Support a Catholic Speaker Month! Mike Aquilina

Fallible Blogma has put together a wonderful project that I'm very delighted to participate in: Support a Catholic Speaker Month. Here's what the project organizers have to say about it:

The goal is to create a rising Catholic tide on the internet that lifts all boats (websites, speakers, and all those who participate). This giant, sudden influx of Catholic material and interlinking between Catholic websites should get some attention and raise awareness about all of these great Catholic speakers while also promoting the many wonderful Catholic blogs out there that perhaps you haven’t heard of yet either.

I think this is a fabulous idea, in part because we all need to be frequently reminded of what bonds us together - a passion for Christ's truth and a strong desire to share it with others. We need to focus on the truth we hold in common partly because the devil wishes to divide us - and sometimes accomplishes it through the most non-essential differences - like differences of taste or personality (which are gifts from God intended to enrich our lives and the world not divide us and keep us from accomplishing His will). This message of unity is the same message that has been beautifully articulated in a quote I came across many years ago when it was taken on as the motto of Catholic Information Network and which is popularly attributed to St. Augustine:

"In essentials unity, in doubtful matters, liberty, in all things, charity."

I've long been a fan of Mike Aquilina's work - especially through his books and blog - and I think the quote is one he'd heartily agree with. I was privileged to have a chat with him in preparation for this interview and asked him about this unity of truth and charity and how he came to understand it in his own life. He said that studying the Fathers of the Church (and appreciating their differences as well as what they held in common) and having children (he's a homeschool dad of six!) were primary influences.

Mike's blog, the Way of the Fathers, is always a pleasure to read, especially for those who have an interest in history, and I've always enjoyed his quirky sense of humor present there. He's a prolific writer and editor, though we only have a few of his books reviewed here on Love2learn (so far):

The Fathers of the Church
Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols
Love in the Little Things: Tales of Family Life

This last book is a particular favorite of mine and speaks well to his potential as a speaker on parenting and family life in addition to his areas of expertise in history and theology. I think he'd make a great speaker for homeschool conferences as well as ones aimed at wider Catholic audiences. He also speaks on the angels.

He's a big part of an excellent new project for children on Saint Perpetua. The Story of Saint Perpetua (from the Catholic Heroes of the Faith series) is a short animated film on the early Christian martyr and her companions. You can read a detailed review on Love2learn. As mentioned in the review, Mike is also featured in a companion documentary on Saint Perpetua, The Passion of Saint Perpetua: Martyr of the Faith, which is excellent.

Mike has co-hosted a number of EWTN programs with Scott Hahn and is the vice-president of The Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

Mike is a passionate and faith-filled speaker with a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm to share with others, as evidenced by the free radio clips and talks available on his website.

You can visit the following websites for more information on Mike Aquilina and his projects and interests:

Mike Aquilina's Website

The Way of the Fathers Blog

A Lovely Story with some unexpected Catholic Background

When I was doing my research for this year's library tree project, I spent a bunch of time at a local bookstore, checking out great new children's titles. Easily my favorite (which it turns out the library had already purchased) was Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola.

It's a lovely true story about a lady from Kenya who won the Nobel Peace prize for helping her country recover its economic security by starting a movement to replant the trees and small farms and gardens that had helped the country prosper in the past, but that had been cut down to make way for larger commercial farming (which had devastated the economy).

The thing that had struck me about the book on this first read-through was the beautiful sense of order and dignity - the importance of stewardship of nature, the use of the people themselves as important resources in solving problems, the simplicity of remembering that one person can really make a substantial change, the need for perseverance even when things aren't easy right away. Basically: we change ourselves to change the world. It also has lovely small-is-beautiful and principle-of-subsidiarity sort of themes in it.

The thing I had forgotten was a detail about the years that Wangari had spent in America - where she went to college and majored in biology. I had completely forgotten that she went to a Catholic college (even though the campus picture is portrayed with nuns in habits walking around!). There is a lovely indication in the story that their philosophical influence had a significant impact on her story (and is of course an essential part of the story that her background in biology helped prepare her for her good work):

Her heart was filled with the beauty of her native Kenya when she left to attend a college run by Benedictine nuns in America, far, far from her home. There she studied biology, the science of living things. It was an inspiring time for Wangari. The students in America in those years dreamed of making the world better. The nuns, too, taught Wangari to think not just of herself but of the world beyond herself.

How eagerly she returned to Kenya! How full of hope and of all that she had learned!

The story (and the book) is SO right and so beautiful in so many ways. It's a book anyone could love.

The unexpected discovery I made when I read the "Author's Note" in the back of the book was that the college Wangari attended in the United States was Benedictine College in Atchinson, Kansas!

A Mark of Honor - We're Censored in China

Love2learn.net joins many Catholic sites, such as the Vatican, Catholic Answers, Kolbe Academy, and Seton Home Study in being censored by the Chinese government.

This blog, however, is presently available.

You can test sites for Chinese censorship at Greatfirewallofchina.org

(hat-tip Stella Borealis)

UPDATE (3-15-07): Because of earlier glitches at the above testing site, I retested all of the above sites. Most of them are fluctuating between blocked and available, so the above results should be considered uncertain. Love2learn.net, however, is consistently showing up as "blocked".

American Psychological Association: Dangerous Dolls?

I think this is worth a read.