I invite you to join in our community novena to St Paul (we celebrate a special feast in his honor on June 30). This year's theme is reparation for misuse of the media.
Intentions for the Day: Thanksgiving for the development of social media; reparation for lost or compromised vocations to the consecrated life due to excessive or inappropriate use of media.
Opening Antiphon:
O St Paul the Apostle, Preacher of Truth and Doctor of the Gentiles, intercede for us to God.
Scripture (2 Cor 4:15 ):
Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Communication, wherever and however it takes place, has opened up broader horizons for many people. This is a gift of God which involves a great responsibility. I like to refer to this power of communication as “closeness”. The encounter between communication and mercy will be fruitful to the degree that it generates a closeness which cares, comforts, heals, accompanies and celebrates. In a broken, fragmented and polarized world, to communicate with mercy means to help create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.
Reflection:
The Letter to the Romans lists dozens of men and women who crossed Paul's path or collaborated with him. Paul used the media available to him to stay in touch with the people he had met during his missionary journeys, and to put them in contact with each other.
While media can help us meet people around the world, we can also use communications technologies to keep people at a distance. One way of doing this is overindulgence in entertainment media. This creates a simple circuit between myself and the screen, effectively sealing me off from the inconvenience of noticing and responding to others.
Do I escape into technology to avoid uncomfortable (but necessary) personal communication? How can I monitor my use of media so that people never take second place to technology?
Daily Offering:
Father,
In union with all those who today celebrate the Eucharistic memorial of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, I offer myself with Jesus, invoking light, love and mercy for all men and women, to be communicated in my life and through all the ways in which I use media today. Through the intercession of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, I invoke heavenly grace upon all those who today will create new media productions: artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, editors, producers, advertisers. May their work uplift people and society by highlighting truth, beauty and goodness. And may I not fail to support and encourage media professionals who are committed to the good.
Closing Antiphon:
O St Paul the Apostle, Preacher of Truth and Doctor of the Gentiles, intercede for us to God.
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