download Jesus

This is pretty fabulous.

How would you like to listen to a dramatization of the entire New Testament, read by a cast of international actors? Well, you guessed it, there’s an app for that.

Just go to Truth & Life: dramatized audio Bible, choose your format or platform (Apple, google play, PC, nook, Kindle Fire)—and download. 

The free app, endorsed by the Vatican, includes a foreword by Pope Benedict XVI as well as an official Church imprimatur. At some point you may even recognize the voice that was once Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings. Yes, Sean Astin. 

Enhanced by sound effects and original music, the app allows you to follow the text as it is being read, to take notes, and search for words.

As the promo describes: 

“over 70 actors, 20 audio engineers in10 studios over 3 continents contributed to the creation of this unique audioNew Testament. More than 100 media development experts and 10,000production hours were needed to complete this ambitious project.” 

The free app provides the entire New Testament text and the audio of the Gospel of St. Mark. The remaining audio books can be purchased and downloaded through the app, or are available for purchase in a CD format.

I credit my friend Judy’s passion for Scripture with inspiring me to experience the Word in a very personal way. I am specially connected to the Psalms, for example, where I often go looking for--and find--a voice who conveys my barrage of conflicted feelings.

I love when technology seeks to enhance our ability to hear and experience the Word in a new way. 

Here's how the Catholic News Service Blog introduced this new project, 

“Embracing Blessed John Paul II’s call to “employ the communications media (to achieve) the full impact of the Gospel message,” executive producer Mike Stark and his partner, producer Carl Amari, set out to produce a quality audio recording of the Bible… “We’ve got great support from all the people in the Catholic Church,” said Stark, “people are on fire about it.”  

Click here to read their full story.

we will never forget: April 19, 1995

When I first arrived at the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, to report on the Oklahoma City bombing for Catholic News Service, police lines and makeshift shelters had already been drawn. Budding spring gardens had instantly succumbed to military tents, hastily erected to serve as temporary morgue, as ATF/FBI evidence gathering sites, and as a canteen for rescue workers. Law enforcement and fully armed military personnel lined the streets.

Breathing masks, bloodied bandages, and much broken glass testified to the human carnage that had taken place there hours before. Thick grey dust covered everything. Northwest of the building, a block-long square area had instantaneously become an international media center, camera crews mixing with fallen debris, van food vendors, and cars demolished by the blast. Overhead, helicopters circled the downtown radius accusingly pointing flood lights at the empty streets. The sounds of sirens, voices, and motors blended effectively with the humming of drilling equipment at the site, where workers used lighted cranes to continue rescue operations around the clock.

On that fateful spring morning, 171 people (counting the unborn) died, and hundreds of survivors were maimed and injured, forever scarred.  The hundreds of rescuers from all over the world that came those first few weeks will be eternally haunted by what they saw at the site: debris, twisted metal, and shards of broken glass mingled with the smell of death and reminders of those who worked there—purses, pieces of clothing, toys, shoes, and grisly body parts.

“It’s worse than the most horrible Friday the 13^th movie you can imagine—you can’t walk out of this theatre,” told me 25-year-old Steve Mavros from the Oklahoma Canine Search and Rescue out of Tulsa. Mavros and his specially trained dog, Bucephalos, were one of the first deployed to the site to identify the location of humans and human remains. “We would have a hit—a human find—but only find a piece of a body.”

"And Jesus Wept" statue 

across the street from the OKC Memorial site

It is important that we remember April 19^th, 1995.  Remember the lives of those who died, not only where they died. Remember the victims’ families. Remember those who survived and are still struggling to heal. Remember the stories of tireless rescue workers who risked their lives in the still-trembling building to find survivors, and eventually, to bring the dead home.

Remember how there was no looting in that wrecked downtown, and how crime was virtually non-existent for several days in this city of 500,000. Remember the thousands of devoted community volunteers. Remember how the money turned in after the blast from the Federal Employees Credit Union vault housed in the Murrah building exceeded the money originally held in that vault. We will always remember that the stories of human goodness, generosity and compassion overwhelmed and conquered one despicable act of evil.   

"the fence," where people from all over the world have left personal items, 

uniting themselves to the city and those who suffered here

el Papa Francisco, John Denver, and Angelina county, Tejas

It’s a good day for random thoughts, of which I seem to have many. 

Image from Just Call me Frank

Here are three of them:

#1, I loved the recent Catholic News Service article highlighting some favorites of el Papa Francisco, as listed in "Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio" by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, originally published in 2010 as "El Jesuita" ("The Jesuit")—and not yet available in English.

Tango. Soccer. Poetry by Friedrich Holderlin. Anything by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Argentine Jorge Luis Borges. Thérèse of Lisieux. And the 1987 movie "Babette's Feast."

Got to love this guy!

You can read the rest of the article here.

#2, did you know that only one county in the Lone Star state is named after a woman?  Angelina County, seated in Lufkin, is the only one of the state’s 254 counties named after a woman—a girl, really. Each of the other 253 Texas counties is named for a man or a geographical landmark.

Angelina was a Hainai Indian girl who welcomed the first Spanish explorers and priests to East Texas in 1690. They called her Angelina—“Little Angel”—and she adopted the name. Angelina National Forest and the Angelina River also bear her name. 

I married a Texan and three of my four children were born in Austin. Yes, I do love Texas trivia!

And #3, If you enjoy John Denver and remember his music as much as I do, you will love a new tribute record just out: The Music Is You, showcasing some of Denver's most beloved songs and performed by a cross-genre, cross-generational and impressive mix of musicians — including Lucinda Williams, Josh Ritter, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris.

You may recall that Denver died 15 years ago when the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of California. 

It took me a bit to adjust to this collection of voices performing Denver songs, but it didn’t stop me from singing along. I can still remember the lyrics to most all of them! I also realized that taking away Denver’s familiar voice even helped me “hear” the songs with a new set of ears.

Surely, there’s a metaphor for the spiritual life in there, too?!

The Music is You: trailer #4

Thanks for your faithful example, @pontifex

Pope Benedict XVI retires today, 

Thursday, February 28, 

at 8 pm Rome time, 1 pm Central time

I had the opportunity to reflect publicly on Pope Benedict’s gifts to the Church in this collection of reflections by various authors published in the national newsweekly Our Sunday Visitor.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves his final general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Feb. 27. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Here’s what I wrote:

While much can be said about Pope Benedict XVI’s prolific and exceptional writing, I want to thank the 265th Pope for the 27 words he wrote on Dec. 12, 2012 — adding “@pontifex”to his numerous titles. 

Pope Benedict’s eight-year-reign may be deemed the blink of an eye in the Church’s existence. But he bequeaths the next pope a number of impressive digital initiatives, not the least of which are 2.5 million Twitter followers. All this, from an 85-year-old pontiff who was born the year that the first transatlantic telephone call was made via radio from New York City to London.  

Consider this. YouTube launched its first video just four days after Pope Benedict’s 2005 election. At the time, Facebook was a mere 1-year-old toddler. And Twitter was not born for another year. To these improbable inventions Pope Benedict responded with impressive enthusiasm, noting that the endless conversation online “demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import that can offer meaning and hope to their lives.”  

Yet what is most impressive about Pope Benedict’s engaging response to social media networks is not just his vision and insight into their significance. After all, the man who made his episcopal motto Cooperatores veritatis — “co-operators of the truth” — recognized straightway their opportunity as powerful mediums for truth.  

No, what’s most remarkable of all is that he faced these cultural encounters with the same openness, honesty, and humility that he displayed on becoming pope in 2005, and resigning in 2013. Like his compatriot Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Pope Benedict reminds me with his life that everything, down to the smallest detail, has coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes.  

Regardless the source of encounter, or the unlikeliest situation, or even acknowledging unimaginable technology, Pope Benedict XVI opened himself completely to possibility, knowing with his whole heart that God would be found there. 

Thank you for your faithful example, @pontifex.

* * *

     In his last General Audience yesterday, February 27, Pope Benedict XVI’s spoke with tenderness and intimacy to his brothers and sisters around the world—his last public words as pope:

I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian… 

Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.

To read the entire General Audience text, go here

* * *

Mis amigos, let’s continue to pray for Pope Benedict, for the Cardinals who will gather to elect our new Pope—and always, for our Church Universal!