Some web browsing.......

This weeks round up of interesting bits and pieces online:

• Forget the TV babble. Never mind what you read in the papers. Here's the real skinny: The average Catholic is not who you think she is.
• The first warmth of spring and we are lured out of the desert and brought fully into the Pashcal mysteries of wonder: Something of the glory of God shines on your face.
• The martyrdom of Shahbaz Bhatti, minister of religious minorities. "Until the last breath, I will continue to serve Jesus and his poor, suffering humanity." His spiritual testament.
• Ever wonder how to enjoy sermons.
• The Church is not a democracy.
• We cannot pit the Church against the world like two different realities, as if God were on the side of the Church and the salvation of the world depended on it rather than God - Overcoming the crisis in the church.
• As John Paul II's beautification near, criticism mounts.
• The Irish Catholic asks "Do different standards apply when a priest is accused?"
• Top choral director calls modern Church music 'ecclesiastical karaoke'.
• Many young people say religion makes them happy but less go to church.
• "Throughout Lent the Catholic headlines have been disheartening. Ash Wednesday saw us lining up for ashes and hearing the words, “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” even as the headlines blared the sickening news of 21 priests suspended in Philadelphia on sexual abuse allegations. “It feels,” wrote a friend, “like these nests of filth will never be cleaned out, not in our lifetimes.” “It feels,” I replied, “like we can never do enough penance, like there isn’t enough penance in the world,” to ever make amends" - the Anchoress reflects "Another long lent, and broods of viper."
• Given the season that is in it and the reception of converts next weekend, an interesting take on Welcoming a family home to the Church.
• The hermitage isn't what you'd expect: a small home in a quiet neighborhood of Essex, Maryland, that was originally built as a one-room fishing shack 100 years ago. But then, the hermit who lives there isn't what you'd expect, either. Mary Zimmerer, now Sr. Maria Veronica of the Holy Face, is a bubbly widow who discerned a call to the contemplative life after her husband passed away five years ago. Having made a public profession of vows last fall, she is now one of only two canonical (or diocesan) hermits in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Margaret Cabaniss met with Sister Maria Veronica to find out what it's like to live this ancient vocation in the modern age.
• Heather King gives a powerful reflection on food and the role of food in our lives: A Sacrament of Food.
• The Easter Vigil is supposed to occur when it is dark, so what can you do for the Easter Vigil in a place where it doesn’t get dark until 10:30 at night?
• With Passover around the corner, Mira Sucharvo thoughts are turning to how to make the story of the Exodus come alive for her kids. Typically, she might use clever stories or dramatic reconstructions with masks and props. But it's not so simple in her house. This is because her almost-7-year-old daughter is a self-declared atheist: Parting the Red Sea with my Dad and atheist daughter.
• Alaska casket maker finds calling after son's death.
• The "incorruptible bodies" of some Catholic saints have had a little help from a world at once fascinated and afraid of what comes next; their lingering presences in our sight paradoxically help us to detach: Mummies, Miracles and Dry, Dry Bones.