{"id":2760,"date":"2006-04-23T23:18:57","date_gmt":"2006-04-23T23:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/04\/god-or-the-girl.html"},"modified":"2006-04-23T23:18:57","modified_gmt":"2006-04-23T23:18:57","slug":"god-or-the-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/04\/god-or-the-girl.html","title":{"rendered":"God or the Girl?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally watched most of it today – off and on – as Katie watched all the eps this afternoon and then the conclusion tonight. I echo Jimmy Mac’s comment in a previous thread that they seemed young, young, young…and of course they are! And of course I’m not!<\/p>\n

The set-up was rather bizarre, and I’d be interested to know how they planned all this out. "Yes – are you discerning priesthood? Let’s think of some tests – you carry a cross. You go on a pilgrimage with no visible means of support. You go to Guatemala." Of course there was more to it…I hope. Television deals in extremes and drama, and the artificially-created tension was almost painful at times. <\/p>\n

But the good points were twofold: The presence of a diverse group of young people for whom being Catholic was normative and normal. Secondly, the clear message that all of life – not just priesthood – is about discerning. It’s not about finding something I want to do  or "what makes me happy." – it’s trying to understand who I am as God’s son or daughter, what my gifts are, and how I’m to serve <\/em>God and my brothers and sisters with those gifts. <\/p>\n

One quibble – when the fellow arrived at the end of his pilgrimage – the Carmelite Spiritual Center in Niagara Falls, Ontario<\/a> (been there!)  – someone with just a little <\/em>more Catholic savvy would have thought to mention – just mention – that it’s the Canadian shrine dedicated to St. Therese<\/a> (although it showed the fellow praying in front of a statue of her) and that St. Therese has a very special connection to the priestly vocation.<\/a> But, that’s not a mistake – just a suggestion of how the moment could have resonated more. <\/p>\n

Edited to add: <\/em>Last week Gashwin Gomes posted on the show<\/a> and got a comment from the show’s executive producer:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Thanks for watching the show. I can tell you that neither A&E nor the Producers asked these men to do any of the things you see in the show. <\/p>\n

All these events were asked of them by either their priests, mentors or they came up with the idea themselves.<\/em> More…<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally watched most of it today – off and on – as Katie watched all the eps this afternoon and then the conclusion tonight. I echo Jimmy Mac’s comment in a previous thread that they seemed young, young, young…and of course they are! And of course I’m not! 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}