Tag Archives: catholic

WEBSITE: Google for Catholics

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Cathoogle is a search engine which utilizes Google’s “safe search” technology and targets Catholic users and all those who want to know more about Catholicism. It’s aim is to “provide an easy to use resource to anyone wanting to learn more about Catholicism and provide a safer way for good Catholics to search and surf the net.”

If you search for “catholic” words like sacraments, eucharist, vatican, saints, popes, most of the results are from vatican.va, usccb.org, catholic.org and other well-known Catholic sites. Top search results for controversial issues like same-sex marriage and stem cells are from these same Catholic sites. Explicit words like porn, orgy, blowjob are banned from the site.

Cathoogle claims that it produces balanced results from all of cyberspace but that it gives more weight to things relevant to Catholics.

If you are searching for anything Catholic, Cathoogle is a good place to start.

Watch “Diocese of San Jose” Video on TV Maria

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TV Maria, a Catholic Filipino TV channel, will air a video documentary I recently made for the Diocese of San Jose in Nueva Ecija. The thirty-minute docu is simply titled “Diocese of San Jose” and it depicts the extraordinary and inspiring life of the clergy and laity of the diocese.

I was commissioned to write, direct and edit the video in time for the 25th anniversary of the diocese. Here are some screenshots from the video:

prisonministry

That’s Fr. Remigio Malgapo. He regularly says Mass in the San Jose City Jail. But his prison ministry goes beyond celebrating the Eucharist. He also provides legal assistance and livelihood projects for the inmates and for their families. Continue reading →

5 iPhone Apps for the Holy Week

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If you plan to make good use of your iPhone or iPod Touch this Holy Week, you might want to install these applications:

1. Way of the Cross – contains colorful images and the traditional text of the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

2. Via Crucis – similar to the the application above, except that the prayers and meditations used in this app are from the Vatican website.

3. iConfess – a guidebook to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for Catholics.  It covers such important topics as the Ten Commandments, Examination of Conscience and the basics of confession (what, why, how).

4. Cards for Easter – a collection of 11 Easter cards that users can send out through email directly from the iPhone or iPod Touch.

5. iMissal – the first and so far the only Catholic Missal/Missalette app  for iPhone and iPod Touch. It features a full calendar of the liturgical seasons, the Mass readings for the whole liturgical cycle, over 50 of the most popular Catholic prayes and of course the Order of Mass.

4th Sunday (Lent, B)

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This is a slideshow presentation based on John 3:14-21, the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday in the season of Lent (Year B). You may embed this slideshow into your own blog/website or download the original PowerPoint/Pdf file so you may use it in your liturgical celebrations.

Year B: Fourth Sunday of Lent (John 3:14-21)

View more presentations from happyfaith.

READING: John 3:14-21

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

XT3 – A Catholic Social Network

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Youcan think of it as a Catholic Facebook. XT3 is the official networking site for the 2008 World Youth Day (WYD). It’s main goal is to help both Catholics and non-Catholics learn more about the faith. Although the site is created for WYD, you do not have to be Catholic or a WYD participant in order to join XT3. Everyone is welcome. And all you need to register is your name, email address and password.

I am not going to Sydney this July, but EXT3 will give me  the opportunity to watch video clips of the main events, listen to the talks (via podcasts) and experience WYD in a virtual setting. I have just signed up and XT3 will definitely be my homepage during the WYD celebrations next month.

XT3 will not go offline once WYD in Sydney culminates.  The creators of the site plan to keep XT3 an online meeting place for people to discover more about the Catholic faith beyond WYD. Plans for the future of the site include diocese homepages, volunteer projects, music and films.

Stuff Catholics Like

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What do Catholics like? According to this blog, Catholics like sex, babies, baptism, holy water, making saints, lay people… well, the list is still growing as more bloggers post new stuff. StuffCatholicsLike.com is group blog which takes “a light-hearted look at Catholic things in a way that can be educational to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.” I chanced upon the website while I was playing with my stumbleupon Firefox addon. To satisfy your curiosity, you should check out the following stuff:

(1.) Sex, (2.) Babies, (3.) Baptism, (4.) Holy Water, (5.) Making Saints, (6.) Non-Catholics Wearing Catholic Stuff, (7.) Clapping in Church… and more…

Finally, A Catholic Video Sharing Site

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Finally, a Catholic YouTube-like video sharing site is launched today. It is called lovetobecatholic.com and its goal is to “provide a safe and entertaining place for people to access Catholic content on demand, 24/7.”

It has always been a challenge to do a ministry that is both cool and relevant to those the Catholic Church seeks to evangelize and guide. That is why lovetobecatholic.com excites me because it is a cool ministry tool as well as a fresh and innovative way to communicate the Word of God in today’s world. This may not be the best way to do mission today, but it is still a chance for Catholics to experiment and develop a new mission model that takes advantage of the growing web 2.0 platform.

Lovetobecatholic.com invites everyone to upload and share videos, build communities, join existing groups and connect with friends, but the site reserves the right to “monitor content to assure that videos reflect true Catholic teaching.” I hope that the site will not only gather Catholics but also become a meeting place and a connecting point where Catholics and non-Catholics learn from each other and enrich each other.

A Search Engine For Your Favorite Bible Verses

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Top Verses

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is one of my most favorite verses in the bible but just a while ago I was having a hard time locating it.

You must have experienced this too. You are looking for your favorite bible passage. You can remember the words but not the book nor the chapter and verse. And worse, Google and Yahoo give irrelevant and unsorted results to your searches.

It is good to know that there is a new search engine to do just this. It is called Top Verses and the team behind this engine “has analysed thousands of pages of teaching material to determine the most frequently referenced Bible verses.” This means that whenever you search for a keyword or a chapter and verse number you will get the most popular verses first.

Top Verses also provides a list of the most popular books and chapters based on the average number of times they are referenced. How long did it take me to find my most favorite bible verse? Three seconds. Flat. And by the way it’s John 13:35.

Filipino Missionaries in China

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I have been following the state of the Catholic church in China mainly through www.asianews.it and from the stories I hear from my own missionary confreres. It always sadden me to hear about the discrimination, persecution, and the torture inflicted upon bishops, priests, nuns and other church people in many corners in China. But it also inspires me to know that despite the risks and threats to their life, many foreign and local missionaries still find a way to share their faith with the Chinese.

A few afternoons ago I met a Filipino missionary who has worked in China since the mid 1990s. Since religious missionaries are banned in the communist republic, he worked there not as a priest but as an English teacher. He shared many insightful and inspiring stories about spreading the word of God in unconventional ways. Continue reading →

The Cardinal Arinze Webcast

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Yes, the world-famous cardinal webcasts. If you can’t wait, you can click here to leave my site and begin listening to Cardinal Francis Arinze. The cardinal’s webcasts discuss “what the Catholic Church really is about and what her true message is on living a joyful and fulfilling life.”

I am convinced that webcasting and similar technology offer a new and powerful way of spreading and discussing in depth the message of the Gospel. That is why I am glad the Vatican has taken advantage of the popularity of this technology. Cardinal Francis Arinze is the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The cardinal is no stranger to the world of new media. He appears regularly on TV and has produced almost about 2,000 TV programs with the Apostolate for Family Consecration.