One of the great benefits of this blog (when I do post to it!) is to give an outlet to the creativity gene inside me. Some of you know that I write a column each week in our combined parish bulletin. Sometimes stuff I write for the bulletin I also post here. Sometimes it goes from blog to bulletin.
And once in a while I get the feeling that something I write might be worth sharing with a larger audience. For example, last winter I wrote a (humorous?) post on the occasional unscripted phone calls Pope Francis was placing personally to ordinary people, in Argentina, Italy and elsewhere. I sent it to our diocesan newspaper, the Pittsburgh Catholic, and the kindly editor, Bill Cone, published it. So also he published my column urging more saints who were married or single, in the June 6 edition. In a spurt of ambition, I also sent this column to Our Sunday Visitor, a national Catholic weekly paper. But I haven't heard from them, one way or the other.
I've also sent the Catholic my reflections on the death of Bishop Andrew McDonald, which I wrote for our bulletin on June 8, and which is the following blog post.
In March I posted "Six Masses in 24 Hours," a reflection on the fact that one Saturday during Lent I presided at six Masses withing a 24 hour period. I'm not sure why, but I felt moved to send this to America magazine (a national Catholic weekly where I had a one page article published back in 2006). Within ten days I got back a positive email reply from the editor, Father Matt Malone, S.J. Two days after that, I signed the brief contract they sent me. And -- amazing, amazing -- a week after that I received the check, for an article which has not yet been published. So, watch for my byline in an edition of America sometime in the next three months. (America is a publication of the Jesuits of the United States. Annual subscription is $49. Contact them at 1-800-627-9533 or subscriptions@americamagazine.org .)
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