It’s always good to pay attention to your priest when sitting in the pews on Sunday (or any other day, for that matter). We’re not just saying that because our local parish priests might be reading this, but because we’ve heard some great homilies in our time.

If you ever leave your parish wanting more, there are some great sites online that are full of homilies to read or even listen to. A local example is Antipodean Catholic, run by Fr Frank Maguire. This site, while slightly dated in its design, is loaded with PDF copies of homilies for not just your regular Sundays, but weddings, funerals and other special occasions. There are also some essays and mediations for specific times of the year like Good Friday.

Also close to home is Living the Word – a site owned by Fr Frank Bird, a Marist priest in Auckland. Fr Bird’s site has a weekly reflection on the Sunday Readings for Mass that week. The documents are uploaded each Tuesday evening and have a copy of the Readings, some comments and some questions to guide personal reflection. Fr Bird encourages others to use these reflections and other resources on his site to form groups and share the Faith with others.

Internationally, some priests publish their homilies in audio form. EWTN publishes a free MP3 download each day with the readings and a sermon from the celebrating priest. These, along with other free podcasts, are available at www.ewtn.com/podcast. An American priest – Fr Jack Durkin – provides his sermons also as a podcast for free download and listening to at www.catholichomily.org. Subscribing to these (if you have an iPod or similar MP3 player) is a great way to follow the readings on the way to work or around the house.

The internet develops and evolves (for lack of a better word) at a speed that sometimes makes it hard to keep up. But one of the good things that can come from this speed of change is that functionality that starts as cost prohibitive can very quickly reduce in entry cost to

Case-in-point: internet television. It grew from non-existent to shaky and postage-stamp in size, to something restricted to those with big money. Then along came YouTube. And all of a sudden, anyone who was anyone could post videos and share them with the world.

To make surfing through millions of videos through it more like watching TV and to more easily group like videos together, YouTube allows users to create ‘channels’. These pages can be customised in their look and feel to better appeal to their target audiences.

A great example of this is the recently launched Vatican YouTube channel. Available 24×7 at www.youtube.com/vatican, the Vatican channel provides ‘news coverage of the main activities of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and of relevant Vatican events. It is updated daily.’ The site, which has a beautiful background wallpaper, allows access to over a hundred (and counting) videos, which users can then share with other people, or even embed in their own websites and blogs.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have regular access to Centro Televisivo Vaticano or Vatican Radio, but since those are the sources this channel uses, I can now easily, freely access the ‘Catholic Church’s position regarding the principal issues of the world today.’

So, if you’re lamenting the quality of ‘normal’ TV, why not supplement your viewing with something with a bit more substance? It will not cost anything more than your internet connection to hear the words of the Pope himself.

There has been much said about our technologically savvy Pope Benedict XIV – texting the pilgrims at World Youth Day and having an iPod. However, he’s not the only IT-literate one – have you checked out the official Vatican website, http://www.vatican.va? It’s been around a lot longer but is an excellent resource for Catholic doctrine.

If you follow the Saints and Blessed URL you can see all the people John Paul II made Saints during his pontificate which makes for inspirational reading. Following the Resource Library URL takes you to an online Bible (The New American), the Catechism of the Catholic Church (both the full version and the compendium), the Code of Canon Law (covering topics from being a minister of Holy Eucharist to ‘cases to declare the nullity of marriage’) and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. There is a special link for WYD information and one where you can read the letters from our Pope to Chinese Catholics.

To gain access to all the papal documents, follow the Papal Archive URL. This will take you to a menu based on each Papacy. John Paul II was well known for his prolific writing. Here you can read the encyclicals, apostolic letters, homilies, messages, speeches etc that he proclaimed. Among his most popularised writings are the encyclicals Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor. Probably the most ‘famous’ encyclical is Humanae Vitae which was written by Pope Paul VI 1968 and can also be accessed online – well worth a read! And of course, Benedict XVI is just getting started. So go forth and learn more about your faith!!!

Of course, the Vatican site is just the beginning. Do you have any other sites about our rich faith you’d like to see highlighted? Share them with all @ www.catholic.geek.nz. If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about – feel free to join in and let us know!