I’ll be giving a Theology of the Body Retreat from Friday to Sunday, Feb. 19-21, 2010, at the Villa Maria Guadalupe Retreat Center in Stamford, Connecticut. It’s a beautifully restored mansion now dedicated for prayer and reflection, hosted by the wonderful Sisters of Life. You can register online here, or contact the Sisters directly for more information:
Sisters of Life Villa Maria Guadalupe 159 Sky Meadow Dr. Stamford, CT 06903 203.329.1492 fax: 203.329.1495
I’ll be interviewed tomorrow morning on Teresa Tomeo’s radio show “The Catholic Connection” We’ll be discussing Pope Benedict’s new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. You can listen live at 9:30am ET (Friday) here. Here are more details!
Show: Catholic Connection
Host: Teresa Tomeo Outlet: Ave Maria, EWTN Affiliates, Sirius/XM Date: Friday, July 17, 2009 Time: 9:30am ET Length: 30 minutes Guest: Bill Donaghy
Last spring, in one of my favorite interviews to date, I spoke with Marybeth Hicks, who artfully and passionately stated her mission to “uncool” America. How? By raising up GEEKS – Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids! Listen in as she demystifies the consumer culture and teaches us how to build a real human culture, where persons are more important than possessions, and character is nobler than cash. The podcast of my interview with Marybeth is here.
I just caught the new YouTube video (above) on her website and thought I’d give GEEKS another plug!
From the website “Bringing Up GEEKS” The “culture of cool” is everywhere, and it’s stealing childhood innocence from an entire generation of American kids. If cool is a cell phone by sixth grade, unfettered access to media and pop culture and a cynical – even jaded – attitude about life, it’s time to redefine what’s cool for our children.
Author, columnist and speaker Marybeth Hicks has an answer: Bringing up Geeks – Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids. To Hicks, a “geek” is an authentic kid enjoying an innocent childhood, and a parent raising a geek is doing the right things. In her innovative and accessible book, Hicks advises parents to teach children to resist the influences of popular culture and the social pressure to conform to the expectations and behaviors of the “cool” crowd. Parents of geeks remember to keep the focus on raising kids for long-term success — not for popularity as children.
In a voice full of common sense, humor and insight, Bringing up Geeks has the potential to launch a child-rearing movement that promotes innocence over exploitation, substance over style, and genuine self-esteem over superficial acceptance. The book has already earned high praise from parents across America, as well as from notable names in media, education and child advocacy.
Truth and Beauty flow into us from many streams, sometimes cool and clear, sometimes muddy and blurred. One of the tasks of the New Evangelization is to step into the waters of our times and discover what streams lead to the Ocean of Truth, and which lead to a waterfall of self-destruction. Our new blog, Twisted Mystics, is an attempt to filter through and find in the music of our culture the longing for that Infinite Love that every human heart longs for. We’ll sing the songs of our culture with the voice of the Theology of the Body! Please pop in for a visit, and pass it on! Visit Twisted Mystics here.
Are You Able to Answer the Arguments of an Atheist?
In this week’s radio show, I interviewed Dr. Ben Wiker, co-author with Dr. Scott Hahn of a new book that hears and answers the arguments put forth in evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ best selling book The God Delusion.
Benjamin Wiker received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, and has taught at Marquette University, St. Mary’s University, Thomas Aquinas College, and Franciscan University. A senior fellow with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and with Discovery Institute, he is now a full-time writer. He lives in rural Ohio with his beloved wife and children, and an ever-increasing number of a moderately useful but always entertaining animals. To learn more about Wiker’s books, click here. For information on interviews and speaking engagements, click here.
From his website: Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God cuts through the shoddy reasoning, logical blunders, and factual errors that populate Richard Dawkins’ best-selling book The God Delusion. Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker provide readers with sharp logic and clear reasoning, exposing the muddle-headed thinking behind Dawkins’ veneer of intellectual rigor. Along the way, Hahn and Wiker offer a cogent and convincing argument for God’s existence.
“Rarely, if ever, in my many years as a professor of philosophy did I ever have the opportunity to read such a compelling argument.” – Antony Flew, Author of There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
The podcast of my interview with Ben is available here. For a video interview of the authors discussing this book, click here.
Fr. Robert Barron is the Bishop Sheen of the new millennium. He has a prolific presence on YouTube, podcasts on iTunes, and is now on location filming a mammoth series called The Catholicism Project on the history of the Catholic Faith, sure to be a media treasure when it comes to sharing what Catholics really believe. I’ll be interviewing Fr. Barron this Tuesday, November 4, on the radio show, 5 to 6pm EST on www.catholicinternetradio.com
I just learned about this fantastic new resource through Catholic Exchange. I would have scratched it right up, but the Mac version isn’t out until next month. Check out the video intro on the website here.
2000 Years of Christian History
10 Bible Translations
88 Council Documents from all 21 Ecumenical Councils
400 Early Church writings
165 writings from the Doctors of the Church
74 books from John Henry Newman
112 books from GK Chesterton
1300 Papal writings/encyclicals
The Old Catholic Encyclopedia (1200 entries and 5000 images)
Many classics including Gibbons’ “Faith of our Fathers,” Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ” and John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”
1000 Bible Art Images
Over 100 Bible Maps
Illustrated Church history
Search Catechism and Code of Canon Law
Some of the Over 1500 Featured Writings Classics Apologia (Newman)
“Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny. “ – Pope John Paul II
I had a wonderful conversation last week with Generation Life speaker Matt Chominiski on the Catholic vision of J.R.R. Tolkien. We blazed a trail with the characters of the Fellowship through some of the inspiring themes that made this novel a worldwide phenomenon, and a truly Catholic classic: Providence, friendship, love, loyalty, sacrifice, creation, stewardship, a touch of Chesterton’s Distributism, virtue and vice, and the unfailing power of hope.
For the podcast, visit iTunes and search the store for “The Heart of Things or Bill Donaghy” or just click here and listen right from the podcast website (the show is an hour long and may take some time to download).
There is a new film called Fireproof coming out next month that brings a very positive message to marriage and family, and particularly to helping marriages that are failing. On the homepage of the website is a powerful video from the Christian band Casting Crowns (I thought I’d plug it in here). It holds a sobering message and one we all need to hear…. true love takes discipline, hard work, and an unfailing devotion to the beauty and truth of the other. Husbands, let’s make this advice of St. John Chrysostom’s to young husbands as our own! I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us…. I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you. – CCC 2365
I’ll be giving a Theology of the Body Retreat from Friday to Sunday, Feb. 19-21, 2010, at the Villa Maria Guadalupe Retreat Center in Stamford, Connecticut. It’s a beautifully restored mansion now dedicated for prayer and reflection, hosted by the wonderful Sisters of Life. You can register online here, or contact the Sisters directly for more information:
The Heart of Things 