Reflection?

Anita at V-For Victory has named me for something called a Blogger Reflection Award. I still don't quite understand what it is or what it is for, so I decided it must be for a reflection on those web resources which have helped me on this particular journey in faith (why limit it to blogs, since I'm the blogger reflecting?). The first resource I want to recall is the now defunct St. Michaels Depot mirrored here. Not really a blog (there was no such thing in 1996, it was a collection of church resources (ie: encyclicals and councils) and essays which helped me in my journey into the Church. They added a discussion board just before vanishing from the net; periodically I check the old url, http://abbey.apana.org.au, but no answer. I miss it.

The second resource I recall perhaps had a greater influence on me than St. Michael's Depot, in the sense that it was what helped me find things like St. Michael's Depot. This was the now defunct ROMCATHL, a usenet listserve; ok, it predates not just Windows-based bulletin boards, but Windows! This is where hung out a group of the most dedicated Catholics who put up with my ignorant questions and pointed me to the documents of the Church rather than their own ranting opinions, to find the answers I was looking for. This was my real RCIA. I have the fondest memories of William Jorge Castillo y Reyes, whom I lost track of a few years ago, and look forward to meeting again in heaven, if not sooner. There also I met Manny Tuazon who for years put out the marvelous daily Navarre Bible Commentary (which I still receive), David Schimpf, who still posts from the Eastern Fathers (and who helped me diagnose problems with my old '85 VW Vanagon).

My third entry, Lane Core, whose View from the Core, which later became The Blog from the Core was the first "blog" I read on a regular basis. Lane did such a great job of gathering and offering digests of news, opinion, Catholica, and poetry that it was a great one-stop place to find out what was going on. Although the site is still up, Land doesn't post much anymore; God bless you for your efforts, Lane.

By reading Lane's blog, I discovered he had links to many other great sites. One of which was the Seattle Catholic, which, although it was discontinued in 2006, is still online as an archive. Much good stuff by many good writers! The last one I'd like to mention is Patrick Sweeney's Extreme Catholic. This was perhaps the first real blog in the modern sense I read regularly, and from there, well, one follows the links...

The point of this reflection, which has taken a few days of reflecting, was to reflect on "what has gone before" - all of these sites are, for all intents and purposes, no longer active. However, what I'd like to draw from this is that the truth of our faith is eternal, while we exist in time, we hand on what we have received, a chain which has come down to our day from the Lord who first handed it on. Unlike the chains of gossip which cannot bring a thought coherently through the human links, the Lord promised His Church that it would do so to the end of time, and this sensus fidei, which lives and move and has it's being in our Lord, can do what no mere human agency can do. By this, do not think that I am divorcing the sensus fidei from the Church's magisterium, rather, that we are guided by it and assisted one to another.

God bless,
Mark