook or twiitter . . . It all seems like “hey, look over here, look at me…!” I think that each of us has a little something to prove to the world each day and I’m not above that…. 

But, really none of those are the reasons I do any of this “digital thing” . . . and I truly believe that I could toss the whole lot of it off a virtual cliff and never look back in regret.  

There are moments that I am amazed at the arrogance that just because I have posted something onto the interweb, that it makes a difference, but, seemingly, every now and then it does.  I am touched and awed by those moments and never take them for granted.  That’s because I do view all this stuff as a service/ ministry.  I’ve learned so much by doing it and believe that it has made me a more effective “real time” minister as well.

So, on this day of quiet celebration, please allow me to thank you for stopping on by, reading, and occasionally dropping a comment.  May God grant us all the energy, grace, and a lil’ bit o’ arrogance to keep doing that which we do.

Lansing’s Pat Rinker, in the NFCYM Connections e-newsletter offers a brilliant presentation on the entwined relationship between evangelization and catechesis… between encounter and content.  Here’s a short snip:

Content, separate from effective witness, is at best impotent and at worst counterproductive. The key to our effectiveness in sharing the good news is our own conversion, as we humbly walk the journey of faith, in communion with those with whom we share it. Our dialogue regarding catechesis, from this point on, must never separate methodology and content into separate entities, but realize that one is a natural outgrowth of the other. Insomuch as we are the Body of Christ, and insomuch as, “Christ, the first evangelizer, is himself the Good News who proclaims the kingdom of God…” so must we be the good news as we share the good news with all we encounter.

Read it all here.

The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry‘s annual membership meeting is underway this week.

For the last fourteen years in a row, I have been present at this meeting . . . as a representative of a member diocesan staff office, as a task group chair, as a management committee member, an in-service trainer, last year’s 50th birthday honoree, and as part of my stint on the national staff. Hey, I was even at the meeting back in 1982 in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where the NFCYM was founded!

In these fiscally challenging times, however, ArchBalt has curtailed out-of-diocese travel, so … I’m sitting out the meeting going on now in Newport, Rhode Island.

This is probably how Cal Ripken felt during his game on the bench . . . Sorta sucks!

SNOW DAY! Well, actually, yesterday was the snow day (and I spent most of it in the office.)  Today, is an ice day, with the office presently on two-hour delayed opening if it opens at all. is on liberal leave policy today. (I’m feeling liberal right now!)

As our culture has hit a winter of its own, it is important to remain hopeful.

As part of the continuing Catholic Youth Ministry Stimulus Package, here is a short reminder that, no matter what our own fears and trepidations might be, we are a people of community and hope.

Seek hope!

Hours after the inauguration crowds overwhelmed DC, there came another crowd, youthful and hopeful. . .

BALTIMORE, MD — Ginny Dauses, campus minister for St. Mary’s High School in Annapolis, witnessed students making that same choice. She went to the march with about 220 students and 30 to 40 chaperones. It doesn’t surprise her that about 40 percent of St. Mary’s students voluntarily chose to sign up for the march, even though it involved arriving early in the morning and getting home later than they might on a normal school day.  “I think teenagers recognize the truth that a person is a person no matter how small more than any adult does,” said Ms. Dauses. “Am I encouraging them? Yeah. Am I giving them an outlet so they can express it? Yeah. But I’m not forcing them. This wasn’t mandated and over one-third of our school attended. … And that’s pretty amazing if you think about it.” More here.

DUBUQUE, IA — Local participation set a record at the DC march. The Dubuque contingent was mostly young people, according to Colleen Pasnik, executive assistant at Dubuque County Right to Life. Seven buses, each holding between 50 and 55 passengers, left the Dubuque area early Tuesday night and will be returning about noon Saturday. More here.

BUCYRUS,OH — Three young women from Bucyrus High School marched to protest abortion in Washington, D.C.  Senior Emily Reser, junior Erin Rittenour and sophomore Ali Tuttle are members of the Pro-Life Club. Thursday, they joined about 300,000 like-minded people in the 36th annual March for Life. The girls proudly wore their BHS Pro-Life Club “Lifesavers” T-shirts that read, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” At the right the girls posed with the Rev. Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life. More here.

FORT WAYNE, IN — Bishop John D’Arcy was at the march. He hoped it would  encourage young people to stand up for what he calls the “ultimate civil rights issue.” Bishop D’Arcy said, “One of my great joys as a Bishop and one of my responsibilities is to foster the faith of the young and to bring them closer to God. So, to be with them, to march in our nation’s capitol with them, to pray with them is the reason I’m going.” More here.

MANCHESTER, NH — Among them were six busloads of Granite Staters who made the long journey to take part in the national movement. Greg Denis, 16, from Manchester, joined more than 120 of his friends and classmates from Trinity High School at the March. He made the journey for much different reason than most. Sixteen years ago, Greg was placed up for adoption. Greg is marching to thank his birth mother for choosing life. He declared with a smile, “if I ever meet her, the first thing I will do is thank her for having me.” More here.

And then everything changed, and it changed forever. Everything came to us in a devise that could fit into our pocket.

We went back out into the world.  We listen to what we loved when we liked. We played what we wanted where we chose.

We shared what inspired us with everyone we cared about. We carried our sense of purpose with us. We discovered new people with places and experiences.

Our sense of purpose kept growing.  It was the end of something; it was the beginning of everything.

Welcome to the fourth screen!

(Adam McCain wonders how we in church,  in youth ministry, will respond to this shift in culture.)

While ArchBalt preached fiscal responsibility last Friday (and not layoffs or furloughs,) the church is experiencing hits.  Rocco reported that layoffs were recently announced in the archdioceses of St Louis (25 positions — 6% of its central work-force) and the diocese of Yakima, where half its 32 chancery posts will be eliminated. What’s more, in the nation’s sixth-largest diocese, Brooklyn, the closing of 11 schools was confirmed last week, making for a total of almost 40% shuttered since 2002. In another part of the 1.7 million-member diocese’s effort to streamline operations, longtime chancery employees were offered early-retirement packages late last month, with the warning that those who didn’t take the buyout might still lose their jobs.

For those praying “How long, Lord,will this last???”, here is a sign of the time to watch this week:

Investors this week will face the largest batch of company report cards yet, in what is quickly shaping up to be the worst quarter for corporate profits in a decade.

The earnings avalanche will test the market’s mettle. Last week, the Dow fought back after falling below the 8,000 point psychological benchmark for four days in a row. Analysts say if the Dow can hang on to this level in the weeks ahead, that’s a good indication that a bottom has been set.

More here.

The Vatican launched the channel, www.youtube.com/vatican, on Friday as its latest effort to use new technologies to get its message out to the masses.

Meanwhile, the pope released a message in conjunction with World Communications Day (May 24): New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.

Pope Benedict XVI asked young Catholics to use their computers, Facebook accounts, blogs and Internet video posts to share with their peers the joy of faith in Christ. “Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm,” the pope told young people in his message for the 2009 celebration of World Communications Day. “Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth and where identity is found in respectful communion.”

While the Pope praised the way young people use the Internet to form and maintain friendships, he also cautioned against trivializing friendship by not forming real, face-to-face relationships. “It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation,” Pope Benedict said. “If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development,” the pope said.

Still, Pope Benedict said, new technologies have an “extraordinary potential” to bring people together, to help them share information, to rally them to work for good causes and to educate.  More here.