A blog of note

This Chesterteens blog is quite a concept.

One of the "lost entries" from when my blog was hacked mentioned my spontaneous project a while back where I had the free Linux program "Festival" read part of the Chesterton novel The Man Who Was Thursday to me.

The computer didn’t really annunciate all that well, and didn’t exactly let one know where a sentence began and ended as we naturally do when talking.  Still, it worked.  I’m sure Chesterton would have had a witty comment about my attempt to get the computer to read a book to me.

Blogging and magazines

I generally get the feeling that blogging has lost some of its luster, and a number of blogs I check are being updated with less frequency.

I’ve been blogging since the summer of 2003. It’s starting to get a bit old.

I’m also a bit depressed knowing that Queen of All Hearts–a Catholic magazine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin–has ended its run of over 50 years. This means Immaculata is the last of a dying breed in the U.S.–i.e. magazines primarily focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are still other magazines published in other countries such as Madre di Dio, but not all that many.

Still there is hope for the future. The ezine Mother of All Peoples continues to publish online, and perhaps there will be more like it in the future.

B16 on Youth and Volunteering

Source:  Papa Ratzinger Forum, Q&A WITH DIOCESAN PRIESTS OF ALBANO ON 8/31/06

"I think that the concept and experience of volunteer work is very important. Young people should not be left merely to indulging their diversions, but they should be given tasks in which they see that they are needed, in which they have a sense of doing something good for others.

"If they feel this impulse to do something good for humanity, for someone, for a group, then they will have a reason to involve themselves and will even find their own positive way of
getting involved, their own expression of the Christian ethic.

"It is very important that they find tasks that need their involvement, that enable them to render positive service inspired by Christ’s love, so that they themselves will look for the sources they can draw on to find the strength and the commitment for these services."