Some web browsing.........

It has been a few weeks since we did a round up of some web browsing for your perusal. This weeks one is a bit on the long side as it has been a while; but put on the kettle, put the feet up and take 20 minutes to have a look and see what takes your fancy:

Beginning to pray has a reflection on the Eucharistic Heart of Christ - Torrent of Love
A young couple journeys from sin to grace, thanks to the friendship and unshakeable confidence of their priest - The Long Road of Grace and Mercy

Pat Gohn reflects on kneeling for prayer and how Kneeling makes me smaller, but love compels me to do it.

For those of you who may be fans of the Kerry writer and mystic John Moriarty, a recent online find was  the WYB documentary where John reflects on 'Slí na Firinne' which was his dream for a  Christian Monastic Hedge School in Kilgarvan in county Kerry, Ireland.

"As I see it, it isn't only the Christian churches that are in trouble. Christianity as a story is in trouble. It is in trouble in its images and in its metaphors. And even though it ravages me to say so, it is, I fear, in trouble in its central ritual, the Eucharist. If we do not get the diagnosis right, it is unlikely that we will happen upon the right remedy. Christ who continues to grow and out grow among us is the remedy. That and our willingness to grow and outgrow with him..." - John Moriarty

"Each and every one of us,” writes Lithwick, “is either a Chaos Muppet or an Order Muppet.” Chaos Muppets, like Cookie Monster, Grover, Gonzo and presumably Elmo, are “out-of-control, emotional, volatile.” Order Muppets, like Sam the Eagle and Bert, “tend to be neurotic, highly regimented,” but “secretly revel in the knowledge that they keep the show running.” A carefully calibrated ratio of the two types in any closed system is the key to happiness and harmony." - Which one are you?

While a lot of coverage has been about the IEC2012, here we have Rocco's coverage of the papal legate's visit to Lough Derg here and here.

From the New York Times; For New York Archdiocese’s One New Priest, a Lonely Distinction

From Agnosticism to priesthood

The monastic life is not for wimps. Look at Saint Benedict, who nearly drank a deadly cup of wine prepared for him by his own brothers. I felt like poisoning a monk

The new bishop of Lourdes began his ministry by helping out at the baths.

Two pieces looking at the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the need to re-visit the iconography of this great feast here and here.

The Irish Dominicans ran a series of reflections over the week of the IEC2012 called Adoro te devote reflecting on the Aquinas Eucharistic hymns. Limerick man Fr John Harris OP reflected at the final evening session of the 'Adoro Te Devote' programme, held in conjunction with the International Eucharistic Congress. His topic was the 'Verbum Supernum Prodiens', the hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas for Lauds of the feast of Corpus Christi. Listen here. If you would like to listen to all the talks, they are available here. Highly recommended.

Mass confusion: Misunderstanding at the root of the liturgy wars

"The missionary is one who has the 'experience' of Jesus; is the one who is taken by Him; is one who helps man to have this encounter with the Lord." - Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples

One in four women, and one in six men, report having been abused in childhood. Here's my story of how Dawn Eden began to heal her own wounds through the lives of the saints. - Healing sexual wounds with the help of the saints.

 Diversity in the Church: can you handle it?

Writing about Mother's Day is a joy. But writing about Father's Day is sadder and more difficult. Today more than half of U.S. children spend at least a part of their childhoods living apart from their fathers. How do we do justice to Father's Day in an increasingly fatherless society? - For every Child, a Father.

Religious Illiteracy: The first to send back to school are the adults - Many bishops and priests think the decline of faith is to be resolved by wagering on the very young. This is a serious mistake, objects Professor Pietro De Marco: it will be the adults who decide the success or failure of the upcoming Year of Faith.

The Vatican Secret Archives revealed.

The story of the Reformation needs reforming - The destruction of most of the libraries, music and art of England was not a religious breakthrough but a cultural calamity

Exploring the relationship between gardens and Benedictine - listen to an interview with the Benedictines of Rostrover.

Let's raise a glass to the Bad Popes!

28 year-old Chiara Corbella has died and at her funeral in Rome, there was joy amid the sorrow. In fact, there was a kind of triumph, of love over life and life over death — one of those contradictory signs that makes no sense to an efficient world but is transcendently reasonable to the mind of faith.

The Meaning of Prayer - a reflection from the Dating God blog.

The Smell of Prayer - a reflection from Dominica

First World lifestyles must change, European bishops' leader tells Rio +20 conference.

A story of the keeping of faith in times of difficulty - When the priests return to Russia.

Ever wonder what happens if you die on a cruise ship?