It’s month-end posting time.  As an added bonus, and something that we have not done in a long while, here is a lovely wordle review of the content of the past month.

It’s a great devise to use for a training, long article whatever.  Upload the text and see what “word cloud”  is generated from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. (As always, click on the image to enlarge.)

So… Catholic, Youth, and Ministry all seem pretty prominent… good, good. I probably, however, should use the Lord’s name a little more…

The site meter has just recently recovered from the great crash of late March… so we continue to just be guessing regarding top posts for this month!

Although I once attended a local gathering of the National Pastoral Musicians,

I don’t pretend to actually be one

(unless, of course, I pull out my cowbell.)

But, now I understand that if you have down these four basic chords,

D, A, Bm, and G, (the faithful chords)

you can get through most praise and worship music and an occasional U2 song.

Enjoy!

h/t to Jack Regan of CatholicYouthWork.com

 Be
who God meant you to be
and
you will set the world on fire.

Bishop of London, Richard Chatres
started his royal wedding homily this morning
with a quote from St. Catherine of Siena.

Do you really care that the apathy that you might experience from others but be your own darn fault?  Is is true that people are too selfish, too stupid, or too lazy to really make a difference?

How do you encourage engagement?

Do you place the basic information is front or do you intentionally exclude?

Do you not only advocate but fully resource others for advocacy?

Do you make ministry “a spectator sport?”

Do you offer the message that a heroic effort is a collective effort… that is a chosen voluntary effort?

in your next effort, how will you communicate to those that you are leading that you believe that they are amazing and smart and do care?

h/t to Brad Griffin

No, no, no…. The CaptionThis feature of the blog runs on the first Saturday of the month..

so that does not explain posting such a picture…

At the NCCYM in New Orleans, the lads of Popple sang of Ministry in the ‘80’s.  Maybe we have just found archival evidence of such stuff.

Of course, both Mike Carotta and Mike Patin both celebrate birthdays this very day.  Could this all tie into together in some sort of evil synchronicity?

Ahhhh, you know me so well.  Happy Birthday, Mike(s)!

Here’s some new language to try out throughout this summer with young people.

Be a new kind of missionary.

We need traders

Trade in the pursuit of the American Dream for a world in need of Christ.

The mission you are on makes you a missionary- responding to what makes your heart break and your fist clench.

. . .

Here’s what I hope.  That you will find a way to lift this video and share it with young people.  I think that it will speak to them.

MediaConverter

KeepVid

and even you irregular types (and you know who you are)…  Thank you for hanging in there with us over the last six weeks – a blog like Lent—where we wandered through the desert of the destruction and reconstruction of the site after we came under attack. 

The functions are all back up, including the ShareThis stuff illustrated on your right. If you want them, all you have to do is click in the post title and they will appear inserted in the post.

If you find an article that you like, please do share it through your facebook or twitter accounts… it really does make a difference!

In 1974, the school was a “typical Catholic college,” suffering from cultural and financial upheavals. But new leadership, then took the opportunity “to step out in faith, and do something radical – because a radical solution was needed.”

That leader took a leap of faith to renew the school’s Catholic identity and set out to “make Jesus Christ the Lord of the campus in every aspect.”

I’ve been to that school.  It is so easy to imagine it as a no-nothing bump on a hill not making much of a difference.  But, today, that is certainly not the way of Franciscan University of Steubenville and definitely was not the way of that leader, Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR.

Recently, FUS announced that its chancellor and past president Father Michael Scanlan will be retiring on June 30, 2011.  When we retire, may we all be creditied with thinking so boldly and setting such clear direction.

Deep in the earth
After a long winter of silence

The tomb of death
Becomes the womb of darkness again

And there it is and there we are—
Everything and everyone—

Waiting to explode
Our hearts burning within us

Waiting to be born again
To return to the light
To awake from dreaming
To rise to new life
To ascend to the heavens

And become the posterity
Of a new heaven and a new earth

That will last beyond
The end of time.

Spiritual Reading for the Liturgical Christian