Claudia+Blogging+Assignment+1

Assignment #1
Expected time to __complete__ written assignments: 20 - 30 minutes Please note that there are two parts to this assignment.

After you have attended the __webinar__ and read the blog pages about //Blogging: Sharing My Personal Faith Story//, your individual homework assignment this week is to identify one or two blogs that are interesting to you and to share why these ministers blog.

Part 1 : What is their passion?

Using the Catholic Blog Directory ([]), scan through the various titles. Pick three titles that interest you. Read about the author and pick one or two blog posts to read. What are you noticing about the blogs you have scanned? In a paragraph or two, identify what you notice about the author and the mission of the blog. What is their passion?
 * Please remember to include the Name of the blog (and URL) with your comments. If possible, try to pick blogs that others are not commenting on. The main focus of this assignment is to identify WHY these authors are writing their blogs. What is their passion?
 * Name:
 * Blog title + URL
 * Why is this author writing their blog? What is their passion?

Example:
 * Name: Caroline Cerveny
 * Catholic Web Solutions - []
 * Sr. Susan Wolf is a blogger who wants to help religious communities think strategically about integrating the Internet and Social Media into their mission; to develop a plan and then implement it. Using these new media we can enhance our member services, ourmembership recruitment and our outreach.

Another Example from Dave Gruber:

1) Catechist's Journey - [] Joe Paprocki, D.Min.  Joe has been a parish catechist for years and also serves as a catechetical consultant & author with Loyola Press.  He is committed to offering a forum on this blog sharing his journey and experience as a catechist with catechists from all over and invites us to share our experiences & ideas in catechetical ministry. 2) Erin's Blog - [] A clearinghouse of catechetical information for the Diocese of St. Augustine Erin McGeever - Director of Christian Formation, Youth and Young Adult Ministry Diocese of St. Augustine I first met Erin in person a couple of years ago in Atlanta at NCCL after being in contact with one another for some months about a possible position in that Diocese. She has an extremely limited budget and only 1 or 1-1/2 diocesan staff members, therefore she utilizes the blog just as described in the tagline above.

Name: Kellie De Leo Shepherd of Orange Blog - @http://blog.ocbishop.org/ As the “Shepherd of Orange” Bishop Vann wants to share important information about our diocese, the wonderful spirit of the Catholic faith, the people he encounters, and the blessings of daily life.

Name Kellie De Leo Catechist Journey - [] Joe provides candidate advice and suggestion for DRE's and Catechist. He gives suggestions and ideas for the classroom as well as inviting others to share their experiences.

Name: Kellie De Leo Catechist Magazine Blog - [] The Catechist Magazine blog share scripture reflections, ideas for the classroom and ideas for the seasons. It is a resource for Catechists.

Name: Mary Smith dotMagis - **[]** This is a group blog about all things Ignatian. It is a service of Loyola Press (Jesuit based) and it offers information on and experiences of Ignatian spirituality from Jesuit and Ignatian sources around the world. I love this site. It provides great material for reflection and prayer through its blog.

Name: Linda Anderson http://www.duluthbenedictines.org/blog-1 This blog is a group blog about the benedictine way of life as lived by the Sisters of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. The blog's writers offer insight and share their lived experiences of what it's like to be a community that has the Benedictine Rule and the Gospel as their guide.

Name: Maura Sweeney Father Paul Campbell S.J. writes this blog for Loyola Press. The Blog seeks to connect people on their journey of faith as they seek to "Find God in all things" Father Paul uses art, poetry, music and story telling to reflect on our journey of faith and the presence of God in the people and world around us.
 * //__People for Others__//** - http://peopleforothers.loyolapress.com/

__//**Boston Catholic Insider**//__ - http://bostoncatholicinsider.wordpress.com/ There is no one stated author but a group of people claiming to have inside connections in the Archdiocese of Boston. Authors raise a variety of questions or concerns about a variety of situations in the archdiocese (few of them positive). While the archdiocesan authorities are invited to provide "official" responses to the issues raised there seem to be few such official responses.

//**__I Have to Sit Down__**// - http://www.patheos.com/blogs/simchafisher/ This Blog is authored by Simcha Fisher a mother of 9 and freelance writer for the Catholic Register, OSV and occasionally other publications. Her posts look at the every day joys and sorrows of family life, world events sacraments and other mysteries of life through the eyes of faith.

Name: Kathy Kelly Huey __**Faith and Justice**__ http://ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice Fr. Thomas Reese comments on the activity of the Church through the lens of a moral theologian. Often critical but always faithful, he provides cogent responses and thoughtful insight into many contemporary issues.


 * __Fr. Jim__** http://jimmcdermott.blogspot.com/ Fr. Jim comments on contemporary pop culture issues reflecting them in a wonderfully positive way. He had a video about women's self image from http://jimmcdermott.blogspot.com/2014/07/ladies-you-are-so-beautiful.html#links - worth a visit!

Name: Jose Amaya Aussie Catholic Dad//My Journey as a Catholic Dad and Husband -// //[]// //This blog is about Josh who is a father of 3 children and married to his wife Anna, for over 10 years and heavily involved in his Cathedral Parish of St Michael and St John Bathurst. The parish is where this family has celebrated the sacraments throughout the family's history. Josh is blogging about his faith journey as a dad and husdand. He shares about happenings in his parish community and family life.//

Archdiocese of Toronto - [] This blog is written by a group of contributors to discuss happenings and events in the Archdiocese and around the world tha matter Catholics. It talks about topics that concern parents as their children return to school and young adults leave to go to college and events around the world such as what is happening is Iraq with Christians, etc. These topics could easily become service projects.

Messy Jesus Business - [] Sister Julia Walsh, FSPA, brings the gospel to life in the every day life following the liturgical seasons but also sharing her journey wherever she happens to be.

Barbara Flora: 1. Blogger - Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J. > [] added a twist of humor to the very serious subject of the lack of news coverage of justice & peace issues. His postings are erratic so I will assume he is often working on issues specific to the needs of the National Catholic Reporter.
 * **Faith and Justice**
 * **[]**
 * Fr. Reese is a professional author and journalist, editor and theologian. He covers heavy topics. i.e. a Vatican official laundering money, sex abuse cases, church reform, the Curia, and other major issues of Justice and Faith. One recent post, "A Journalist's Confession"

2. Blogger - Sr. Kathleen Glavich, SND
 * **Catholic Faith : Understanding, teaching, and living the faith**
 * []
 * Sr. Kathleen's passion is education. Most of her books are focused on helping adults lead young people deeper into the Catholic tradition and Scriptures .Her blog has weekly postings on Wednesdays but the link above shows her diversity in her ministry way beyond being just a blogger. She is the author of numerous books and articles, gives retreats, speaks at churches across the U.S., and at diocesan and national conferences. Her blogs seem to take on topics of everyday life, such as the following recent posts: "Prayer for Lost Objects" on 9/10/2014 and "Birthday Gift Via The Bible" **[]** on 9/3/2014 and is geared to adults, young or old, interested in the connection of Scriptures and everyday spirituality. I could see her blogs could be used in teaching faith formation classes for teens and adults.

3. Blogger - Fr. Wayne Ball
 * **Fr. Wayne's Blog : Daily Reflections the Mass of the day.**
 * []
 * In a simple manner, Fr. Wayne Ball, Parish Priest in the Diocese of Richmond (VA) offers short reflections on the Scripture readings for the Mass of the day. I can imagine that his homily is based on these short insights into sacred scripture. The blogspot application has numerous blogs on the same page with the most recent at the top. My major critique of his blog is : the Lectionary readings he is expounding on are not linked or listed. If you read the blog daily, my comment does not matter. However, if you look through the archives, you may not know which passages are being used for that blog . . . unless you carry around an ORDO with you for the current cycle and whichever other cycle & year you venture into.

//Post your comments, then continue on to Part 2, below //

Part 2 : Do you agree or disagree?
 * After listening to Scott Rosenberg's video,** //**10 Myths About Blogs**//**, do you agree or disagree with what Scott states in the video? Why? Please post your name with your answer**

Scott Rosenberg's video, //10 Myths About Blogs,// gave a sometimes humorous but pointed critique of the typical arguments against the legitimacy of blogging. I have to admit that some of these Myths have been some of my own! Viewing this video gave me an opportunity to look at some of these arguments and to think about blogs and bloggers differently. As Rosenberg seemed to imply, blogs and bloggers each need to be evaluated on their own merits, just as individual authors or newspaper writers. It was interesting as well to hear him speak of 'lifecycles' of blogs. Whereas blogs seemed before to sometimes to be merely 'flash-in-the-pan' and 'transitory' in nature, perhaps they are more correctly tools which can serve issues of 'immediacy' and of a 'here-and-now' nature which are time-limited. The specific blogs must then be judged against the whole of others on the same topic to discern the authority and legitimacy and veracity of the opinions and thoughts which are discussed. Pat Ruthemeyer
 * For example:**

I think Scot Rosenberg gave a very objective rational about blog myths. Some I had not even thought of. I like the idea of thinking of blogs as picking up a book or magazine to read. Not all books or magazines are good, and some will not meet our interests. We need to view blogs in the same way. As for the trust, we know not everyone is going to be truthful. We need to rely on reliable sources and verify other blogs with other sources. Kellie De Leo

There is a Blogosphere! Who knew? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the "cloud". Very informative and easy to follow video. I do agree with his points and I like his analogies to authors and books. As with anything on the web, it is important to check things out or be able to trust your sources Mary Smith

I definitely agree that there is plenty of room for all to get involved in blogging in some way so passions can be shared and maybe even strengthened. Could lead to change? Maybe identify some new insights or methods? Bring people together.... Linda Anderson

I thought it was a cute list. I had never heard some of the "myths" before and some seemed silly (Seriously... who cares about a first blogger?). I thought he did a good job of seeing the legitimacy behind some criticisms of blogging while pushing past them (for example his points regarding "Bloggers are Narcissists" or "Most Blogs Stink") to look at the bigger picture. It seems to me that each Blog will be as good or as bad as its author and that the market ( those who follow blogs) will sort them naturally. The one thing that he didn't address was the "authority" of blogs. All voices are given equal legitimacy as if gospel truth, which as we know not all "gospels" are Truth. Maura L. Sweeney

Guilty guilty guilty! I appreciated his analogy of the number of books written each year - who in their right mind feels compelled to read them all? Why do we put that pressure on ourselves in the blogosphere? Blogs have lifecycles - mine will as well! As he addressed the authority of blogs, he noted that by assessing who is reading them - assessing links and conversations - one can likely have a good assessment of the quality of the "news" or blog. I think the Church has a term for this as it loosely relates to this topic I believe we call it "sensus fide". KKHuey

Blogs stink! I did not know that blogs smell. LOL. Rosenberg's point of view about the 10 Myths About Blogs made me reflect about my personal concerns and perhaps biases despite the fact that I write a closed blog for catechetical leaders to share ideas on implementing the Archdiocesan curriculum guide. I realize there is room for all kinds of blogs. You choose what you want to read. Anyone can become a writer. Trust works different online that in print journalism. The fact that some bloggers have become tired or burned out does not mean that blogging is dead. I appreciate the ten myths. This has helped me to dispell some of my worries regarding blogging. -Jose Amaya

I listened to what Scott said on his YouTube video four times. I wasn't concerned with whether or not I agreed or disagreed with his information. I was more interested in whether he and the bloggers he is discussing are authoritative, like Maura L. Sweeney questioned. So I dug deeper and found out Scott Rosenberg is a Web geek, a Web site builder, writer, editor, recently an executive editor, and since 2002 a blogger. He has the __authority__ and __credibility__. His skills and participation in journalistic blogging is __current__. I feel his short six minute video has __objectivity and balance__ as he discusses "10 Myths About Blogging." I basically agreed with what he said. He does negate the #2 myth by affirming that blogs are not trivial when he stated that blogs are where "we turn when we need to go deep." To me I wish he would have changed the word "deep" for "the truth" because that is my specific problem with blogging. When you dig deep, a lot of dirt is shoveled out of the hole, but that doesn't mean that the truth was discovered in that hole. Being informed with the truth is a prime ingredient in good news reporting. I feel the great amount of bloggers are writing about trivial events of peoples' lives or expressing __biased__, __unsupported__, or __unedited__ claims or attacks on people, events or ideas. Like his analogy to the number of available books or movies that may choosen, I can choose which blogs to read. My preference will always be a blogger whose writing is not slanted, unobjective, non-authoritative, or inaccurate and who takes time to search for the truth and is successful in discovering it! - (Barbara Flora)