Shelly and I fell in love with Catholic New Media at the Catholic New Media Celebration (CMNC) in San Antonio, TX in 2009. The people we met and connections we made in person encouraged us to delve deeper into our Catholic faith and write about our growing experiences and interests.
Last spring we were excited to hear about a new Catholic New Media event, CatholiCon Expo, to be held in our hometown of Houston, so we both registered to attend. The CatholiCon Expo held last weekend, was not a copy of the immensely successful CNMC, but possessed a unique spirit and identity all its own.
Like Shelly, the session that inspired me the most was “Missionary Mindset” presented by Father Chris Decker. Some of the great quotes I pulled out of this session include:
· We have a responsibility to reach out to others with the Fullness of Truth
· We are called to go out in the world as a Christian
· Plug yourselves into the digital continent
· The Lord has given each of us a very specific way to serve Him
· How would your favorite missionary Saint evangelize and preach the Good News in 2011?
· How do we use technology to amplify the Faith?
All of these make good prayer reflections on the use of New Media in considering our roles participating in the digital continent.
The main reason we love attending these conferences, including the CatholiCon Expo, is the ability to interact in person with others involved in Catholic New Media. This weekend I knew some individuals from following their writings, and I met others for the first time, leaving me excited to review their work after the Expo. A real sense of kinship develops between people when blogging and tweeting the Faith online. The world of Catholic New Media is a small one, though increasing every day as the use of social media, blogs and podcasts becomes more common to the average Catholic.
It is wonderful running into the same people at multiple Catholic events over the last three years. Spending time together in person only further solidifies that online friendship made special by the sharing of our Catholic lives and Faith.
In particular, CatholiCon provided Shelly and I the added bonus of meeting so many fellow Houstonians involved in Catholic New Media. As a result of CatholiCon, we are resolved to start our own Houston Catholic New Media group to stay in close contact with each other. After all, we can’t let the Austin Catholic New Media group have all the fun.
If you’re interested, here are some of the great New Media Catholics we spent time with over the weekend conference with links to their online Catholic presence.
Kristan Doerfler at the Emmaus Road
Steve Nelson with SQPN
Jason Elizondo at Catholic Warthog
