WordPress tells me that after Facebook and Google, the top sites that referred visitors to Catholic Sensibility were the Chant Cafe and Patheos. I’m far from agreeing with a good quantity of the content on those sites, but I thank their hosts and readers for the visits.
I can tell you that from my personal contact with the driving force behind the Cafe, Jeffrey Tucker, that everyone who writes there is passionate about good music at the service of the liturgy. Once you get to know him, Jeffrey is also exceedingly kind and gracious. I’m often mystified by a number of his posts. I do think they’re rife with misdiagnosis. But there’s no question about his heart.
As for the Patheos system, I’ve been on and off in commenting there this past year. The Anchoress has added a ton of bloggers there. No question about her commitment to writing, the spiritual life, growing her “channel,” and especially politics. I think the site suffers from problems in quality, both in writing and overall small details. The small stuff, unlike what you hear from the culture, is often worth sweating over, if high quality is an aim. But they’re trying to stake out a piece of the e-audience with a good bit of variety. Except of course, much from liberal Catholics.
The Catholic blogosphere sure has changed in the nine years I’ve been blogging. Some people have dropped completely off the radar. Some have exploded onto it from chat rooms, or more often, nowhere. I was looking back at some posts from my early blogging days. Some people I haven’t heard from in many years. I know some have lost patience with me. Others have lost patience with the whole system, and they journey with others who likely have found better things to do.
As for the direction here, I’m taking a break from church documents. Maybe for a week or two. Maybe for longer. Documents have kept me in the discipline of daily writing here, even if it’s just a thin comment or two on a text that Catholics read in the tens of thousands.
On the other hand, there are the Scriptures, which Christians read and to which they listen by the hundreds of millions. I also can’t deny that the single largest source of visitors here are engaged couples looking for wedding readings. So maybe there’s something to that. People preparing for weddings. People planning funerals. People celebrating other sacraments.
While church documents, especially those on liturgy guide my life, I’d have to concede that the texts of the Bible are a lot more central, and a lot more moving to believers than just about any other words. Maybe even texts of songs.
So I’m hoping to maintain daily writing here. But it will probably be on the level of forty posts a month, and less a hundred. Aside from church documents, anything any of you would like to see?
31 December 2012 at 4:00 am
Your blog is, hands down, one of my very favorites – and for so many reasons. I’ve been reading you since 2007, I believe. No matter how many posts you post per day or month, you are stuck with me as a regular reader.
Thank you for the enormous contribution you have made through all your work on the documents. It is a great reference and one that I frequently share with others, primarily through email.
What would I like to see? That is a good question, I will give it some thought and prayer.
In the meantime, happy new year and God bless you.
31 December 2012 at 2:23 pm
Todd, Fran said it all! Thank you for this resource!
Happy, healthy and blessed 2013 to you and yours.
3 January 2013 at 2:55 pm
Agree totally with the previous two comments – this is one of the best. I will be glad of a slightly reduced volume of postings, sometimes it’s just hard to keep up with the sheer amount of quality material that you share. The approach to church documents (chopping them into digestible bits) is particularly appreciated.