Information and Communications Blog

Optimizing Our Time and Resources
CIM Net Educ., October 2007
Building a Catholic articles web site or web log
can involve much of our time and resources. So that
we do not waste time and resources, what can help us
optimize are three things: planning and organization,
defragmentation of the hard drive, and scheduling our
work online and offline.
Planning and organization
To optimize our time and resources in building a web
site or web log, one important thing necessary is organization.
And one primary thing that needs special attention in organization
is our files. If we plan to build a web site for the long run,
it is important to organize our directory and subdirectories so
that they can easily be managed. One way to manage our files is
by categorizing them in years. After the startup years of our
web site and we have created the root directory and some subdirectories,
then we can then create a subdirectory in terms of the present year
we are working upon. For instance, with our present root directory
and subdirectories, we can then create a subdirectory named /2008/
and place the same pattern of files and subdirectories we had
started with in the first two to three years. This will add
consistency to what we have been building in the first years.

Defragmenting
Another important thing that can help us in optimizing
our time and resources is to take the time we use to relax
or our offline time to defragment our main hard disk.
Defragmenting our hard disk will rearrange the files in the
computer in order to make the computer system more efficient and
faster in performance. To defragment the computer, if
you have a Microsoft Windows XP operating system, all
you need to do is to go to your control panel, and then
click on the link that refers to “Performance and
Maintenance”. Once there, click on the link that says
“Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run
faster”. Then just click on the “Defragment” button.
This will take quite a while depending on the number of
files that have been saved on your hard disk. The more
files there are in the hard disk, the more time it will
take to defragment the whole hard disk. However, once
defragmented, the computer is guaranteed to work faster
and more efficiently.

Scheduling your work days and day offs
So that each day is made useful and productive, it is
important to schedule our tasks in building our web site
or web log. If you have a Gmail account, this account
has a built-in calendar that helps remind you of the
tasks that you are supposed to do for each day: on
a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This way, you are
not lost in thinking up of what needs to be done. There
is already a reminder ready at hand to help you remember
what needs to be done throughout the whole day. As
regards our day offs or those special mornings or
afternoons we schedule to have time off by ourselves,
we need to schedule this too. We can use these special
mornings or afternoons for a time of prayer and reflection.
Recharging ourselves with energy that comes from a life of
prayer is very important in building a Catholic web site
or web log.

What it Takes to Build a Catholic Web Site or Web Log
CIM Net Educ., September 2007
Faith
As in any venture in life, taking a step into unchartered
territory always involves risks. Every decision we make
to take a step forward, is an act of faith that we can
make it, despite the risks involved. Placing our faith
in God, helps us to be confident that we will be able to
take a good step forward, and to overcome any fear with
the courage that God will supply. One of those who can
encourage greatly to this effect is the late John Paul II.
In one of his messages regarding the internet, he makes
a statement that can be seen as a prayer and also as a
source for encouragement. So, if one who has survived
the war as an orphan, and rose to the rank of the papacy
despite all the circumstances of hardship and poverty
can do so, because of his faith in God, how much more we,
who are only given the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel
through the internet via a Catholic web site or web log?
Though our faith may be as small as a mustard seed, it
is enough for it to grow and help us in this venture
through prayer and work.

Determination
If we take that first initial step to follow the call of
the holy father to venture out into the Net to proclaim
the Gospel, still another character trait is necessary for
us to make it survive the startup phase: determination.
In any venture, be it business or non-profit, there is
usually a startup phase whereby the venture has to find
ways and systems in order for it to operate and function
effectively towards the long-run. And one very important
factor that will help the venture survive the startup
phase and move on towards a long-term presence is the
determination not to give-up but to continue on in hope
and through the power of prayer. Many ventures do not
survive the startup phase because when they do not see
any positive sign or result, they decide to close shop.
But this is where faith and determination can come into
a powerful combination. Faith in a future and a hope
coupled with the determination not to give up even if
things do not seem bright, is one sure way that the
venture can last the startup phase and enter towards
a long-term presence on the Net.

Dreams
When our dream is spiritual, it is often associated
with a vision. When our dreams are for material
things, then we probably aim to build a quality life
for our family. Dreams are very positive reinforcers;
they inspire and they fire up our imagination; and
they help us get back on our feet whenever we get
“downed” by a failure, a mistake, a frustration or
any negative experience that discourages. With faith
in what are doing, and the determination to continue
on despite many hardships and difficulties, then
getting in touch with our dreams is the enkindling
factor that will keep the flame of hope eternally
rooted in our heart and soul. Even if peace in the
family may be broken for awhile, or even if love
disappears for some time, or if a trust is broken
that makes us feel helpless, abandoned and alone,
if we cling to the hope that God will never abandon
us and will always be with us, He can help us with
our dreams and make them come true.

Dennis Emmanuel V. Cabrera
Site Administrator: Catholic Internet Mission and
Gospel and Culture

Proclaiming the Gospel as a Catholic family on the Net
CIM Net Educ., August 2007
Zenit News: Families Proclaim the Gospel
In a news item from Zenit, we are informed that before a
question-and-answer session with a group of priests, the
holy father mentions the individual Catholic family as
also an everyday proclaimer of the Gospel. This means
that we, as Catholic families, through our everyday tasks,
responsibilities, and duties in the secular sphere, also
proclaim the Gospel by our deeds that flow from the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit and from the spirit of
the Gospel of Christ. We do this within our own families,
and also outside of the family - through our work and
professions and through the institutions in which our
family members interact with daily: schools, business
establishments, government agencies and many organizations
in the private and public sector.

Proclaiming the Gospel as a Family on the Net
There is a way by which we can also proclaim the Gospel
in word aside from the deeds that we perform everyday thru
our daily encounters with people. The proclamation of the
Word can be done if we, as a Catholic family, engage in
the building of a Catholic articles web site or web log
that promotes the Catholic faith online. This web site
is an example to how we can proclaim also the Word of the
Lord as a Catholic family. As of now we have created a
free Catholic eBook which can help and guide the Catholic
family who is interested also to undertake this ministry
on the internet. The ministry is a Catholic lay initiative
and takes into consideration what the Church authorities
teaches in relation to the use of the internet for the
purpose of evangelization. To have an idea of what this
ministry is about, you may read our way of proceeding in
building a Catholic articles web site on the internet
by downloading our free Catholic eBook.

Our network is a supportive and stabilizing force
Since we founded a Yahoo! list, The
Spirit’s Love Leaders Corps, that became the springboard
from which was born our network of web sites, web logs, web
rings, and lists on the Net, our network became a supportive
and stabilizing force for anyone who wishes to create a
Catholic presence on the Net. Its supportive and stabilizing
spirit is attributed to the spirituality that we have followed: a
spirituality that is rooted in both classic and contemporary
ways of living the Catholic faith. So if you are interested
as a Catholic family to join this supportive and stabilizing
network, then all you need to do is to download our free
Catholic eBook, learn our way of proceeding, and join our
network by purchasing a Yahoo! Web Hosting starter package
or 1and1.com Standard Business package through us, their
affiliate. We assure you that we shall provide whatever
we can, through God’s help and providence, all the data
or information you need in order to get your Catholic
family’s article web site off the ground and into the
mainstream of the internet.
Dennis Emmanuel V. Cabrera
Site Administrator: Catholic Internet Mission and
Gospel and Culture

CIM Net Educ., June 2007

Three Ways of Optimizing Key Words in WordPress

Search engine optimization teaches us that search engines see
the relevance of key words in content to the very words or
phrases that people use online to search for information.
When people search and use a key phrase, and when words of that
key phrase are found much in one’s content, then the higher
that page will be in the search engines’ ranking of web sites’
pages. The more the key words are used in one’s content, the
higher will be its key word density and the higher it will be
in the search engines’ ranking for that key word. This is what
many search engine optimization specialists teach. Moreover, so
that it will be ethical, they also teach that the use of such key
words must be in moderation, so as to keep the whole page in
balanced form.
There are other ways by which one can use the key words other
than their presence in the content one produces. You can also
use the advantage of such key word optimization when using
WordPress blog software. Three other ways by which one can
optimize the use of these key words are:

• using key words in the categories part of WordPress
• using key words in the post slug
• the combination of both key words in categories and
  in post slugs

Using key words in Categories
When creating categories for each of one’s posts in WordPress,
we can do so in a way that optimizes the use of the key words
we will use in the content production of that blog. For those
really serious in ranking high in search engines’ placements,
researching the key words that are popularly used can be helpful.
As we learn what those key words are, we can use them now in
creating the categories for our WordPress blog. All we need to
do is to go to the Administration panel of the blog and:

• click the “Manage” tab
• click the “Categories” tab
• then click the “(add new)” link to create the category
  using the key words we have chosen

Using key words in Post slugs
When we write the title of a blog post in WordPress and publish
the post, there is an automatic post slug that is provided by the
WordPress blog software. This post slug contains all the words
that has been used in the writing of the title. However, we can
customize this post slug by using the Post slug box on the right
column of the Write Post facility in WordPress. As we click on
the “Write” tab, this “Post slug” box appears on the right column
of the page. We can then place in that box exactly whatever key
words are important and have been used in the production of our
blog post. Doing this will override the default function of the
blog software in creating post slugs and what will appear in the
url of the page will be the key words one has chosen for that
page.

Combining the use of key words in Categories and Post slugs
The third way of optimizing the use of key words in our WordPress
blog posts is by combining the strengths of its use in the Category
and in the Post slug facilities. When the key word that is often
used in the text of our content is also present in the Category
and the Post slug, then this can contribute well to a higher key
word density for the entire blog post. A higher key word density
is one factor that can help the blog post achieve higher rankings
in the search engines.

CIM Net Educ., April 2007
Using WordPress Blog for your Home Page

For a content-rich web site filled with information on the Catholic
faith, a good and inexpensive way to put up a standardized home page with
basic design is a WordPress blog home page. With a WordPress blog home
page, you can save on purchasing templates that comply with the standards
of web design.

WordPress is a free blog software that you can install in your web
hosting package. Some web hosting services allow you to do this only
manually. But with a Yahoo! Web Hosting package, you can install a
WordPress blog easily and make this blog’s home page supersede the
index.html file of your root directory files.

Once you decide to purchase a web hosting package with Yahoo! Web
Hosting, you can immediately create a blog that will be the home page
of your web site. There are many template designs that can be chosen
from in the WordPress blog software that you will use to create your
blog. You can choose which WordPress template that you can use for
your site’s design. As an example of these templates, you can visit
[Blog, Books & BTWs] and [The Easter Blog] to view two of the designs
available. The first one is called the Green Marineé template and the
second one is called Blíx.

With a WordPress blog for a home page, you can then adjust your text
navigation links by editing it through the sidebar template of the
blog. To go to this sidebar template, you need to log-in first with
your user name and password, and then click on the “presentation”
tab. After clicking on this tab, you then go to the “theme editor”
tab, where you will find parts of the WordPress blog template: the
main template, the footer, the header, the sidebar, and the css
configuration. Most of these templates are written in php script, but
you can easily make adjustments by just changing the titles and then
inserting the code for text navigation in the sidebar template.

One additional advantage of making this switch from a root index.html
file to a WordPress blog home page is that you will retain whatever
PageRank you have worked for in your root directory index.html file.
Although Yahoo! Web Hosting customer service has advised us that this
switch to a blog home page does not mean a redirect, but rather one
that will supersede the root directory index.html file, we are glad
to have retained our original PageRank in our new blog home page.

For those of you still on free web hosting accounts, now is the
opportune time to switch to a Yahoo! Web Hosting service package.
With the ease of creating a WordPress blog home page, you can already
organize your content much better. This WordPress blog home page has
a built in RSS Feed, that visitors to the site can subscribe to, so
they can access information from your web site. Furthermore, the
web design provided by a WordPress blog software is made in such a
way as to help you make your Catholic articles web site a very
content-rich web site.

CIM Net Educ., March 2007
Building a Catholic Presence Online [4]

There are many ways of building a Catholic presence online. One way
of building it is through starting a blog or a web site. The most
inexpensive way is by starting a free blog site account. A good blog host
is Blogger.com. It is easy and you can write spontaneously online with
a dial-up account. At first, your writing may not be that mainstream but
in time, when you upgrade to a paid blog hosting account and learn search
engine optimization techniques, you can then enter the mainstream of the
Net.

Another way of building a Catholic presence online is through building a
web site. One good free web hosting site is Yahoo! Geocities. The process
of learning is very rewarding as you gradually know how to build an html
page, learn about jpgs and other images, know about javascripts, cutting
and pasting codes, and discover your own style of web site design. As
with the free blog hosting account, the free web hosting account at
Yahoo! Geocities is also inexpensive - especially if you begin also with
a dial-up account. Once, you decide to bring your site mainstream, then
you can opt for a paid hosting account with Yahoo!.

Bringing your blog site or web site mainstream involves knowing good link
resources and people online who are willing to help you. If you wish to
know the details of how we built our web site and blogs, you may want to
download free our Catholic eBook. This eBook contains the basic link
resources you need in order to build a web site or blog. All you need
to do is go to the site, download the eBook and request for the password
through a blank email message with a subject line saying, “request
password”.

To know more of the details needed in improving, bettering, upgrading,
or progressing your web site or blog, the articles and blog posts in
our home page will help you in your search for information - most especially
with all the resources and links needed to get mainstream on the Net.
We wish to inform you also that this Catholic site and our blogs are still
Web 1.0 technology, but is gradually learning all that is to be known of
the Net at this level in order to fully and solidly build a good
foundation on the Net.

Building a Catholic Presence Online [3]

It is important also in building a presence
online to have link partners who will generously
exchange links with your site or blog. This
building of link partners is important, as this
has a bearing on the rankings of your site
whenever results are given in a search.
The more relevant link partners our site has,
the higher is our potential for a higher
PageRank - one of the factors that determine
rankings in the search results.

Finding link partners is easy even without
a link manager system. We can just produce
a page that describes our preferences for
linking and give all the necessary information
for potential link partners to find us in
the search engine results pages. An example
of this “linking business” page is one that
we also have obtained from a free source.
You can browse over it in our Add URL page.
Once your own Add URL page is indexed in the
search engines, then those who are searching for
link partners will also have access to it.

As for our own search for link partners,
we too can use the search engines results
pages for other Catholic sites or blogs
who also engage in reciprocal linking or
link exchange. They too often have a
page that describes who they wish to
link with and how they wish to be known
as a link in our pages. Aside from the
search engines, Link Market and Webring.com
are also free sources of link partners
who can provide additional PageRank and
traffic to our sites and blogs. If you
visit our home page, you will find a
navigation bar to one of our links with
Webring.com. Though linking with Webring.com
is not exactly a reciprocal link, a navbar
to one of our web pages or blog posts
will provide also the traffic we need
and the network we truly need to fare
well in the search engine results pages.

As we go on with our business of reciprocal
linking, we will often meet sites or blogs
that do not have Catholic content in them.
If however, the content in your sites or
blogs have topics on internet, business or
leadership in general, then partnering with
other sites with content on those topics
is also favorable. A good and wise rule to
follow though is to link with those sites
who are generally conservative in their
presentation of content and images in
their home page. A home page generally
gives an overview of what is contained
in the web site. The formal and conservative
use of language in the home page is one
of the measures by which we can gauge the
ethical direction of a web site.

For those who are advanced already
in building links and engaging in
reciprocal linking, there is one way
of knowing how many sites are already
linked with your home page. If you
have a Google account, then all you
do is click your mouse to list down
all your accounts in Google. At the
Webmaster Tools link, you can click
this link and you will then be taken
to Google Sitemaps. It is at Google
Sitemaps where you can know the
approximate number of sites that are
already linked with your homepage.
This tool requires that you submit
a sitemap of all the pages in your
web site.

Search for Ideas on the Topic of Prayer

Prayer is one topic which is popular since it applies
to all Catholics regardless of age or knowledge of the
Catholic faith. One can write many things about prayer
since the Catholic tradition is very rich in this regard.

A veritable source of content for the topic of prayer
is the praying of the rosary. And the topic of praying
the rosary is also related to Marian devotions and
the basic mysteries of our Christian faith - as is
embedded in the joyful, sorrowful, luminous [or light
mysteries] and glorious mysteries.

Another topic for prayer is meditation and
contemplation. Here, you can also relate the
topics of lectio divina, or spiritual reading,
and the methods of meditation that many people
employ to achieve a state of peace and tranquillity.

From the topic of meditation and contemplation,
we can also talk about Eucharistic adoration -
a prayer done before the Blessed Sacrament.
This prayer is one of praise, reverence and
as the term states, “adoration”. Many methods
are also employed for this type of prayer. One
can write about them and be more specific when
it comes to giving sources for guides and
books used when praying before the
Blessed Sacrament.

Many books and documents speak about the topics
on prayer stated above. As regards the praying
of the rosary and devotion to Mary, the latest
document on this is an Apostolic Letter by
John Paul II called “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”.
If you go to the Vatican site, you can copy
the document after making a search for it
in the web site. This is an important document
since it formalizes the inclusion of the
luminous or light mysteries into the traditional
15 mysteries of the rosary.

Another very good source for praying the
rosary and everything related to Marian devotion
is the book “God Alone”. This is a compilation
of all the written works of St. Louis-Marie
Grignion de Montfort - a French priest and
founder of three congregations - who taught
a doctrine of Mary that has influenced many
Catholics who are very devoted to the Blessed
Mother. If you want an idea of what this
book contains, you can read the review made
on it at, “
God Alone: The Collected Writings
of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort“.

For the topic of spiritual reading or
lectio divina, the book of Thelma Hall, RC,
“Rediscovering Lectio Divina: With 500
Scripture Texts for Prayer”, is very
very good. For initial ideas to write
on this prayer, you may also wish to
read the article written on the web site
about this topic. It is entitled,

Lectio Divina.

For the best summary or compendium on the
topic of prayer that encompasses many
things in a brief presentation, the two
books by
Therese Borchard entitled
“Our Catholic Prayer” and “Our
Blessed Mother” are excellent sources.
These are very good books in that they
encompass the topic of Catholic prayer in
many contexts: scriptural, in art and
liturgy, history, etc.

For the aspect of prayer that involves
meditation or contemplation, the books
of
Fr. John Main, OSB, are very good
guide books that can help one write
about the topic of meditation. Also,
the ideas presented by another author,
a Vietnamese Cistercian monk and abbot,
Joseph Chu Cong, in his book “
page one or

page two of our catalog on books.

Learning More About the Eucharist

The Eucharist is truly a great sacrament and a rich liturgical
tradition, that no one article can completely tell everything
about it. Also, it is so deep a sacramental reality and mystery
that one is called to live it and know it truly in heart and mind.
Given the richness and depth of the Eucharist, and its reality
as a pure gift and mystery of how God loves His Church,
Catholics can derive a glimpse of its meaning through
reading about it in books, watching films on this subject,
and listening to music on its theme.

One good book to learn and reflect on the mystery of the
Eucharist is “Bread, Broken and Shared”. In this book,
Fr. Paul Bernier, SSS, helps his readers broaden their
vision of the Eucharist. His basic message is that all
Catholics are called to share what they have offered
and received in the Mass, to all those they meet and
encounter after the Mass has been celebrated. He
brings this point home in the last three chapters of
the book where he writes about: “taking the Eucharist
home”, “living a Eucharistic life”, and “bread for a
new world”.

If you wish to learn more about the Eucharist and follow
Fr. Paul Bernier’s goal of “broadening the Eucharistic
visio