Blog Surfing

One of my favourite habits when I have a few moments to waste on the internet is blog surfing. This is when I select a blog from the list on my bloroll, and select a bog from their blogroll, and read through, then pick a blog from that blogroll, and so on. You get the idea.

I was doing this just the other night, and from the Standing on my head blog I found the Roving Medievalist blog, an excellent blog, to be recommended. Whilst reading through I found this post, and I thought it to be one of the best posts on a blog I've read in a long while. Here's a taster:

Making a stand is a good thing. Working for just laws is a good thing. But good can be perverted, if it's made into a god. You can march on Washington all you want, but you're not doing God's will if you hate the opposition. You can vote Republican until the cows come home, but you're not doing God's will if you place a party or a cause above God's Church. You can vilify "baby killers" all you want, but don't lie to yourself. You're not called to vilify. You're called to love. You're not called to imprison them. You're called to forgive them. You're not called to build God's Kingdom on earth by political means. You're called to do God's will by being Christ-like.

Click here to get the rest of the post, and be sure to check the blog in full. You'll find some excellent photos posted.

What's in your pocket?

I am a fan of technology, in particular mobile phones. The modern era of mobile communications brings with it many benefits, and the devices we use are becoming increasingly more advanced. For example, I use a Nokia NSeries N82. It is loaded with features, built in GPS, WiFi, internet connection, 5.0 megapixel camera, FM radio, MP3 player, etc, etc. I have recently acquired an 8GB memory card for my phone, and that means I can carry around with me loads of music files. I also have hours and hours and hours of talks from the likes of Father Corapi, Scott Hahn, the One True Faith with Michael Voris, and many others. There is some Gregorian chant, some quality classical music, and more. I also have two copies of the Bible on my phone, one RSV text and one Douay Rheims, both downloaded from Olive Tree. I also download podcasts, such as those from Catholic Answers and Word on Fire. Using the WiFi connection on the phone iti s simple to connect to my home broadband connection and download the podcasts, which I usually listen to in the car on the way to work.

There is so much you can use phones for, more than just phone calls. It almost excuses Nokia for calling their phones 'Multimedia Computers' these days, that's almost what they are.

I saw a clip on the SQPN website, an excellent spoof of the Apple iPhone advert. It reminded me so much of how I use my phone. I'm not a big iPhone fan, but all the same the ad is excellent:

Buy Catholic books and help Westminster Cathedral

In an effort to help raise money for the Westminster Cathedral fund, I have started my own affiliate bookshop with Amazon. You can get to it by clicking on the picture in this post, or by clicking here, or by clicking on the permanent link set up in my side bar. I've selected a category for Catholic books, just browse through the pages available or search by title/author in the search bar. All orders are fulfilled by Amazon, just as if you had purchased directly through that site. The benefit of buying through my store is commission is generated for every sale made, but all the prices are the same as the Amazon main site.

50% of all commission earned through the scheme will be donated to the Westminster Cathedral fund, with the other 50% going to worthy charitable causes. Please take a look. If you don't buy now, remember the shop in the future, anytime you want to buy a book.

Westminster Cathedral Appeal

Westminster Cathedral is in need of repair. In total, £3million is needed to help with the repair bill.

I was in the Cathedral just after New Year, and I will be going back in a couple of weeks as I participate in the Rite of Election.

The Cathedral is a magnificent building, and work needs to be done now to ensure that it will stay open to the public. It is expected if we do nothing now, within ten years the Cathedral could be closed to visitors on safety grounds.

I'm sure various fund raising events will take place to help reach the total required, but we can all make a personal donation if we wish to the fund. The Cathedral receives no support from the government, and does not charge an entrance fee for visitors. The every day running costs of the Cathedral are immense, already, any help offered to the Cathedral for the repair fund will be gratefully received, I'm sure.

I don't know, exactly, how many Catholics there are in the UK. But, as ever with these things, if all made a small contribution the final result would be large indeed.

If you would like to make a donation to the fund to enable the work of these urgent repairs, you can do so by clicking this link to the Westminster Cathedral Appeal site

Please, where possible, Gift Aid your donation.

New Bible

I picked up a new bible the other day from the Church shop. From CTS, it is based on the Jerusalem Bible, which is the translation we have in Mass.

The CTS Bible is well laid out, I find the text easy to read, although it is slightly small. The headings are useful, and there are some introductions to the books which is very useful. I've always wanted a good Bible with decent notes and the CTS Bible is better than my RSV Bible in this regard. At the back of the Bible there is a list indicating which readings are taken on which day through the three year cycle, again a nice touch and very useful.

I'm not a Bible scholar, so I can't really comment too much on the translation quality of the text; for me the fact that it is the same as that used in the Mass is a plus. In Luke 1:28 the verse reads "Rejoice, O highly favoured" When I prefer "Hail, full of Grace." which is how my RSV translates the verse. But then, for example, I personally prefer the way the CTS presents the verses from the second letter to Timothy, 4:2-4 than the way it is translated in the RSV.

I've learnt that there is no such thing as the perfect Bible. There is just one issue I cannot accept and that is the use of inclusive language. Thankfully, the new CTS Bible doesn't seem to use it. Overall it's a nice Bible, well put together, sturdy and stout. It has that feel of a good book when you hold it in your hand. I got this for just £10, which is a very good price.

You can get more information on the CTS Bible from here, where you can also download pages extracted from the book in .pdf format.