A few weeks ago, I sat with my nephew while he watched iCarly on Nickelodeon.  And then–what the heck?–the lead actress snuck into her boyfriend’s room and started making out with him as they lay on his bed?!?!

Immediately, I looked up the show on the internet.  The lead actress, Miranda Cosgrove (who played Summer in Jack Black’s School of Rock), was only sixteen years old.

This deeply troubled me.  I grew up watching Nickelodeon and remember it being wholesome.  I did my internship at Nickelodeon Studios and got to see that even behind the scenes, the adults had the best interest of their young viewers in mind.  But that was more than ten years ago… times have most definitely changed.

What’s next?  Will Miss Piggy start giving the “get tested” talk?  Bert and Ernie advocating same-sex marriage?  Is there anywhere left for our youth to go to that has not been corrupted?

Well, yes.  Meet Bernadette and Rebekah of St. Maria’s Messenger.  Their goal is to provide an alternative, Church-centered resource for girls age ten through teens.  Currently, they are in the process of recruiting writers for their blog.  They have forums where our young women can go to get information, advice, and find fellowship under the guidance and leadership of responsible, Catholic women.  Bernadette and Rebekah are taking up Benedict XVI’s call for us to give the internet a soul–and, to be better female role models than what’s-her-face… I won’t say it, but her initials are Hannah Montana.

Times have definitely changed.  But, our values should not.  Please join us at Catholic Books and Gifts in supporting and praying for Bernadette and Rebekah’s venture, that they may strive in the example of their patron, St. Maria Goretti,  to show that our young women, even at their vulnerable age, are equally called to be saints.

Today is the Feast of Blessed Michael Giedroyc, a handicapped dwarf who lived a life of holiness.

There isn’t much written on him.  What we do know is that he was born in Lithuania and died in Poland in the late 1400s.  He was born with severe physical impairments.  This however did not stop him from entering the Augustinian monastery, where he lived as a hermit in a small room adjacent to the church the remainder of his years.  He devoted his day to fasting, prayer, and work–more specifically, metalworking.  He made sacred vessels for use in the Mass, like patens and chalices.

Last night, we screened The Butterfly Circus for our Junior High class.  (I’m not going to reveal anything more about this short movie; go ahead and look it up, there are places to view it for free on the net.)  Fantastic story about how God has a higher purpose for everything he endowed us with–even our flaws.  Then, I had no clue that today was going to be Bl. Michael’s feast: again I saw God’s work disguised as coincidences.

This made me recall a talk I attended while I was still in high school.  A man was sharing about his friend who had died from a terminal disease.  This friend was quite an artist, and as he neared death, he began working on his final piece: a still-life of a vase.  As the end approached, he grew more uninspired about that particular piece–until one day, he picked up the canvas and drew cracks all over the vase, as if it had been shattered.  Our storyteller, perturbed about his friend’s emotional state, inquired about the new addition.  The response:

“It is through the cracks that God’s light can shine through.”