Because World Youth Day is a Fertile Field for Vocations

A fortnight ago, I wrote a post about the coolest blog to add YIMCatholic to their blog roll. The blog is written by TingTing Tse, whose photograph you see here. Her blog is written in Chinese, though search me if it is in Cantonese or Mandarin. After I posted about her blog, which appeared to be coming out of Emmaus in the Holy Land, she wrote me a note.

Dear Frank,

Because of the Protestant Reformers Beliefs On Mary

Another Marian post as we are ten days from the Feast of the Assumption. This one was first published back in December of last year.

Back when I first joined YIMCatholic, I was going to write posts about my conversion. I hammered out seven posts in pretty rapid succession and then, I stopped writing them until recently.

Many of my posts now are simply my observations of the world which are colored through the lens of a convert to Catholicism. It would be difficult for them not to be. Other posts I've written are of the "look what I just found!" variety, and the "I want to share this with you" type. Call them the discovery posts if you will.

What Figures Are On This Celtic Cross?

A reader writes,

Hi there my name is Mindy and I am trying to figure out the meaning of a particular Celtic Catholic cross that was my father-in-laws throughout his whole life. When he passed away it was handed down to my husband.

Remember that Confession Video by "the Kid?"

Great news...Marc Barnes, aka "the Kid,"from BadCatholic was awarded a $1000 scholarship from the i-Confess contest.  The contest was put on by the Diocese of Brooklyn in conjunction with both the Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Rockville Centre. Great job Marc! Here are the Top Ten results,

Check Out This Balloon Ride (Because Catholics Can Dig Science)

My wife knows my interests. She sent me this little clip this morning and I just had to share it with you. Suppose you were given the opportunity to help test the atmosphere for radiation drifting our way from the melted down nuclear reactor in Fukushima, Japan. Suppose you mounted some cameras on that balloon. What would you see?

Because Yes, Baseball and Faith Are Compatible

H/T to Our Sunday Visitor for catching this ground ball and throwing it to me on second base. I first learned of Florida Marlins manager Jack MeKeon's piety while watching  the video Champions of Faith with my children a few years back.

A Convert's Lament To Mary (A Few Words for Wednesday)

Our Eastern brethren have been observing the Dormition Fast since the first of August. It continues until August 15th this year and concludes on the Feast of the Dormition, which Western Catholics celebrate as the Feast of the Assumption. In honor of this tradition, I will be sharing some of our Marian posts. This one is from October of last year...

Edward Caswall was another Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism in the mid 1800's. He also joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, like his friends Blessed John Henry Newman and Frederick William Farber.  And, like them again, he was a prolific poet and hymnist.

Below is one of Caswall's fine poems included in his book of verse entitled The Masque of Mary. This particular  poem really resonates with me.

Because The Earth and It's Fullness Includes...

Heavy Metal?! That's right. And it all belongs to the LORD. For you see, a very talented reader writes,

From the Treasure Chest: A Primer on Natural Law

My friend John C.H. Wu was a highly regarded jurist and professor of law. He had a close friendship with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of the U.S. Supreme Court. It turns out that one of the reasons he converted to the Catholic Faith was that the Church embraces what is know as the Natural Law. The same goes for his friend Dom Lou Tseng-Tsiang.

A Gifted Guitarist You Might Have Missed (Music for Mondays)

Goes by the name of Prince. Oh you've heard of him, you just forgot how good a guitarist he is. This guy is a genius. Don't believe me? That's ok. Do you think he is still a pretender prancing around in frilly outfits? Let me tell you, and this is just my humble opinion, Michael Jackson is the pretender next to this guy. Have a look at these four selections for the proof.