Good Fridays: Bill Nye, Bishops and Dragons in HD

Some good stuff:

Advent and Christmas with the Pope - Here is a cool collection of very short insights from Pope Benedict XVI that go along with the readings for each day of the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Worth a very quick, daily read.

MORE SOCIAL MEDIA READING for ADVENT (so you don’t respond like this):
  - Divine Networking
  - The Soul of Man Under Facebook
  - Goodbye, Social Media

Send a Christmas Greeting to the Pope - Go here and you can send an email with your picture, or even send a picture through flickr, to Pope Benedict XVI this Christmas.

Luminate Culture - “Daily videos, links, and blogs to get your blood pumping and mind flowing.”

Catholic Bishops on Twitter - A (hopefully growing) list of Catholic Bishops (NOT dioceses) who are on Twitter.

Vatican TV goes HD - Nice to see them keeping up with the times! I’m interested to find the new channel / website that will be publishing this new content…

Good idea for Church PR -  “In the UK, Jack Valero started his own organization called Catholic Voices. Its aim was to make accessible to the media young Catholic voices ready to explain the Church’s teaching.” The concept: Rather than trying to teach a bishop to speak fluently, for example, on matters of science, why not find a Catholic who’s already knowledgeable in that field and give him media training?  Amen. Amen I say to you.

There Be Dragons New Year Sweepstakes - you can win $500, a new Kindle, $100 and more…and you can help promote this great new (Catholic) movie that features the life of St. Josemaria Escriva.

See how rich you are - A simple tool for putting your life and money problems into perspective.

Some good “habits” - Love. It.

Reel Love Challenge - Make a 30 second video and you could win thousands of dollars and/or a flip camera. Just answer one simple question: How is life-long love possible?

Support the Register - Please help support the National Catholic Register if you are able so its mission can not only continue but flourish!

Social Networking: A Primer for Catechists and Teachers - A webinar. Haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but looks helpful.

Support LiveAction.org - An organization worth of your support. And right now you will have your donation “matched.”

5 ways to better use the media - The Pope found a “media message” in reflecting upon the Immaculate Conception.  Also, here’s 7 ways for better Catholic communication.

Catholic School Chronicle - News, Resources and Discussion for Catholic Teachers and Catechists…including a list of upcoming related conferences.

The Treasures of the Catholic Church - A youtube “talk” (put to music) by Allen Hunt. He makes some good points about the treasures and goodness found in the Catholic Church.

Digital Nativity Story - If you haven’t seen this yet, come out from under your rock and join about 5 Million other people who have. It’s a very creative rendition of the Nativity story, spoken in the terminology of today. I also wrote more on this video over here. Try not to get caught up on the format or music or informality of it if that’s something you struggle with. Just relax and enjoy it for what it is.  And have a good Friday, a blessed rest of Advent and a merry Christmas!

Good Fridays is a periodic series highlighting some good things going on in the Church - especially those using new media or innovative ideas to more effectively live out the mission of the Church. Please email or tweet me with any such things you’d like to see here!