Tuesday, September 09, 2003

The New 7 Habitus

The set up of the new 7 Habitus site has gone so well, there is no reason to delay the permanent change over any longer than necessary, so after 15 September, I will no longer post to this site. I will leave this up and running but all posts will be at the new location.

Monday, September 08, 2003

The New 7 Habitus Site

I now have the new 7 Habitus Site set up and it looks like there is no reason to defer the permanent transfer beyond 15 September. I will, for no good reason, continue to dual post anything I have to post until then, then I will only post on the new site.

Please feel free to check out the other blogs at St. Blogs.org

Flos Carmeli
Fructus Ventris
The 7 Habitus
Caritate Dei
Catholic Light
Eternal Rebels

and again, of course, St. Blogs.org

Pax et bonum

Sunday, September 07, 2003

St. Blogs.org

It appears that, rather than switching to Typepad, The 7 Habitus has found a home at St. Blogs.org. The new address will be http:7habitus.stblogs.org. I plan to make the final change by 1 October in order to give me time to get the blog template set up and get used to working in a new format. Until then I will continue primarily to post here. I apologize for the confusion, but I just learned about St. Blogs.org late this past week and think it a wonderful idea.

I am making this change primarily for the reason that I like the idea of "one stop shopping" for St. Blogs member blogs. Just think, if all St. Blogs blogs were on one domain (Richard probably just had a heart attack) what that would mean. Instead of the interminable lists on each individual blog we could post just one reference :St. Blogs.org and easily be able to find any Catholic blog. Also, there are the advantages that Moveable Type offers, such as categories for blogs, Track Back, and numerous others.

My only reservation is that I am not a programmer and will have to spend a bit of time learning to work with Moveable Type. Oh well, who said an old dog can't learn new tricks?

RCIA

It appears that I will be participating, at least to some limited extent, in the RCIA program in my parish this year. We have a new DRE in the parish and except for me and one other, there’s an entirely new team. I am looking forward to it, although I will not be able to be involved every week between now and Easter Vigil.

The groups in the past year or two come to the Church as the result of a conversion, although not from having been Protestant. In other words, they are not necessarily Protestants who have come to a conversion experience; they are coming to the Church with little, if any, previous exposure to the faith. This is not the typical background for an RCIA candidate. I wonder if this new way of coming to the faith represents a trend around the country, but I think it somewhat remarkable. It seems that, with the cultural environment being what it is, especially here in Colorado Springs, that most people would take the easier approach and join an evangelical Christian church, of which there are many here in the Springs. Catholics are not known for their evangelization skills. Make no mistake, I think this is a wonderful and heartening trend, but it strikes me as a bit odd.

Around this time of year, as RCIA begins in most parishes (will we ever get away from the "school year" model?), I think back to my own conversion to the Church. It was, in many ways serendipitous and, I am convinced, that it was the work of the Holy Spirit. Left to my own devices, I would never have found my way to Rome; I simply could not have done it on my own. It was really rather easy, I didn’t really even begin learning Church doctrine until after I had received the Sacraments; I just knew God was leading me to the Church. There were a few difficult times, times when I thought I must be crazy, my coming from a Scots Presbyterian background and all. But, I pressed on, and as I look back, I realize it could only have been the Spirit at work.

So, I guess, in some ways, my own experience is not all that much different from that of most RCIA "classes". Perhaps, the Holy Spirit is working to build His Church and we all need to be reminded that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it -- even with the likes of me among its members.
While ile the trial period continues this post also appears at The 7 Habitus on Typepad.