Blogathon 2012: Recap

For the last 31 days, I have participated in the WordCount Blogathon 2012 challenge to write every day of May. I have tried to write insightful and informative posts, hoping that you might find them useful. I have tried not to water down anything or get too caught up in theology (hard to do as a new theology student). I have tried to add a bit of wit and humor when appropriate.

Joe Catholic hit some high marks during this 31 day run. We had our highest page viewership for one month. By the time this is posted, we will have broken the 30,000 page views threshold. This may not seem like much, but considering it took nearly 3 years to rack up the first 10,000, I think it is. I believe having the faith to cast the nets into deeper waters is paying off. Viewership has continued to grow exponentially each month. I attribute this to the Holy Spirit and not to anything I have done in particular.

I will be falling back into a more regular routine of posting 3-5 times a week. In the coming weeks we hope to relaunch a new comprehensive Joe Catholic web site with all the social media bells and whistles.  I will keep you posted. We plan on integrating this blog into the new site.

The Joe Catholic leadership team is also in the planning stages of organizing its first Men's Conference at St. Catherine. We hope to have more news soon. We are targeting the beginning of the school year.

Here's a list of the Top 5 Viewed Posts from May:

1. Breaking the Chains of Pornography
2. God Answers Prayers
3. Five Films that Influenced My Faith
4. Advice for Graduating High School Seniors and Their Parents
5. Why Do We Call Mary, Mother?

Joe Catholic Wordle

Catholic Haiku

Today, participants in the 2012 WordCount Blogathon were asked to write a haiku. This simple looking Japanese poem is not easy to write. Without sounding too much like Yoda, this is what I came up with that would still fit the theme of this blog.

Why Joe Catholic?

To help answer saintly call

To learn, live share faith

Five Flims That Influenced My Faith

During some of the days of the Blogathon, we are asked to write on a theme. Today marks the first theme day and we were supposed to write about the five movies that influenced our writing. I have instead decided to write about five movies that have either directly influenced my spiritual development or represent an aspect of my walk.

5. Father Damien: The Leper Priest (1980) I must have been a freshmen in high school when I saw this made for TV movie starring Ken Howard who I knew best as the coach from White Shadow. I was so moved by the dedication of the "leper priest" that I immediately researched leprosy and vowed to help find a cure. While I obviously did not do that, I was touched by the film and learned the great lengths that men and women would go to serve God and their fellow man.

4. St. John Bosco: Mission to Love (2007) While the DVD was not released until about five years ago, the movie was regularly shown on EWTN in one hour parts. Shortly after coming back to the Church, I caught this movie one night when I couldn't sleep. I was moved by Don Bosco's complete trust in God. Furthermore, he was dedicated to the mission God gave him to accomplish - serving the youth. I learned that Bosco was the patron of school children and that he formed the Order of the Salesians. When I was in the Army, my mother used to send me small prayer books written by the Salesians.

3. Teresa de Jesus (1984) This movie was made as a mini-series for Spanish television. Like the Bosco movie it appears on ETWN regularly, especially close to the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila. This is a beautifully made movie and quite accurate in its portrayal of the saint's life. This movie got me more interested in the studying the life of St. Teresa. As a result, I was introduced to her great work, The Interior Castle, on prayer and her devotion to St. Joseph.

2. Peter and Paul (1981) Watching this made for TV mini-series led to me developing a strong devotion to St. Paul. As a teen I loved to read the Pauline epistles and when I became a lector at St. Cecelia Catholic Church (while I was still in high school), I always tried to be picked to read his letters. Later, as an adult, I gave some of my first (and I still think my best) RCIA presentations on the Conversion of St. Paul.

1. The Passion of the Christ (2004) This powerful portrayal of the passion of Christ gave visual context for my meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary, for the Stations of the Cross and the role our Blessed Mother Mary played in those last hours. Stacey and I watched the movie on its debut on Ash Wednesday and again on Good Friday. Since then we  make it a point to watch the movie again on Good Friday. 

Joe Catholic Booked for 2012 Blogathon

You may have noticed the recent addition of the Blogathon 2012 badge on the right column of this blog. Beginning May 1st, participating bloggers will attempt to post at least one entry to their blogs for each day of May. I successfully participated in Blogathon 2011 while honing my writing skills on my personal blog.

I am going to need some help to make it through the next thirty-one days. If you have some ideas for a post, please send me a message or write a comment on the blog. I aim to be faithful to the mission of the Joe Catholic apostolate, while hopefully building viewership of this blog. Did I mention I am trying to this while I have three finals in my IPT courses this weekend?

I am entrusting my writing to the intercession of St. Josemaria Escriva, the patron of the ordinary, whose name means "he writes." Please pray for me that the Lord use this fun little contest as tool for evangelization.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us!