Seven Ideas as Topics for Writing Catholic Articles and Blog Posts in Web
Content Development
Catholic Articles - Writing Ideas and Tips
This article gives 7 ways of writing Catholic articles
and posting in Catholic blogs.
Part of good web development for a Catholic web site is discovering
means and ways of writing Catholic articles and blogs posts. These
seven ideas will not only present the Catholic message well, but if also
highly optimized, can help you rank your Catholic web site high in the
search engines results pages. There is not only one way of writing that
perfect Catholic article; there are certain patterns of writing we can
follow, where we can write simply, in classic style, and which can
appeal to the popular faith and prayer exercises of the Catholics.
This article will present seven ideas for topics Catholic web content
developers can pattern their writing after. These 7 ways teaches how to
write simple Catholic articles, but popular in appeal and excellent in
presentation.
[1] Writing in Classic Style Entails a Sense of Tradition
Using a theological method
For those who may have had the opportunity of obtaining theological
training, it is good to construct articles according to a
particular theological method. The method one can use is the
SEE-JUDGE-ACT method of doing theology. If Catholic articles are
written according to this theological construct, then the method
would proceed like this: [a] The phase of 'SEEING', deals with looking
at our human or world experience. A certain national event or
global happening can be the focus of the SEEING. [b] Second is the
the 'JUDGING' process. The experience in SEEING is evaluated
according to the Judaeo-Christian standards we have always known.
The questions asked in this evaluation is: "What does the Bible
have to say about this?" "What does Church teaching have to
say about this?" [c] Then after this judging process, the next step
is suggesting an ACTION to be taken. In this process, we make
decisions as to how we can respond to what has been judged in
the manner of Christ - looking at all the possibilities where
we can apply our Christian faith to the particular experience and
situation.
If we write our Catholic articles according to this theological
construct, then three paragraphs would be the core of our
article. One each for SEE, JUDGE, and ACT. We can add an introduction
at the beginning and a summary at the end to finish the message of
the Catholic article or blog post.
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[2] Teaching a method of prayer, a spiritual exercise, a certain
spirituality
This is probably the easiest of Catholic articles to write, as we
can write it in a series of steps or methods. This form
of writing Catholic articles involves teaching a method of a prayer exercise
- complete with brief descriptions on how to proceed with each step of
the method.
For example, we can write about how to pray the rosary. Or we
can teach how to make the Stations of the Cross. We can also
teach methods of meditation and contemplation - as taught by many
saints in the Catholic Church. The length and the flow of the
Catholic article depends on how we outline the steps.
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[3] Write historical, biographical, and hagiographical
sketches
This would probably be the most interesting type of Catholic
articles to write, because they can be descriptive, and written in a
story-like manner. For historical sketches, we can take a
particular period in Church history that may interest our readers. We
can narrate what happened during those years, and do some bit
of historical analysis in order to add intellectual content to
the story. One of the most colorful eras of Church history
is the Renaissance, the leadership of Innocent III, the witness
of the mendicant orders, the missionary ventures of the religious
orders to the New World, and the story of the Crusades. These
are just a few examples of the many topics we can write about
in the history of the Church.
For biographical sketches, the most popular to write about now
is the life story of Pope John Paul II. You
do not need to put in all the historical details of his life.
Writing in a casual way may prove to present more emotional
appeal and spiritual impact, than simply giving the facts of
his life.
For hagiographical sketches, this is even more interesting to
write about. If we are keen to write about the miracles and
legendary feats of the saints and the martyrs of our Catholic
tradition, then for certain hagiographical sketches can
interest our readers, and give them inspiration as they
learn about the saints' life and their spirituality of
holiness. Most interesting to write about are the martyrs -
those who followed Christ even to the point of shedding their
blood and dying for Christ and His Church.
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[4] Teaching aspects of a spirituality
Many of us who have gone to Catholic colleges and universities
managed by religious orders such as the Jesuits, the
Dominicans, the Augustinians, and the Franciscans. We have
naturally learned something about their spirituality.
Being educated by them, we learn a lot about what they believe in:
their image of the person of Christ, and how they follow Him in their
apostolic work. From our experience of being taught by them,
then writing Catholic articles about what they
taught us, can be outlined through their spirituality: their style of prayer,
their apostolate or work, their contemplative methods, their concepts of
God, of service, of God's Kingdom, of poverty, chastity, obedience,
community, love, simplicity, love for the poor, education, and
many other aspects which we can relate and reflect upon in the
content of our writing. If we contextualize their spirituality
to present day and contemporary Christian living, then we can also
discover how they live out the Eucharist, Marian devotion, the
call to the mission at the present times, and what path to holiness
their spirituality is taking in contemporary times.
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[5] Analyzing a moral issue
When analyzing a present moral issue, we must be careful not
to cause too much controversy in writing Catholic articles on
the issue.
Being objective and analytical will help us stay along the
right course of discourse in writing. We certainly have to
state the stand and teaching of the Church. We can mention
why certain sectors of society are causing the moral
controversy and issue, and analyze in an objective way why
they are espousing a cause that is contrary to what the Church
teaches and believes in. When writing subjects that tend to
be controversial and moot, it is best not only to be objective,
but to be tactful and diplomatic in our writing. The moral
issue is in itself already embroiled in many highly strung
emotional stands. The only way to soothe and to calm
down these high tension situations is to be very objective
and analytical, and to avoid certain terms that
may be offensive to both parties involved.
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[6] Reflections on a Scripture passage
This is perhaps the richest, the most profound, the deepest,
and the only Catholic article that will really form us and help
others too see the goodness and the splendor of truth that is
in our Catholic faith (as they are presented to us in the Bible).
If we make our reflections on Scripture with allusions to Church
teaching, and also include how they are correlated to what is
happening now in the our world and in the Church, then we are
truly doing a service to our readers and subscribers. The more
we focus our reflections on Scripture, the more we will reach
a wider audience - including non-Catholics and other
Christians. And also, mentioning certain aspects of our Catholic
tradition in our Scripture reflections will make others aware
of the beauty and splendour of truth in Catholicism. It is our
duty to make the reflection as refreshing and as insightful
as we can so as to convey a message that will be understood by
those who may not have the time to come into contact with the
Gospel message as often as we do.
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[7] Describing and explaining a catechetical teaching
This is perhaps the most serious of all the Catholic articles
to write about. It is serious because we must be faithful
to the words and the terms and the meaning which the Catechism
of the Catholic Church teaches all the faithful. Before we
embark in the writing Catholic articles at this level, we must
first really study well our own Catechism. And in our study
of the Catechism, we must study it in whole, because we might
teach something out of context. Writing Catholic articles in
this regard entails a great responsibility on our part. As
much as is possible, we must make as many direct quotations
from the Catechism as we can, so that we may not lose sight
of the right direction by which the Church wants us to know
about the Catholic faith.
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Writing Catholic articles need not be very formal; it
could be just plain Catholic blog posts
All that was mentioned above has been discussed in a rather
formal manner, and thus calls for a formal writing or reflection.
However, we can do all the above in a less formal way - more
discursive, more conversational, more diary-like, more
personal, and more like story-telling. And this we
can freely do in our Catholic blogs. It is not difficult to start a
blog. In fact, this is the easiest thing to do since you do not
need to know much of HTML. It advisable
that before anyone really embarks on writing serious Catholic
articles on a web site, one must start first with blogging the
Catholic faith with personal reflections, and with one's own experience
as a Catholic spouse, son, parishioner, religious, priest,
professional, or parent. There are many blog sites which offer
free blog hosting. This article will mention two established sites:
- Bloglines, wwww.bloglines.com
- Blogger, www.blogger.com
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