A big shout out to Emmy of Journey of a Catholic Nerd Writer for posting this on her FB wall.

Whatever your position, it is important to respect others and engage in dialogue. The video above is one of the best Catholic responses I’ve seen in the past few days. I do encourage all of you to check out Mr. Bethke’s original video as well. While I may not entirely agree with him, I can tell that his words come from a sincere place.

Bible360 will build upon Glo Bible’s award-winning digital platform — which incorporates 360-degree virtual tours and animated maps — by adding social features and reading plans. Bible360 will also feature The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, preloaded by Zondervan. In the future, video from Roma Downey and husband Mark Burnett’s forthcoming HISTORY(R) series about the Bible will be integrated into the app to further enhance the reader’s experience.

Social features include the ability to share Bible verses, photos and snapshots via social networking channels such as Twitter and YouVersion, through the popular Jesus Daily page on Facebook, or through the reader’s own personal social networking platforms. Bible360 is free with a premium upgrade available.

This announcement follows the announcement made in August 2011 that Burnett and Downey are producing a ten-hour series on the Bible for the History Channel. The series will be a docu-drama that will recount several of the Bible’s most important stories using a combination of live action and computer-generated imagery (CGI). The series will be in production this year and will air in 2013.

Thanks to a friend recently giving me an iPad for Christmas, I was able to download Bible 360 last week. I have to wholeheartedly say that I am in love with the application. It provides me with easy access to the Bible wherever I go and not many other Bible apps or software can beat the videos that the Immersion Digital folks have put together. I can easily travel to biblical locations without ever putting my iPad down and having to pack up and head for the airport. I can’t wait to see how the Burnet/Downey partnership with Glo Bible will further enhance an already terrific application. My only suggestion is the addition of a version of the NRSV with apocrypha or the New American Bible. I realize that not all Christian denominations embrace the apocrypha, but as a Catholic and an educator I would love to have easy access to the apocrypha and the Catholic translation so that I can use this application in the classroom. Just a thought. In the meantime, this app is fantastic even without some of the things I miss. Here’s the demo video;

I am also glad to see Roma Downey back in the headlines a few years after her inspiring run as Touched By An Angel‘s Monica. For nine great years she inspired many viewers, including this one. The Bible 360 announcement follows Downey’s press tour for her new DVD series Little Angels–an educational series for preschoolers featuring angels! I hope to have a review of Little Angels here in the near future.

Minutes after I posted my review of Joe’s book, I saw this video pop up on Twitter. I love it. Too cute.

The Buddha in the Attic

I read a lot of books in 2011, but my favorite was Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic. Prior to reading the novel I read a review in my local newspaper and was interested in the book’s setting—the West Coast, San Francisco, towns and cities in a state I know and love. But, the novel is not about San Francisco and therein lies the beauty. The names of the cities and towns of California are a mere backdrop to a moving story of women who left home for better lives only to encounter more hardship. That Otsuka could pack so much depth into 144 pages is a testament to her ability to capture a story and transport the reader. Her writing is one of the best I’ve encountered in quite some time.

The Buddha in the Attic is a unique novel. There is no main character. Instead, there is a chorus of them. The chorus is made up of Japanese picture brides that made their way to the American coast in the early 1900s. They left a life they knew well for men that they knew only through pictures that, in some cases, didn’t even really belong to those men. They left their families in search of a better life and sailed on ships that tested their endurance and courage until they met their husbands. But, life only gets harder for most of these women as they live with husbands they do not love, become maids, work in fields, commit suicide, become prostitutes, and go through the motions of everyday—tested, joyless, dead inside.

There is a poetic beauty in Otsuka’s writing that lends the novel an indescribable emotive quality. Otsuka’s sentences are simple, yet powerful. As she writes about the long voyage by sea, her words have a way of making the reader feel the rocking waves and the hesitation of the women. We feel their fear as they meet their husbands and their loneliness when those same husbands ignore them years later. And, we feel the loss of identity the women feel as they must become less Japanese to fit in and as their children reject their heritage.

Perhaps, the most powerful section of this beautiful novel are the final twenty or so pages where the reader feels the anguish of the women as they face the reality of Executive Order 9066. Suddenly their lives are thrust upside down by the new homeland they had come to grow accustomed too. In a poignant and memorable move, Otsuka’s chorus changes in the final few pages—from the picture brides to the dwellers of the communities that once knew the Japanese as their friends and neighbors. Suddenly, all the Japanese on the West Coast disappear and their neighbors and customers are left asking “where have they all gone?” And then, they forget the names of the ones who left.

This is a remarkable little book that fictionally represents a true period in our nation’s history, in Japanese-American history. It is stunning, it is moving, it is memorable. I cannot recommend it enough.

The title says it all. This book is a tiny book of tiny stories—a book that can be read in a matter of minutes. Despite its size, however, this book packs a punch. Written through the collaboration of 60 contributors, culled from a contributor pool of 8,569, the stories and artwork in the book are meant to impress you and leave you wanting more. Some of them are quite simply hilarious.  Others get you thinking beyond the words on the page. And others make you ask “what was that about?” All in a good way, all in good artistic fun.

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 is the first book in a new three-book series from actor Joseph Gordon Levitt’s (INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) open collaborative production company hitRECord. According to the press release, the pocket-sized book is the product of a collaboration that began in the spring of 2010 when artists and writers submitted their writings and illustrations and were encouraged to edit and remix others’ contributions for the book. Think of the open source software movement and apply it to the arts and you’ve got the picture.

This is a great little book and, had I known about it sooner, it would have made a great stocking stuffer for many of my book-loving friends. It is a unique and wonderful effort from hitRECord and one that I’m looking forward to seeing more of. Volume 2 should be released in the next year or so.

Note: I received this book from IT Books in exchange for my honest opinion.

How many times have you walked into a church and seen a smiling saint? How many times have you heard that Jesus used a little humor to get his point across? I bet the answer to those questions is “rarely” or maybe even “never.” I’ve long said that I think God has a sense of humor. The response from those around me is usually: “how could you say that?” or “Isn’t that a sin?” or, my favorite, “doesn’t that make you a bad Christian?” I think not. After all, doesn’t Philippians 4:4 remind us to “Rejoice in the Lord always?”

Between Heaven and Mirth, the fantastic new book by James Martin, S.J., reminds us that just as joy is a part of our everyday life it should also become a part of our spiritual life. Through page after page of jokes and anecdotes, Fr. Martin shows us how joy, humor, and laughter are some of God’s greatest gifts. Even after 13 years of hanging out with Jesuits, the included Jesuit jokes never do get old. But, Fr. Martin’s book is not just about jokes.

In Between Heaven and Mirth, offers stories of real saints who had a terrific sense of humor. I couldn’t help but laugh at the self-deprecating humor of Pope John XXIII or Saint Teresa of Avila’s brand of humor. Most importantly, Martin reminds us that Jesus was not the always serious boring fellow that some folks make him out to be. Jesus lived in joy and brought joy to the people he encountered. He was even a funny guy—using the humor of the day in his parables and responses. Much of Jesus’ subtle humor is lost on us in the 21st century, but 1st century followers of Jesus would have understood the humor and probably had a good laugh. Martin makes sure we understand the humor now and, I can assure you, knowing what it meant then sure makes it funny now (it puts the parable of the talents in a whole new light).

My favorite chapter of the book is Chapter 4: Happiness attracts. Martin quotes Isaiah 52:4, “The LORD delights in you”, to remind us that God not only loves us, but He delights in us too. God likes us. That means something. It means that God doesn’t only love us because He’s our creator and father; it also means that God wants to be with us and takes pleasure in us. Martin tells us that parents delight in their children and that the delight can turn into playfulness. So, too, can God be playful in order to show us how much he likes us and, more often than not, to help us not take ourselves so seriously. In those random funny moments in life, it is God who is right there.

Perhaps, the clearest personal example of this that I have is something that happened ten years ago while I was a freshman in college. It was the Spring semester after a very difficult Fall semester where my family experienced a tragic loss. I was working harder than ever academically and had started to live in a bubble that went from school to work to dorm to homework and back again. I wasn’t hanging out with my friends, watching television, or doing anything where I could truly say I was enjoying myself. On this particular Spring day, I was supposed to have my Biology final exam. It was a class that I was struggling in and that I studied the most for, but nothing seemed to help me regain the grade I had in the Fall. I remember that day clearly. I woke up at 11:30 am and realized that I was going to be late for my exam at 11:45 am. I quickly dressed up, chugged some orange juice and took a cookie on my way out. I was living clear across the campus and, only 3 months after a knee surgery, I found myself eating and running and panicking all the way to the building where the exam was going to take place. In my rush, I passed the Mission Church, uttered a super quick prayer, and ran up the stairs to the second floor. I opened the door of the classroom and not a single face looked familiar. I closed the door and looked at the exam schedule posted outside and saw that BIOLOGY 1 was scheduled for 1:45 pm not 11:45 am. I was upset with myself as I walked down the stairs and made my way out of the building. I started to make my way back to my dorm building and as I passed the Mission Church again, the bells rang for the Noontime mass. I laughed loud and I laughed hard. I’m pretty sure everyone that passed me thought I was crazy. An inexplicable joy rushed over me that day and I took pleasure in the bells of the Church. I know it was God’s sense of humor at work—the nudge I needed to start enjoying life and friendship a little more and, no doubt, the nudge I needed to remember that I wasn’t alone through anything.

Fr. Martin’s book is an excellent companion for our spiritual journey. Our lives can be filled with humor and still be spiritual and God can show us His love and friendship in life’s funny moments. This book can be laugh-out-loud funny at times, but can lead one to greater reflection too. It’s a keeper!

Advent in Two Minutes – Busted Halo.

mental_floss: The Book – The Greatest Lists in the History of Listory

Did you know that the term “tween” was coined by J.R.R. Tolkien or that Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was originally called Catch-11? Why are Bellinis called Bellinis? What was the original purpose of Play-Doh?

True to the magazine’s quirky and engaging style, the folks at mental_floss have released a compilation of some of their best lists from the past ten years. You can find the answers to the questions above and to so many more in mental_floss: The Book – The Greatest Lists in the History of Listory. The best thing about this book is that you’ll feel a little bit smarter after each list. Not only do the writers make the lists interesting, but they also dig deep to find facts that will make you laugh and surprise you time and time again.

This book will not disappoint as there is a list for every major interest. Even the most casual readers will find some nuggets of wisdom in this fun compilation. Trust me, this book will give you a legs up the next time you’re playing trivia at a party. If you’re a nerd (a term coined by Dr. Seuss! Check out page 192), like me, you’ll also love the random tidbits of information at the bottom of each page. For example, do you know what a grawlix is? Sure you do…you just didn’t know what to call it! It’s the string of typographical symbols used in comic strips to indicate profanity (also on page 192). See? Now, isn’t that a nice random bit of information to bring up at your next intellectual gathering? I think so!

mental_floss: The Book – The Greatest Lists in the History of Listory  is a great book to have in your home. It doesn’t require you to sit down and read it from front to back like a novel. Instead, you can flip through the pages and pick a random list or look one up and feed your brain. I recommend you do!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins in exchange for my honest opinion.

Scott Weaver's Rolling through the Bay from The Tinkering Studio on Vimeo.