A Theology of the Selfie

A guest post by Tatiana Lozano

The vanity.

The posing.

The infamous duckface.

Such is the prototype of the ever-notorious selfie. But this is not just fun and games. These images have fed into the stereotypes of our youth — supposedly brimming with greediness, sloth, and entitled behavior. The selfie is therefore not merely another trend.

It has become the Anti-Icon of the Millennial Generation.

But what exactly do I mean? I'm not defining "icon" in the way we speak of celebrities or American apple pie. The Church has icons of her own, particularly in the East — a tradition of paint, wood, and gold passed down through the centuries. They, however, do not exist solely as objects of art.

Tamales and Tradition: Tani's Christmas Post

Hey, y'all! It's Christmas — a time of tradition, hope, and most important, family. After all, we're celebrating how God joined our human family so that we could all have the hope of being together in Heaven! So, I'm going to make this post about family! Recently, I took to Facebook to ask about various Christmas traditions. Here are some of your answers:

Living Faith: A Special Report from the Steubenville West Youth Conference

"The Catholic Church is dying. All her ancient rules and outdated traditions drive the young away. It's a faith of old, out-of-touch people who aren't enlightened like modern youth."

Chances are, we've all heard these words, or words very like them. It's become popular in the Culture of Death today to see religion, especially a religion as ancient and venerable as Roman Catholicism, as disconnected from the young and therefore disconnected from the future. The faith is dying, on its last legs, the culture says with glee, and in another generation, it will be gone entirely.

Or will it?

This past weekend, I had an amazing opportunity to attend a Steubenville Conference with my youth group in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona. The conference is one of about twenty put on across North America by the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and they serve some 50,000 high-school age teens every summer. At the behest of our beloved Editor-in-Chief [And don't you forget it! —Ed.] Damian, I decided to write about the experience. I had a notebook, a pen, and a sparkly hat to draw people in, and I interviewed five people about their faith and their experiences at the conference. In addition, I will also attempt to put down my own feelings about the conference.

The noise is deafening as the crowd files in and finds their seats. People wave flags, shout cheer routines, and even blow vuvuzelas between sessions!

The Theology of Cosplay

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. —Romans 13:14

Welcome, Outsider!

O God, who by the star this day revealed Your only-begotten Son to all nations, grant that we, who know You now by faith, may be brought one day before the vision of Your majesty. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. —Collect of the Feast of the Epiphany

Mary and the Culture of Encounter

Praised Be Jesus!

As we all know, our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, is making waves with his statements, such as, "Who am I to judge?" and by reaching out personally to those who write him letters, including those who are members of groups who have felt alienated from the Church. This is a new direction for the papacy and all a part of the theme of Francis' papacy: the "culture of encounter". Francis has used the phrase "culture of encounter" repeatedly since his papacy began. What could the culture of encounter be, and how does it affect our lives as Catholics?