Tech Tips for Catholics

Q. Whenever I try to publish my video in Vista’s Movie Maker, the program freezes and shuts down. I get a message that says “Windows Movie Maker has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.” I restarted the computer, tried publishing to CD, etc. Nothing has worked. Any suggestions? Thanks much.

A. There are a couple of things that could be causing this error message to occur, but I would suspect that there is either a setting or another program interfering with Windows Movie Maker.  First try the “Debug” if you have not already done so.  Chances are, it won’t fix the problem.

Here are a few steps that may help:

Step 1: Open Windows Movie Maker and go up to Tools > Options…

Step 2: Once you are in the Options menu, click on the Compatibility tab.  If you have an old version of Nero installed, chances are this is what is causing the problem.  Uncheck any setting that has “Nero” in its name.  If you do not see any “Nero” decoders, then uncheck one setting at a time; testing it throughout the process.

Step 3: If this does not work, and you are still getting the error message, then try downloading: Nero General Clean Tool.

Hope this helps.

If you have a computer question, let us help!  Contact Catholic Tech Tips.

According to this site, “PenanceWare” is software/media download which is available for a small, monitory donation, an offering up of a decade of the Rosary or performing of some form of penance for the author.

Not to be confused with ShareWare and FreeWare ; )

So there you go!  Some Catholic geek terminology for ya.

Q. I would like some information on “Centering Prayer”. Is it recognized by the Church?

A. What a great question!

People mean different things when they talk about centering prayer. Some people use the term centering prayer to describe an emptying of one’s thoughts until they fall into a sort of trance-like meditation. One needs to be careful not to confuse a state of trance with being with God.

If by centering prayer you mean, centering your thoughts on the life of Christ or a specific attribute of Christ, this is perfectly fine.

The Church does speak of Contemplative prayer in the Catholic Catechism:

“What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: ‘Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.’ Contemplative prayer seeks him ‘whom my soul loves.’ It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.”  — CCC 2709

“Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we ‘gather up:’ the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.”  — CCC 2711

“Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.”  — CCC 2712

“Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, “to his likeness.”  — CCC 2713

“Contemplative prayer is hearing the Word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the “Yes” of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God’s lowly handmaid.”  — CCC 2716

“Contemplative prayer is silence, the ’symbol of the world to come’ or ’silent love.’ Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the ‘outer’ man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus.”  — CCC 2717

So, what is the difference between Centering Prayer and Contemplative Prayer? I would describe Contemplative Prayer like this. Let’s say that you are with your loved one, sitting in front of the fireplace and just enjoying each others’ company. Not only are you feeling the warmth of the fire, but the warmth of knowing that this person loves you. No words are spoken, but there is this seance of feeling loved that is beyond words. I often feel this love of Christ during Adoration.

So, the main difference is that some strive for the emptiness feeling (a state of trance), rather than just basking in God’s love. One is based on simply a “feeling”, while the other speaks to the soul.

I hope this helps.  If you need more information about some of the other New-Age practices that are sadly creeping into Catholic Churches and Christian homes, visit: www.NewAgeDeception.com.  Sharon Lee Giganti has some free downloadable resources, including: 7 Reasons Why Centering Prayer Should NOT be in Your Parish, A Warning About: A Course in Miracles, Church Sanctioned Methods of Testing The Spirit, and Information on the Dangers of New Age Thinking and the New Thought Movement.
OF A TEACHING

If you have a computer question or a question about the faith, let us help!  Contact Catholic Tech Tips.

Q. I accidentally deleted my Recycling Bin!  Help!!!  How do I get it back?  I’m using Windows.

A. I’m sure you’re not the first person to do this.  I remember this kid, on the first day of college, who threw the hard-drive icon into the trash (it was his first time on a Mac and he didn’t think it would let him do it — it did).  It was pretty funny, and we became pretty good friends after that.  My point is that it is not the end of the world.  So how do you get it back?  Well, it is not as difficult as one might think.

If you are using Windows XP:

1. Right-click on the desktop and select “Properties”
2. Click the “Desktop” tab
3. Click the “Customize Desktop” button
4. Click “Restore Default”
5. Click “OK”

If you are using Windows Vista:

1. Right-click on the desktop and select “Personalize”
2. Under the Tasks munu, you should see “Change desktop icons.”  Click it
3. Click “Restore Default”
4. Click “OK”

Note: Instead of clicking the “Restore Default” button, you could check the box in front of “Recycling Bin” and then click “OK.”  If you have customized the look of your desktop icons, then this is the way to go.  Clicking the “Restore Default” button will restore the standard look of all desktop icons.

If you have a computer question, let us help!  Contact Catholic Tech Tips.

According to the online Urban Dictionary, a “Twerd” is another name for a Twitter nerd.

It is also now being used to describe fans of the new “Twilight” book series.

So there you go!  Some lingo trivia for ya : )

Q. I used to use the Filter menu > Color > Invert Color on a group of shapes with multiple colors to quickly change the colors. In CS3 the Color Filter is gone in the Filter menu! I tried the Invert and Complement options in the Color panel, but they don’t work on multiple colors. Invert makes everything black, and complement makes everything the complement of the topmost object… obviously not what I want to do. Where’s my color filter in CS3? I liked some of the other options too… like the saturation filter. Can someone point me in the right direction, or am I out of luck with this? Adobe often moves things around in upgrades, and sometimes it drives me nuts.

A. I totally understand your frustration. I often wondered why, in the earlier versions of Illustrator, spell-check was under the Type menu and not under Edit menu. Then, just when I started getting used to it being under Type, they went and switched it to Edit in the following upgrade.

Like you, I love the Color Filter feature that used to be found under the Filter menu (which only made sense). Well what I have found, after a little searching, is that they’ve moved it to: Edit menu > Edit Colors, in CS3. I read somewhere that the move was to help support the new Live Color feature.

See the related links for a better explanation of Live Color.

• Edit Colors in the Live Color dialog box
  
• Create a Color Group in Live Color
  

Blessings,
Joshua

If you have a question about anything computer or faith related, contact us and we will gladly respond in a futurer post.

Q. I have a bunch of stuff downloaded in iTunes on one computer, which I cannot access right now, because I am having issues with it.  I am loading some of my CD’s into iTunes on another computer for the time being.  If I update my iPod to include some of the songs from this computer, will that automatically erase what I previously put on my iPod from another computer?

A. I have wondered if there is a way around this as well.  iPods sync to only one computer. So to answer your question…yes, all the previous stuff on your iPod will be erased if you are using the sync setting : (  By default, iPod is set to automatically sync music to your iPod.  That said, (depending on the type of iPod you own) you have the option to manually manage your music files, which will then allow you to upload music from multiple computers : )

See the following links that may help better explain the process.

• Using iPod with multiple computers
• Search for “iPod” on Catholic Tech Tips

Blessings,
Joshua