To read the rest of the excerpts and my reflections, click on the link below:
Insights from Pope Francis on How To Communicate Effectively
Communicator for Christ
Inspiring Nun Stories–Daughters of St. Paul Around the Globe!
While I’m getting back from a week mostly offline, here are a couple of inspiring reads/videos that I’ve enjoyed about or from sisters in my community, the Daughters of St. Paul. As we are approaching our 100th anniversary of foundation of the Pauline Family (August 20, 2014) and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Daughters of Saint Paul (June 15, 2015), it’s really exciting for me to share stories of our sisters from around the continent and the world!
Yesterday’s A Good Catholic Life Radio Show centered around the Pauline Family and the ten institutes who make it up. You can join us in celebrating our centenary by listening in!
“The Voice of Constant Motion” is an inspiring article about Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Anne Kiragu, a missionary in Juba, South Sudan, and how she seeks to help bring peace to the lives of those torn by war and violence–through the radio, her words, her outreach to refugees, and helping people to find hope.
Sr. Rose Pacatte is a prolific Daughter of Saint Paul as an author, film reviewer, and director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles. In March, she received the Daniel J. Kane Award from the University of Dayton. Her acceptance speech is a beautiful reflection on her journey of becoming an always better communicator of Christ:
“Sr. Helena Is on a Media Mission” is a fun article recently posted up by NBC News Online about media nun Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, who has 15,000+ Twitter followers, is making a documentary film about Blessed James Alberione, and whose Twitter tagline is: “media nun tweets God.” (And she also shares her love of hockey in her tweets.)
“Go Tweet It on the Mountain” offers ideas and insights about using Twitter to share our faith in Christ. (And yes, the writer joined Twitter because of Daughter of Saint Paul Sr. Anne Joan Flanagan’s inspiring tweets! Sr. Anne @nunblogger tweets a daily haiku from the Gospel of the day.)
Finally, Daughter of St. Paul Leads Life of Peace and Quiet Bravery is a recent article about Sr. Evangelina Canag, a Daughter of Saint Paul in the Philippines whom I have been privileged to meet and speak with when I visited our sisters in Manila.
St. Paul’s Communication Qualities Revealed in 2 Corinthians
Monday Musing with St. Paul
Last year, I intended to do a series of posts on how St. Paul reveals–directly or indirectly–his “style” as a communicator for Christ in his 2nd Letter to the Corinthians. In defending his apostleship in 2nd Corinthians, St. Paul reveals key qualities for the communicator for Christ. I hope to explore the following communicative qualities one by one through the next few Mondays:
Focused on receiver/audience. In modern Pauline terms, we would talk about making the receiver the starting point of our communication. (2 Cor. 1)- Reliability/fidelity: As Jesus is God’s “yes” to humanity, so we are called to allow God’s “yes” to come through us. (2 Cor 1-2)
- Attractive/inviting. Paul uses the image of the apostle as the “aroma” of Christ. (2 Cor 2-3)
- Transparency and openness. (The “light” in our hearts, who is Christ, is to shine out to everyone.) (2 Cor. 4)
- Grace in weakness–power and fragility intertwined. (2 Cor. 4, 10, 11, 13)
- Filled with hope: offering a perspective based on eternity. (2 Cor. 4-5)
- Representatives of God who above all seek reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5)
- Incarnational (2 Cor. 10)
- Loving, like the self-giving love of a parent for a child (2 Cor. 12)
- Experiencing the mystery of grace: “My grace is enough for you.” (Theme of entire letter)
I hope that these reflections will reinvigorate my own desire to communicate in an always more Christ-like way.
Saint Paul, Pray for All Christian Communicators!
If I had a favorite week of saint days, this might be it. Yesterday we had St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers and journalists, today we have the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and tomorrow, Saints Timothy and Titus. All communicators of Christ.
To me, of course, Saint Paul is much more than a model communicator for Christ. He is a good friend, a patron, and a spiritual father. But he is also an amazing apostle, especially considering he had to forge his own trail in witnessing to and proclaiming Christ. Our Founder, Blessed James Alberione, had great things to say about St. Paul, highlighting why he is such a great model for Christian communicators in the digital age. Here are just a couple of things he highlighted.
Alive in Christ
“Paul is the disciple who knows the Divine Master in his entirety. St. Paul lives Christ totally; he probes the profound mysteries of his doctrine, of his heart, of his sanctity, of his humanity and divinity. He sees him as the supreme Teacher, the Host, the Priest. He presents the total Christ as he had already defined himself: the Way, Truth, and Life.”
Integrated
“Before the Institute [of the Pauline Family] was placed under the protection of St. Paul the Apostle, many prayers were offered. A saint was needed who excelled in holiness and who at the same time would serve as an example of the apostolate [mission of communicating Christ]. In himself, St. Paul had integrated holiness and apostolate. He truly loved Jesus Christ: ‘What will separate me from the charity of Christ? Nothing…’ Before rendering his ultimate witness to the Master, he gave his whole life to the apostolate. We often call attention to the activity of St. Paul, but first we should call attention to his prayer.”
Writing Style
“Saint Paul’s style of writing is highly personal, the mirror of a soul truly made to lead: ardent, fiery, sure of truth, affectionate as a mother, strong as a father.”
Maturity
“The saint is not a worn-out man, a half-conscious individual who doesn’t know how to take his part in life. For St. Paul, sanctity is full maturity…
“The saint does not wrap himself up in himself; he opens himself up to development. He does not stay still; rather, his motto is growth and progress… Holiness is life, movement, nobility, dynamic enthusiasm!”
It’s interesting that, in my quick, superficial look at the writings of our Founder, he seems to highlight the “witness” and “transparency/authenticity” aspects of St. Paul as a communicator, rather than specific skills or creativity which St. Paul displayed abundantly, both in his life and his letters. Over the next few months, I’ll be praying about that and reflecting more in general on St. Paul as a communicator for Christ. I’ll begin by asking for his intercession for all Catholics working in the media and the arts with a prayer that I wrote several years ago:
Prayer to St. Paul, Communicator of Christ
Saint Paul, your heart was filled to overflowing with the love of your Lord Jesus Christ. It was impossible for you to stay silent about his great love for you and for all humanity; you could not keep the Good News to yourself.
You preached in places new and familiar, whether you felt welcome or not; you wrote letters filled with the Spirit and inventive phrases to try to capture the inexplicable mystery of Christ Jesus; sending them off to others in the hope of igniting in them that same unquenchable awe and joy.
Under your patronage, we too try to share with the world the unfathomable love of Christ, but our words seem poor and insufficient, our efforts deficient, our faith weak, and our doubts overwhelming.
We are not always certain what to say, what needs to be heard. What we hold inside seems incommunicable, inexpressible.
Help us to listen to the whisper of the Master in our hearts, in the anguished cries of our brothers and sisters.
Inspire us with the same fire that burned in your heart so that every act of communication will shine like a crystal that allows the Master’s glorious truth to pierce all blindness, his profound goodness to draw all hearts, his breath-catching beauty to break through all resistance.
Give us courage to risk, faith to entrust to the Master every word and action, love to persevere, openness to follow the Spirit’s lead, until those whom God wants to touch through our simple words and images are blessed, held, transformed in his grace. Amen.
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