Author: Deacon Nick

Patrick O'Brian

Books and Reading

Rare Patrick O’Brian Interview

As some of you know, I am a great fan of Patrick O’Brian’s series of Napoleonic-era naval stories featuring Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin. Patrick O’Brian was a very private man, and interview footage of him is hard to come by, so I was thrilled when I recently discovered that C-Span has posted the interview O’Brian gave to Walter Cronkite in 1999.  C-Span is not allowing the video to be embedded on other sites, so you’ll have to follow the link to watch it, but it’s...

Our Father

Prayer / Spirituality / Theology

Notes and Resources on the Lord’s Prayer

Last night’s RCIA presentation on the Lord’s Prayer went better than I could have ever imagined.  It’s amazing how much the Holy Spirit can do with our own imperfect efforts. For those that are interested, here are some of the quotes I used in preparing for the talk: Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer. (St. Augustine) The Lord’s Prayer is the most...

The Accolade

Books and Reading / Spirituality

A Glimpse of Heaven Through Mythopoeic Literature

Having just finished Peter Kreeft’s book Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing, I find myself aching for the numinous: Have you ever felt it–the haunting of the world?…The haunting has been called the sense of the “numinous.”  It is the sense that the world we see is haunted by something we do not see, an unseen presence.” Kreeft goes on to discuss this haunting in the human face, romantic love, pictures, stories and music.  I think I have lost touch with the numinous in my daily life as practical...

Awareness Test

Spirituality

How Aware Are You?

In our limited human language, we have used many images to attempt to describe God: an old white man with a beard, a dove, a pillar of fire, a gentle whisper.  Here’s a new one: God is like a moonwalking bear. Let me explain. But first, if you haven’t seen it yet, you need to watch this YouTube video: God is always present in our lives, but we often fail to see him.  We are too distracted by the many details and concerns of life.  We get caught...

Catholic Education / Prayer / Teaching / Technology

Using Technology to Get Teens to Pray

How can we use cell phones, mp3 players and social networks as tools to get kids into prayer?  That was the question I addressed yesterday in my presentation at our annual diocesan inservice for Catholic teachers. I began with a quote from Jean-Pierre de Caussade: Today God still speaks to us as he used to speak to our ancestors at a time when there were neither spiritual directors nor any systems of spirituality…Religious devotion had not become a science crammed with precepts and detailed instructions.  Nowadays, no doubt,...

Jonathan Sullivan Screenshot

Catholic Education / Teaching / Technology

Free Webinars for Catechists and Teachers

Jonathan Sullivan, the Director of Catechetical Ministries for the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, has posted this excellent introduction to social networks and their implications for catechists. After you watch it, be sure to head over to his valuable website at JonathanFSullivan.com to register for his next free webinar, Catechizing Digital Natives. Thanks to Jared Dees for the tip!

Popple

Catholic Education / Music / Teaching

No One Can Dance Like the Pope Can!

My 8th grade students just wrapped up a video project for Religion and here are two of their creations, based on the music of the Catholic band Popple: Little White Square: Papal Disco: The class would love to hear what you think of them, so please leave comments on the videos or on this post. And please spread the word. Thanks, and enjoy!

Map of Wyndham Eld

Fiction / Writing

The Seeing Stone: Chapter 1, Part 1

[Note: This is the beginning of a novel I abandoned many years ago.  I worked on it, off and on, for over fifteen years and it never got any better.  I have notebooks full of backstory, history and characterizations, along with maps, sketches and unfinished scenes.  Why dredge it up now?  Well, I guess I felt sorry for it, sitting there alone for so many years.  A story is meant to be heard, even a bad story.  This one is full of clichés, melodrama, and too much exposition,...

Introduction the Devout Life

Prayer

St. Francis de Sales Video Meditation

St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life is one of my favorite spiritual classics.  If you’re looking for a good read this Lent, I highly recommend it, especially the ten meditations St. Francis provides.  At one time, I thought I would try adapting those ten meditations for today’s junior high students (age 10-15).  I even had the thought to turn them into videos for the iPod generation.  I’ve since had to put that idea on hold indefinitely, but here’s the first video I made, for what...

Return of the Prodigal Son

Prayer / Spirituality

A Prayer for the Beginning of Lent

O my all-merciful God and Lord, Jesus Christ, full of pity: Through Your great love You came down and became incarnate in order to save everyone. O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace! If You save anyone because of their works, that would not be grace but only reward of duty, but You are compassionate and full of mercy! You said, O my Christ, “Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die.” If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me,...

Jesus

Spirituality

101 Practical Fasting Ideas for Lent Redux

[Note: This is an update of an article I wrote last year for Catholic School Chronicle] Fasting, praying and almsgiving are the three penitential practices that we are asked to engage in during Lent. In addition to fasting and abstaining with the rest of the Church on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, we are also challenged to make individual sacrifices appropriate to our own spiritual condition. However, before we choose something to give up for Lent, it’s important to assess our current spiritual state: What habits...