Every time at this time of year I have parents coming at me, late in registering their children for the Sacramental program of First Confession and First Communion. After phone calls and sifting through emails, I needed a break. I ended up watching the highly anticipated Facebook Announcement event via Livestream. It was not much of an event, however, the language used was interesting and applicable to us now in the Year of Faith.
The top boyz for Facebook, Amazon, and Zynga ended up discussing the future of the web. What will it look like in five years? They discussed many things surrounding social media, including better communication, a reference to a golden age of social apps, and a user driven experience of the web. What will sacramental preparation look like in five years? I have heard the expression often, “if we continue in the same way, we get the same results.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, mentioned that relationships, and communication, should help us understand who people are. The topic also addressed the idea of always being connected to the web vs. always being connected to one another. The goal, however, is to share information, and to work together.
Isn’t that the same goal in our ministry, in our parishes? There is an expression that goes, “alone, I go faster, but together, we go further.” All the guests today made mention to this fact, that we need to work together. We are connected by Faith, but we sometimes struggle in our means of communication.
Technology and social media in this digital continent is indeed helping me in my ministry and, in particular, in our new program in preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist. However, as Eric C. Chow (https://twitter.com/ericCchow) mentioned at a recent RiseUp (http://www.cco.ca/riseup/) youth conference in Halifax, NS, “social media should be used to strengthen human relationships.” This can be seen as a summary of today’s event, and is a wake up call in using technology in our ministry. Social media is good, and new means of communications can help us, as long as they lead us deeper in the two greatest Commandments – love God, love neighbour. Our goal in this Year of Faith is to share the joy of God in Our Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully our status updates, tweets, blog posts, etc. help us to know, love and follow Jesus more closely.
party hard, pray harder. over and out.
