A WinterJam Primer, or How to Keep Your Hearing, Your Faith, and Your Sanity, and Have a Good Time

Note: In lieu of Worth a Listen (normally appearing here on Wednesday), I'm writing this after the WinterJam just occurred in our area with a concert in Peoria Sunday night.  When I posted occasional updates on Facebook & Twitter from the concert, there were a lot of questions (on FB) about how the concert, how it was, should people bring their small children, etc. This is to answer those questions as well as talk about this great  I'll re-run this next year as WinterJam makes it way to our area again, so consider this a "primer" on how to encounter WinterJam successfully.

I'm a veteran, having just attended my third WinterJam.  I think I've got this "down" now and have a good strategy for attending and making the most of this great concert.

WinterJam, the largest Christian concert series in the world (and largest altogether if Wikipedia is to be believed) is a traveling concert series founded by NewSong and featuring more than a half-dozen Christian contemporary music (CCM) acts.

Read the rest of the story at my new website, Reading Catholic.  Click here for link to the rest of the article on Reading Catholic.  I invite you to follow me there!

A Great Catholic Kids Book: Seven Lonely Places, Seven Warm Places

This isn't a regular feature here, but really should be: great Catholic books for kids.  I am especially interested in books that are great to read aloud.

Here's a must-have.  I'm recommending this not just as a one-time read, but a book to add to your library and read often.  It's Seven Lonely Places, Seven Warm Places: The Vices and Virtues for Children by April Bolton, illustrated by Brent Beck.  It was first published in 2003 by St. Anthony Messenger Press (now known as Franciscan Media).

My own children are generally great judges of what makes a good read-aloud, as we have done so much of it over the years, and they have always loved this book.  But I knew Seven Lonely Places, Seven Warm Places was a real winner when I read it to six different grades at our children's Catholic grade school.  Many of those kids fidget, or will tell me or show me flat out, when a book does not interest them.  All of the grades--from K through 5th grade--sat in rapt attention during the reading of this book.  And the comments! Oh the comments! The discussions we had about this book, the illustrations, the message.  Especially from kindergarteners.

I strongly urge you to have this book on hand, read it to your kids, and sit back and wait for some amazing discussions about virtues.  Here's a link to the publisher's website for the book, and I'm sure it's available at various Catholic retailers.

Giveaway: The Catholic Bride's Wedding Planner

And the year of great giveaways continues .....

Today's giveaway is A Catholic Bride's Wedding Planner  by Tracy Becker.   File this away in the category, "I wish I had this when I got married."

A Catholic Bride's Wedding Planner includes information about the sacrament of marriage, prayers, appointment stickers, a fill-in calendar, receipt holder.  

My favorite feature is the laminated bookmark with a planning guide, with tasks like "request baptismal certificates."  It would be handy to keep right in the planner's calendar section.

The only drawback for me was a lack of introduction.  The planner starts right off nicely with a quote from Scripture (1Cor 13:4-8), but then jumps right in with some challenging (meaning, a challenge to read) quotes from Casti Connubii, a Piux XI encyclical.    I wish there would have been a little introduction, perhaps a summary of the church documents.  Otherwise, there are lots of great ideas here!

A Catholic Bride's Wedding Planner is also featured on the Catholic site, "For Your Marriage," and its helpful page on wedding planning resources. This page is a great source of other websites and books listed--do check it out if you are getting married in the near future.

If you know a bride-to-be, enter the giveaway to offer this great resource, or encourage her to enter here.  You can enter by leaving a comment here until the deadline.

Rules for this giveaway are the same as always; once I pick a winner, I will announce it in the comments and contact the winner if I can.  If I don't hear from the winner in two days, I will draw another winner.

Deadline for this giveaway is (when else?), St. Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14, at midnight.

There Oughta Be a Catholic Book on ... Catholic New Media

Oh wait, there already is a book!  It’s called The Church and New Media:  Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet.   I wrote up a mini-review for the print Catholic Post, and since I have more “room” here, I’ve expanded this a little more for the Catholic Post book group blog.

The Church and New Media is not just an insider’s guide to who’s who in Catholic Internet and new media use.  That might be fun to read for some, but the book is way more valuable and practical.

A CPGP book I reviewed earlier this year, Prayer in the Digital Age, by Matt Swaim, may seem similar, but it’s really not.  Prayer in the Digital Age is a terrific book for individuals to consider how to  have a healthy relationship with our online world. 

The Church and New Media, compiled by blogger and new media expert Brandon Vogt, is more like a how-to on Internet presence and connectivity for everyone from the tech-savvy to novices.

Each chapter of The Church and New Media is penned by a different online expert, on topics ranging from blogging; to connecting with young adults; to creating a new media policy in a parish or a diocese.  Sidebars highlight various projects or personalities breaking new ground in Catholic online evangelism.    My only, truly minor, quibble with the book is not in content at all but that the text and font seemed a little “squished” and made it a little less enjoyable to read than it could have been. 

This book would be an indispensible resource for so many, from pastors seeking ways to create or update a parish’s online presence, to ministry leaders and others who don’t know why they should connect with their members or students this way.  The Church and New Media begins this conversation in a reader-friendly and informative way.  I plan to give a copy to my parish priest, and I can think of many others who would benefit from it.

Have you read The Church and New Media yet?  What do you find best about it?

There Oughta Be a (Catholic) Book

Here at the Catholic Post Book Group blog, I’m starting a new feature in which I don’t review a book, but suggest that someone write a book, from a Catholic perspective.  A truly Catholic perspective is reasonable, intelligent and attractive on many levels.  So here goes!

First up is a reasonable book about modesty, from a Catholic perspective, primarily for younger people.   I’m pretty sure such a book doesn’t exist, but if it does please let me know in the comments.

I participated recently in a very spirited Facebook group discussion about modesty, and I was so appreciative of different perspectives, but still felt that how to dress at Mass (much less other times) is like the third rail of Catholic culture.  How to talk about this subject in a reasonable (and I'm completely stressing the reasonable here) way with our children?

Last month, my daughters and I attended (with several other families) a large event at a local evangelical church called “Secret Keeper Girl Live!”  It was fun, and sparkly—almost a little too sparkly.  (Not that it isn’t “Catholic” to be sparkly.  Here’s what I loved: the girls and their moms were encouraged in dressing and acting as daughters of the King.    They gave very specific, super helpful advice about dressing with modesty—various very practical tests to see if a top was too skimpy, a skirt too short.

Here’s what I didn’t love:  it was a little overwhelming, noise and pink-wise, for me.  There was an altar call at the end, always a little awkward for Catholics not wanting to seem holier than thou (um, do I want to ask Jesus into my heart?  I already receive Him every time I go to Mass, but thanks anyway).  Also, I found myself underwhelmed by the "fashion show" portion of the evening, which featured fashions that were cheesier and more “Disney” than my tastes, though all outfits were perfectly modest.  I’m just more of an LL Bean gal.

I really don’t want to make it sound in any way bad, because it was really wonderful in encouraging girls to believe in true inner beauty, both in how we look and how we act.    Dana Gresh, the creator of the events, has a helpful series of books for girls and moms, including one called Secret Keeper, and while we found it interesting and a helpful read for discussion, it lacked a truly Catholic vision.  Our family got a chance to look up modesty in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), and that helped us round out the discussion the book and the event started.

But still, I want a (Catholic) book!   So there “oughta” be a (Catholic) book.

A recent Catholic book to talk over body image, and touch on modesty a bit, is Kate Wicker’s thoughtful new book Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body.  Weightless is  an excellent book and a longer review of that is coming.  But that is written more for older teens and adults, more specifically about body image than dressing and acting in way that is modest. I really want something I can hand to my children (both boy and girls) to read (having read it first), and then discuss casually here and there.

Here are two quick nominations for someone to write this book:

*Hallie Lord:  she’s the popular blogger of Betty Beguiles “Beauty, Fashion and Style … with a Vintage Twist.”  She features a lot of good discussions about fashion as well as Catholic issues.  She’d be great and very encouraging to young women who love fashion, because she does so much herself love fashion.

*Rebecca, a young screenwriter who writes the Modestia blog, “Fashion. Modesty. & General Fabulousity.”   And this blog is fabulous (or has fabulosity?)—she features a lot of fun appropriate fashion, many times featuring new Princess Kate.  I so enjoy her sensible take on things.

What do you think of this idea for a book?   Do you have any nominations of people who should write this book?   Do you have any suggestions of an “oughta be” Catholic book?