Sunday
Jan172010
Cyberspace
Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 8:51PM
Every Sunday our parish includes a Prayer of Petition asking that the Lord would bless us with needed vocations to the Priesthood, Diaconate, and the vowed religious life. I hope you will pray for that need in your personal prayer, and that you remember that this is as well The National Vocation Awareness Week, January 10-16.
Our Archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, provided some food for thought about vocations in the December 31 edition. The headline for that section already tells something of the story of the article. “Priests enter cyberspace to expand ministry connections”.
The Catholic Spirit article invites those who are literate in technology to consider how their skills might be used in bringing the message of Christ to the people. That effort is already taking place, but this is a time to encourage that more be done. One of the priests who was interviewed for the article also had this to say about the creative use of technology for spreading the Gospel. He said: “This is the way people are communicating today. Whether we like it or not, it is a way to reach out to people and we shouldn’t reject it out of hand.”
The article gives a brief invitation to take advantage of the technology of our time. That effort to spread the message of Christ through the technology of today also came up as a topic of discussion at a recent meeting of our Parish Council. It generated great interest while reminding people of how important our initiative may be.
At the same time that we are opening doors to the Church’s use of technology, it also reminds us that the living example of those committed to Christ is foundational to our lives. In order to encourage people to consider service in the Church, they must witness the love of the Church in their lives.
At some point, however, we need to invite people to service in the Church. We have to ask if we hope to get some response.
Every day seems to bring still more advances in technology. Those changes can be a burden or an opportunity. I pray that it is an opportunity.
Our Archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, provided some food for thought about vocations in the December 31 edition. The headline for that section already tells something of the story of the article. “Priests enter cyberspace to expand ministry connections”.
The Catholic Spirit article invites those who are literate in technology to consider how their skills might be used in bringing the message of Christ to the people. That effort is already taking place, but this is a time to encourage that more be done. One of the priests who was interviewed for the article also had this to say about the creative use of technology for spreading the Gospel. He said: “This is the way people are communicating today. Whether we like it or not, it is a way to reach out to people and we shouldn’t reject it out of hand.”
The article gives a brief invitation to take advantage of the technology of our time. That effort to spread the message of Christ through the technology of today also came up as a topic of discussion at a recent meeting of our Parish Council. It generated great interest while reminding people of how important our initiative may be.
At the same time that we are opening doors to the Church’s use of technology, it also reminds us that the living example of those committed to Christ is foundational to our lives. In order to encourage people to consider service in the Church, they must witness the love of the Church in their lives.
At some point, however, we need to invite people to service in the Church. We have to ask if we hope to get some response.
Every day seems to bring still more advances in technology. Those changes can be a burden or an opportunity. I pray that it is an opportunity.
