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One Year of Blogging!
Well, the title pretty much says it all, yesterday I crossed into my second year of blogging. Thank you so much for being so supportive/interested in my life here at seminary. I'll throw some statistics in at the end of this post in case you are interested in that sort of thing, but for now I'd just like to take a moment to talk about blogging in general, why I do it, and other such tidbits.
I originally started this blog one year ago as a way to keep my family and friends up to date about what was going on in seminary and to keep a diary of sorts that I could look back at in several years and remember what was happening during this time. I also wanted to use it as a teaching tool, a way to do my little part in the new evangelization. These two things are the main goals for which I strive when blogging, and when I'm not filling either of these 'requirements' it causes me to re-think and re-approach blogging.
As I think I have mentioned before, I was introduced to Fr. Michael Schmitz during the Brute retreat earlier this month. I really enjoyed the way he structures almost all of his talks, with a story or event being way he introduces whatever topic on the faith that he would then talk about. It was an inspiring, interesting, and just plain awesome way to do homilies (and other talks) and I wanted to emulate it on my blog. That is why, for the past few weeks, I have tried to tell some story about what is happening in my life and then wrap it into a more spiritual or theological topic that this event (or multiple events) has made me think about. This method (or whatever you would call it) though, has had a profound impact on the way I see the world. I thought it would just make my blog posts more interesting, but it has actually made me think about everything that happens in my life in a cohesive fashion. For instance, I read about humility in the Office of Readings last week and ever since then I am looking for connections to that topic in my day-to-day life. It causes me to listen more attentively to the prayers at Mass, or the talks we listened to on the way to the March, or even look for examples of humility in non-religious things like playing hockey, going out to eat, or topics that come up in class. I have started to see everything that happens throughout the day in terms of God, and my faith in Him. It's wonderful!
There you have it, how blogging has changed my life, how my posts will hopefully continue to be interesting, and a big thank you to all of you who continue to read my blog despite the times when my post doesn't make sense, when I use way too much punctuation, when I post six videos in a row, or when I post something that is totally uninteresting. To celebrate the one year anniversary (wow, time flies!), here are some of my favorite posts followed by some statistics about my blog. Thanks again folks! You're awesome!
Some of my favorite posts:
An Introduction
A thought on the Eucharist
The Importance of Prayer
Faith - Part 1
Do Not Be Afraid!
Coram Christo
Love - Just the Basics
Ice Skating
Lord of All Hopefulness
We are Called to be Nothing Less than Saints
St. Joseph and Pope Francis
Trust Leads to Joy
Pray without Ceasing!
I have competed well; I have finished the race
Our Mother Mary - The Wedding Feast at Cana
The Priesthood - Fr. Hyland Smith
The Challenge: Martyrdom
God can Sanctify even the Boring
A Mid-Summer Update
Back to the Original Idea
Do I Really Trust in God, or Something Else?
Totus Tuus - The Beginnings
An End-Of-Summer Recap
Make My Heart Like Unto Thine
Exercising the Vocal Cords
God is Love!
My Sister, a Nun
Prayer - the Beginning and Foundation of Discipleship
A Week in the Life at Seminary
Another Busy Day
Joy
St. Meinrad Soccer Tournament
The Funeral - God is Good
Vocations are Awesome!
NCYC - Day 1
The Crunch Continues
This is Break? - A recap of last week...
An Important Announcement!
Rejoice! God Transforms our Crosses
My Peace I Give You
Day 2 - March for Life Pilgrimage
Some fun statistics:
Total number of posts: 236
Number of posts that were started and never finished: 40
Total number of page views: 39,296
Most page views in a month: 4829 (May 2013)
Most page views for one post: 145 (Psalm 117 - Evening Prayer on the Ascension) - yeah, that doesn't add up with the total number of page views, but that's the number it gives me...
Page views from Latvia: 172 (what?)
Page views from computers running Internet Explorer: 13497
Page views from computers running Chrome: 13128
Total comments: 118
More fun statistics (click to enlarge):
WOW! It's great that you're starting to see everything in terms of God and your faith in Him, that's awesome! And the statistics are amazing! Thank you for your blogging, your witness has helped me and many others I'm sure. May Mary help you to continue to spread God's Love throughout the world. God Bless, A.M.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! Sorry I haven't been posting as much as I'd like to - classes and whatnot are already keeping me busy...
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