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What to think of the two rumored titles of the Hobbit movies? How is the situation in New Zealand, one week after the earthquake? Will more Lord of the Rings actors return to The Hobbit? All this and more in this week’s episode of Secrets of The Hobbit, ‘An Unexpected Journey’.
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What makes you really happy? Work? Pleasure? Success? Money? Perfection? Recognition by others? Icecream?
In the first episode of a new podcast series, ‘Ignition’, Fr. Dominique Faure, a priest of the Community of St John, explores this question in a talk about Friendship and Ethics.
From St. Paul to Stoicism, from Buddhism to Saint Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Dominique explains what friendship and happiness are really about.
‘Ignition’ is the newest show in the Station 15 podcast stable. Ignition will showcase Catholic talks and seminars that have been given in recent years and be published in easy-to-digest 15- or 20-minutes episodes.
Click on the player to sample the episode and go the website or to iTunes to subscribe.
Highly recommended!
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We have implemented the brand new Facebook comment system in addition to our existing WordPress comments. Facebook users can now easily leave a comment without having to submit their name and email address for every comment.
In addition, they can also chose to display the comments on their Facebook page, so that even more people can join in the conversation and read the original article.
A large portion of our traffic already comes from links on Facebook, so we know that a lot of you will be able to jump right in. And for everyone else, we still have our regular comment system as well.
What do you think of the new Facebook comments? Share your thoughts in.. the comments 
Join an SQPN tradition this Sunday, March 6th as we wrap-up this year’s Giving Campaign!
We’re very close to reaching our revised campaign goal for this year and we will be making the final push this Sunday. Visit our Ustream channel at live.sqpn.com from 9am to 9pm (EST) and see many of your favorite show hosts live. Join the online chat and join the fun!
SQPN is very thankful for everyone’s financial support and we can use your help to finish this year’s campaign. If you would like to help us reach our goal, please make your monthly or one-time contribution at http://www.sqpn.com/donate.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
9:00 am to 9:00 pm (EST)
Anyone know the schedule for the podcast marathon? Who’ll be on live.sqpn.com at what time?
Another thought/idea, since the “podcast marathon” is toward the end of Mardi Gras, the podcasters could maybe go with that theme??? 
Dan H., MA
Awesome guys! Can’t wait to join you all in the “chat”! I’d like to see Fr. Roderick on the Wii again! BTW, did y’all lower the goal from $150,000 to $100,000?
Dan, They did lower the goal to $100,000.
Thanks Dan! See you after Mass in the chat room!
Yeah! I can’t wait as well. Excited!! Will Fr. Roderick and friends create smoothies with different ingredients again? Will Greg and Jennifer join in? Looking forward to joining in.
Yeah! I can’t wait. Will Dr. Paul play “Guess that Saint”? I’d make a donation is he or his wife dresses like Therese of Lisieux!
In an address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications on February 28, Pope Benedict XVI talked about the ‘digital culture’ and about the need for the Church to learn how to speak of the Kingdom of God in new media.
We have compiled a summary of the most important parts of his address.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In this year’s message for the World Day of Social Communications, I invited all to reflect on the fact that new technologies have not only changed the way of communicating, but are carrying out a vast cultural transformation. A new way of learning and thinking is being carried out, with unheard of opportunities to establish relationships and to build communion.
The new languages being developed in digital communication determine [..] a more intuitive and emotive than analytical capacity, they orient toward a logical organization of thought and of the relationship with reality, often privileging the image and hyper-textual connections.
Moreover, the clear traditional distinction between the written and oral language seems to vanish in favor of a written communication that takes the form and immediacy of oral communication.
The dynamics proper to the “participatory networks” require, moreover, that the person be involved in what he communicates. When persons exchange information, they are already sharing themselves and their vision of the world: they become “witnesses” of what gives meaning to their existence.
The risks that are run are certainly far from everyone’s eyes: the loss of interiority, superficiality in living relationships, the flight to the emotive nature, the prevalence of the most convincing opinion in regard to the desire for truth.
The digital culture poses new challenges to our capacity to speak and to listen to a symbolic language that speaks of transcendence. In the proclamation of the Kingdom, Jesus himself was able to use the elements of the culture and the environment of his time: the flock, the fields, the banquet, the seeds, etc. Today we are called to discover, also in the digital culture, significant symbols and metaphors for persons, which can be of help when speaking of the Kingdom of God to contemporary man.
We must consider also that communication in the times of the “new means of communication” entails an ever narrower and ordinary relationship between man and machines, from computers to mobile telephones, to mention only the most common. What will be the effects of this constant relationship?
It is [..] the appeal to spiritual values which will make it possible to promote a truly human communication: beyond all enthusiasm or easy skepticism, we know that this is an answer to the call imprinted on our nature of beings created in the image and likeness of God in communion.
[..] The contribution of believers could be of help for the world of the media itself, opening horizons of meaning and value that the digital culture is not capable to perceive and represent on its own.
You can read the full translation of the Pope’s text here: http://www.zenit.org/article-31877?l=english
I agree with Dan on this.
Really interesting. It was nice to read a condensed version of Pope Benedict’s letter for social communications. It nice to see how SQPN is really helping other Catholic believers (and soon-to-be Catholics) contribute in their own unique way to the digital culture in spreading the Good News of our faith. Keep up the great work and may God continue to bless SQPN’s mission of leading the way in Catholic ‘new’ Media.
We are currently experiencing intermittent problems with several of our Libsyn accounts. Because of that, you might be unsuccessful in trying to download and listen to shows like ‘The Break’ or ‘Secrets of The Hobbit’.
We have notified Libsyn of the problem, and we hope that they will be able to fix things soon.
Thank you for your understanding.
UPDATE: Files seem to be downloading again. Let’s hope the problems are solved.
I am still having problems 
I just checked again and it is fixed. Thanks! 
This morning, the latest episode of ‘The Break’ downloaded to my iTunes and iPod Touch. It seems to be working now.
In the third episode of Secrets of the Hobbit, Dave and Fr. Roderick discuss the news about the earthquake that hit the southern part of New Zealand, the reactions from Peter Jackson and the actors and the potential consequences for the production of the movies.
You can listen to the episode by clicking on the player, or go to the website of The Secrets of The Hobbit to subscribe to the podcast.
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Joss Wedon’s TV series ‘The Dollhouse’ tells the story of a girl who volunteers to have her memories erased. For five years, a company will reprogram her brain for various assignments. She, and many other recruits that signed up for the same deal, switch identities on a regular basis. When her contract is over, her original identity will be restored.
The TV series that ran for two seasons before it was cancelled, and it is now available on DVD (Season One
As you can imagine, the story raises a lot of moral questions about the practices of this ‘Dollhouse’ company. But Wedon also hits a deeper layer of philosophical and even religious questions. Are we our brain? Some neuro scientists think so. They downplay, or even negate the existence of true free will. Our choices are driven by instinct and impulse. The brain is just a kind of supercomputer, and if it is erased, damaged or destroyed, there is no identity left.
However, during the first season of the series, the story seems to imply that there is a spiritual principle that transcends the realm of the brain. “You can erase memories, but you can’t erase a soul”, says one of the characters.
Christians have always believed in the existence of this Godgiven, eternal soul. It is what makes us truly human. Every human life should be respected because of this soul, even when cognitive functions or physical abilities decline.
In episode 772 of ‘The Break’, Fr. Roderick reviews the first couple of episodes of ‘The Dollhouse’ and examines the Catholic doctrine about the soul; how it relates to our physical body and what happens to it when we die. You can listen to the episode by clicking on the player, or go to the website of The Break to subscribe to the podcast and to listen to other episodes.
Did you watch Joss Wedon’s series ‘The Dollhouse’? What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Dan, 
Barb in Nebraska are discussing. 
Rismi, and 
Daniel 4:26 pm on March 3, 2011 Permalink |
I think its great! Nice way of using social media as a part of the website.
Joe Sales 3:30 pm on March 3, 2011 Permalink |
This is exciting.