19 July 2018
Dear Sisters,
Our journey continues: in these days we listened to input concerning the complex reality of our contemporary culture, in which technology and the digital world have become part of the synthesis of new values and new criteria of judgment.
The consecrated life often has problems with the transformations that are taking place with the advent of these innovations and it is not prepared to wisely “inhabit” this new world and incorporate it into the formative process. The lives of our young religious are immersed in the culture of the new media, which they use on a daily basis. For them, the Net is a place for meeting people, socializing, pastoral work for vocations, proclaiming the Gospel and evangelization.
What can we do to ensure that while multiplying friendships through social networks, their relations with others and with the Lord also deepens? How can times of community life, study, mission and prayer be reconciled with “continual online connection”?
How can we ensure that they are judicious and responsible for what they post, publish, view, link, share and tag? It does not mean limiting or permitting, monitoring or liberating. Instead, it is a matter of education and a formation that is carried out seriously and competently.
In our sharing sessions, several values were underscored as needing to be nurtured:
- – silence and listening;
- – the quality of our communitarian communications, with their specific features, so that communication–that is, the proclamation of the Gospel inside and outside the Net–be a genuine witness of life. This involves restoring primacy to interpersonal relations in both the community and apostolate;
- – discernment as a style of life for both individuals and the community, so as to give meaning to our choices and activities;
- – study, one of the “wheels” of the Pauline “cart,” so as to educate and form others to “know” and to “know how to do,” but also and above all to “know how to communicate knowledge” and “how to communicate know-how.”
This stage of our work ended with a further and pleasant exchange of experiences by means of a round table session in which four Juniors (one via skype) and two young perpetual professed sisters–all from various continents–participated. With great simplicity and in the light of their experiences, they highlighted what they considered to be essential aspects of formation to the Pauline charism today. With them were also ten other Juniors who, for reasons of study or in preparation for the next course of perfection, are presently in the communities of Rome and Albano.
Their dialogue with the assembly enriched this moment of meeting and lively participation.
We want to thank you all for the messages we receive every day, which help us feel that you are thinking about us!
Warmest best wishes to all of you. We’ll be in touch again at the end of our Encounter.
The Information Team
Webpage of the 2018 International Formation Encounter
