Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Media at the Service of the Word

In a few months, this blog will be celebrating three years on the web. When I first started blogging, I had planned to publish texts of my Sunday and Holy Day homilies as well as regular reflections and thoughts on other areas of faith and Church life. Over time, the demands of ministry reduced the blog to being almost exclusively a place for posting homilies. Now, however, I hope to expand the use of this blog, in the spirit of Pope Benedict XVI's challenge to priests on this year's World Communications Day:

"All priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the communication of his saving grace in the sacraments. Gathered and called by the Word, the Church is the sign and instrument of the communion that God creates with all people, and every priest is called to build up this communion, in Christ and with Christ. Such is the lofty dignity and beauty of the mission of the priest, which responds in a special way to the challenge raised by the Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:11, 13-15).

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies. The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."
- Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 44th World Day of Communication, May 16, 2010

So stay tuned for more regular postings on this blog as I continue to work to put "the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."

1 comment:

Sandy said...

These Blogs keep me connected to you and OLPH even though I am half a world away. Thanks for the messages. They continue to inspire me.