Fallow Fields

This blog has been fallow since this past January. I’ve been chewing on getting it started again in the near future, but re-casting it in a slightly different direction. More to come in the next few days…

Seven years ago today… : Day 21: 40 Days of Blogging

…my ordination to the diaconate by the hand of His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP at the Church of St. John of Damascus in Dedham, MA.

30 (40) Days of Blogging 2011

For a third year, I’ve made the commitment to participate in the Preachers’ Institute‘s “30 (40) Days of Blogging” during this year’s Nativity Fast. As many of you know, this blog was begun two year’s aog to participate in the 2009 blogging challenge (and hence the semi-obscure blog title of “30 Days”).

Ideally, this challenge will involve writing that is ultimately of benefit to the faithful. As the Preacher’s Institute has described this challenge, blog posts should “provide our readers with valuable insights, stories, anecdotes and teachings that will help make their preparations for Nativity more special, and more holy, than ever.” As such it is pastoral in nature, aiming at edifying and building up the faithful.

So, as of November 15 (tomorrow!), look for daily posts on this blog to help you in your journey towards Christ’s Nativity.

Playing a little bit

Not sure how useful this might be, but I just installed the WordPress app on my iPhone. How realistic is it to think that I can compose blog posts on the fly?

One feature I can see using is drafting blog posts that can be edited/refined for later posting.

Apologies…

For some reason, this year’s Great Lent proved more difficult and busy (but very edifying and fruitful). As a consequence, I wasn’t able to keep up on posting Sunday readings in advance. I’ll post the Palm Sunday readings shortly.

2010 in review (Just for Fun)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 125 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 146 posts. There were 9 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was November 7th with 61 views. The most popular post that day was Gospel/Epistle for this coming Sunday (11/7/10).

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, preachersinstitute.com, rhodiadrive.com, 150knots.wordpress.com, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for fr matthew thurman, gospel for 11-29-09, gospel 10/17/10, gospel for 10/31/10, and gospel for 2/7/10.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Gospel/Epistle for this coming Sunday (11/7/10) November 2010

2

About Fr. Matthew January 2008

3

Gospel/Epistle readings for this coming Sunday (12/12/10) December 2010

4

Gospel/Epistle readings for this coming Sunday (12/5/10) November 2010

5

Gospel/Epistle Reading for this coming Sunday (10/17/10) October 2010

Blogging Thoughts for the New Year

A few quick reflections as we begin the New Year on the 30 Days blog. First, I originally started this blog just over a year ago to participate in the 30 (40) Days of Blogging with the Preacher’s Institute and attempted to repeat this effort this year as well. My experience both years provided some interesting feedback for me on workload and blogging. Both years, I started relatively strong with consistent posts up until the beginning of December. From the beginning of December to the end of the 40 Days on December 24, posting was not so much there. So, in essence, my “40 days of blogging” was actually “20 days of blogging.” I may have to seriously re-think how I approach this in 2011 and if I should participate at all.

Second, in looking at the stats on traffic to the blog, the majority of the traffic has to do with posting the weekly Gospel/Epistle readings for the coming Sunday’s Liturgy, as well as preparatory comments that I post. I know my original intent was to post more on the sermon preparation process and the specifics of what I prepare each week–something I haven’t done that great of a job on. But that seems to be the interest in the traffic coming here. What are the texts for this coming Sunday? And what can be said about those texts? I want to build on this strength in the coming year.

Third, I’ve also been working on having posts here that will provide meaningful reflections and information for parishioners; one of the primary reasons clergy are encouraged to blog is that it provides an additional avenue for speaking to the faithful, providing them with resources that they might not otherwise have.

(As an interesting aside, the second highest traffic to this blog was over this past weekend, focused on the materials I posted concerning the Sunday before Theophany texts. I imagined that there were several priests out their, realizing at the 11th hour that the holidays were over, but that they hadn’t even looked at what they needed for a Sunday homily!)

Six Years Ago Today….

…my ordination to the diaconate by the hand of His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP at the Church of St. John of Damascus in Dedham, MA.

Some things I just don’t get…

Just looking at site stats for this blog. For some reason, there was a high amount of traffic today specifically to look at today’s Gospel/Epistle readings that I posted last Monday. Much higher than average. Why the big run today?

30 (40) Days of Blogging 2010

For a second year, I’ve made the commitment to participate in the Preachers’ Institute‘s “30 (40) Days of Blogging” during this year’s Nativity Fast. As many of you know, this blog was begun last year to participate in the 2009 blogging challenge (and hence the semi-obscure blog title of “30 Days”).

Ideally, this challenge will involve writing that is ultimately of benefit to the faithful. As the Preacher’s Institute has described this challenge, blog posts should “provide our readers with valuable insights, stories, anecdotes and teachings that will help make their preparations for Nativity more special, and more holy, than ever.” As such it is pastoral in nature, aiming at edifying and building up the faithful.

So, as of November 15, look for daily posts on this blog to help you in your journey towards Christ’s Nativity.