Catholic Ragemonkey

Is Catholic Blogging A Sign of the New Spring Time of Evangelization?

I have noticed the overall excellent quality of all the Catholic Blogs. Could it be the case that the Holy Spirit is using modern technology to help evangelize the world? Look at the clues.

All of these blogs:
1.) Embrace Catholic Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy, especially in regards to the Sacred Liturgy and most centrally the Holy Mass. Gone are the aging goats who hailed the revision of the Church's teaching, wrongly assumed mandated by the Second Vatican Council. Gone too are the aging, wrinkly gargoyles who clamored from the rafters, "The Liturgy is about us realizing who we are. Draw your eyes down and look at your own loveliness." That line was used long ago by another more subtle serpent...but I digress. Rather these new blogs concentrate on the "going back to the sources" of Revelation and attempt to understand the big picture and the underlying logic of the teaching. From there, it is a short hop to people who are committed to the Faith they profess and equipped to explain, defend, and even develop the lines of inquiry.

2.) Embrace Catholic Culture and Piety.Another consistent factor is all of these sites are interested in practicing a public faith. No one subscribes to the notion that we need to knock on doors in order to share the Faith. Everyone agrees that if we let the cat out of the bag, the Faith does a darn fine job of converting others for us. Stare at Chartes for a long enough period of time and you will see the lines of the Creed cast in flying buttresses. We attempt to permit the realities the Faith professes to penetrate the inmost walls of our thoughts and actions. From within this garrison of the human person, the beautiful flowering (again with the hippie images) of Grace is manifested, demands to be expressed in our prayers and devotions, and attracts others to follow Christ.

3.) Embrace taking the Faith very seriously, ourselves less so...i.e. we have a good sense of humor. Catholics are not Puritans. I will admit there are times when I see smiling Jesus playing soccer that I want to retch. Humor and joy are very serious matters. (Interesting paradox!) Humor comes from the virtue of humility. Humor that is neither mean spirited nor cruel comes from the moments when the mud has splashed in our faces, because of our own folly, and we recognize our weakness. And then the grandness of our plans collapse and we laugh. When humor becomes cruel and unfeeling, then it ceases to be humor. It is merely a joke. Therefore when really funny things appear on our blogs, it is because there is a spirit of humility behind them.
Joy comes from the knowledge of being loved. If one knows that they are loved any cross can be joy without having a goofy grin on one's face.

4.) Embrace a Vibrant, Zealous Love for Christ and His Work. Lastly, none of the blogs' authors are waiting for someone else to do it for them. All of us recognize, proper to our station and vocation in life, the obligation to serve and spread the Gospel. So, the blogs written by priests often lament that the laity are often badly formed or just plain ignorant. That could be grousing and being smug. It could express the frustration of wanting to form others but not knowing how. Other blogs demonstrate the biting analysis the Public Square needs, if the others in the game don't succeed in marginalizing our position. This group is restless to the extreme!

So, my friends, Blog On! Give your very best for the sake of the Christ who suffered and died for us. Pour out your lives as He poured out His for us. For no greater love is there than to lay down our lives for our friends. And whether or not the world recognizes it, they are, or perhaps will become, our friends.

Lastly, has anyone heard of someone converted by or been converted by the influence of a Catholic Blog?