One Catholic Life Blog

Ben-Hur

Movies

SQPN Movie Panel Launches

The good folks at SQPN, always looking for new ways to network, have launched an initiative they call the SQPN Movie Panel. Here’s how it works: Each week, SQPN will suggest a movie to watch, based on a theme for the month. The first theme is “Oscar Month,” and the movies are Titanic, Ben-Hur, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and West Side Story. Watch the movie and join in on the conversation, either on Twitter @moviepanel or on the SQPN Facebook page. Find out more...

Cardinal-elect Dolan and President Obama

Politics

The US Bishops Respond to the White House’s Attempt to Clarify HHS “Confusion”

On February 1, 2012, Cecilia Muñoz wrote a White House blog post intended to “make sure you have the facts,” about the ill-considered HHS ruling regarding religious institutions and health care plans. Yesterday the USCCB responded to that post with its own statement, which follows here in full: The Obama administration, to justify its widely criticized mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage in private health plans, has posted a set of false and misleading claims on the White House blog (“Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions,” February...

A Day Made of Glass 2

Technology

A Day Made of Glass 2: Is This the Future?

Today Corning released a sequel to last year’s viral video A Day Made of Glass. This year they’re focusing more on the benefits to society, rather than on how glass might be used to improve the workplace and home environment. You’ll see classrooms, hospitals, and state parks of the future–or at least how Corning hopes the future will look. It’s a beautiful video, though it makes me wonder if everyone will get to enjoy a future like this, or just those above a particular income level. Here’s the...

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Ludolf Backhuysen

Spirituality

The Faith that Banishes All Fear

In today’s gospel, the disciples wake Jesus up out of fear that they will perish at sea in their little boat. After calming the wind and water, Jesus asks them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” It has been said that the most common phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” In today’s meditation from Give Us This Day, Charles de Foucauld reminds us why: Complete freedom from fear is one of those things we owe wholly to Our Lord. To be afraid...

Fr. RIck Nagel

Deacons and Diaconate / Spirituality

Open the Door and Let the Spirit Get to Work

Deacon Greg Kandra has a seemingly endless supply of inspiring, funny, and/or deeply spiritual videos to post on his blog The Deacon’s Bench. Here’s one he posted yesterday about a parish that’s using its prime location to great effect in evangelizing: Sometimes it’s that simple. God doesn’t need much from us–just a little–and once we’ve opened the door, the Spirit gets to work. Read the rest of the story at The Deacon’s Bench to find out what St. John’s is doing over Superbowl weekend.

St. Teresa of Avila

Prayer / Spirituality

St. Teresa of Avila’s Prayer for Peace of Soul

This resonated with me today: O Jesus! Who knows how much in Holy Scripture refers to peace of soul? Since, O my God, you have seen how important this peace is to us, incite Christians to strive to gain it. In your mercy do not deprive those on whom you have bestowed it, for until you have given them true peace and brought them to where it is unending, they must ever live in fear. As quoted in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in...

C3P0

Movies / Technology

Hundreds Work Together to Create Unbelievable Fan-made Star Wars Movie

“Crowdsourcing: the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” – Merriam-Webster.com Made from the contributions of hundreds of people around the world, this version of Star Wars: A New Hope is a crowdsourced wonder:

J.R.R. Tolkien

Books and Reading / Spirituality

Vocation in The Lord of the Rings

Though National Vocation Awareness Week has ended for this year, the working out or living out of our vocations goes on. Jeffrey Langan, Associate Professor at Notre Dame, delivers a fascinating lecture in which he uses Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to illustrate the dynamic of vocation. Though he seems to be speaking mostly about the ordained or religious life, many of his remarks could also be applied to marriage and other vocations.

Sunrise

Spirituality

Who Will You Be This Day?

National Vocation Awareness Week ends this weekend, and today’s gospel meditation on John 1:35-42 by Rachel Subras in Give Us This Day fits the occasion well: You are called like Simon to leave aside your plans and go when summoned, to be beheld and known by God’s own, and be renamed. You do have a choice. You can retreat, take comfort in the familiar, and risk missing your calling. Or you can set out, take on the discomforts of the strange and the stranger, and live into, live up...

Tolkien Relaxing Under a Tree

Books and Reading / Spirituality

Leaf by Niggle: One of Tolkien’s Most Overlooked Works

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s 120th birthday. Known, of course, mainly for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, one of his most under appreciated works is a gem of a short story called “Leaf by Niggle.” This simple story is a beautiful allegory for the creative life and for the transition into eternal life. Similar to C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, “Leaf by Niggle” is much more subtle. It is also deeply spiritual and rooted in a solid Catholic theology of art and afterlife. “Leaf by Niggle” complements...

Zork

Technology

Relive Your Geek Past: Play Zork Online

One of the great things about being my age (which I will not say, but should not be hard to guess), is that many of the things I got teased about when I was geeky kid are cool now that I am a geeky adult. TV shows like Psych and Chuck make their money by appealing to lifelong geeks like me. Geeks are so cool now, you’d think everyone in my generation grew up reading Tolkien, programming TRS-80s, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. But I know better. There...