Writing Catholic Articles, Blogs, Gifts, Personals & Family

28 December 2007

How I Got into Building a Web Site!

Dabbling on the Net

When I took over the family business after my father
passed away in 1998, I already had some knowledge of
the Net though I have not used it yet for business or
for web development.  In 1999, I made a major move by
buying a new PC.  During those times when there was
no business transactions to handle, I surfed the Net
and found myself joining Catholic forums.  In this
Catholic forum, I met a Egyptian woman living in
Finland who was posting very beautiful and inspiring
Catholic quotes.  We got to be friends online and
I then found myself knowing others too by joining
other forums.

A tip from a Benedictine nun

When we had a family reunion, I met my favorite aunt
who was a Missionary Benedictine nun of Tutzing, Germany.
She learned how I was using the Net to connect with
Catholics around the world and so she commented on how
the late John Paul II came up with a Church document on
the use of the Net for evangelization.  This tip from
her led me to study the document and see what I could
do with it.

Inspired to start a group

With the document studied, I felt inspired to start a
list.  A classmate of mine who lived in the USA knew how
to start and maintain a Yahoo! List.  In fact, he was
the one who started our list for our Class of 1977 in
high school.  I emailed him and got some tips from him
on how to start a Yahoo! List.  After obtaining the
information I needed, I invited by Egyptian friend from
Finland and together with an American, a British from
her side, and two Filipino communion ministers from
my side and Filipina friend working in a non-governmental
organization, we were able to put up the list on Ascension
Sunday 2002 in view of Pentecost 2002.  We titled the
list The Spirit’s Love in honor of the Holy Spirit.

Called to web development

When my Finnish partner decided to leave the list, I
suddenly found myself in a quandary.  I sought counsel
from a Jesuit priest at my university and he urged me
and encouraged me not to quit and give up but to pray
to the Holy Spirit.  And so I did.  I suddenly found
myself writing blogs and amateurly designing web pages.
As I badgered many people for information with regard
to producing web pages, a member of a list pointed me
and referred me to SEO Techniques.

Cricket Walker’s student

At SEO Techniques, a new world again was opened up to
me.  And in this new world, I started a web site that
went into the mainstream of the Net, ranking fairly
well in the search engines.  Through Cricket’s teaching,
I found and discovered a way of being Catholic on the
Net.  Though the web site is earning income through the
ads that are published on the site, that is not where
my deep joy and fulfillment comes from: it comes rather
from writing about the gospel and producing reflections
on it.  Joy and fulfillment comes also from knowing that
my web development contributes to the Catholic mission
of proclaiming the gospel and propagating the Catholic
faith.  Though I have been on the Net since 1999, the
three years [2004-2007] I spent doing serious web
development has returned double and triple, both
spiritual and material, of what I have sown on the
Web - the gospel.  I need to thank very much our
family business for being a support to this venture.

Invitation to join us in this lay mission

If you like writing and you love the Catholic faith,
then let me invite you to join me in this Catholic lay
mission.  This mission does not guarantee riches in the
material sense, but a richness in the Spirit - one that
truly makes sense in our very consumeristic societies.
May I invite you to subscribe to our full feeds and
download our free Catholic eBook to find all the
knowledge gathered in building our web site’s network.
Dennis Emmanuel V.Cabrera