From: bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com
To:
From: sjprash...@gmail.com
FrancisMessagesWorld Communication DaysDear Sisters, Brothers, Bishops,
Greetings!
A very happy feast of St. Francis de Sales - the patron Saint of all
Communicators!
The Vatican has just released the Message of our Holy Father for this year's
World Communications Day.
It focusses on the family.
We request all to popularise this message in every way possible.
Kindly note that we in India will observe Communication Sunday with therest of
the Church and that is on May 17th 2015 which is also for us the Feast of the
Ascension of our Lord.
With warm wishes and prayers,
Fr. Cedric
--
Fr. Cedric Prakash sjDirector
"PRASHANT"
- A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace
Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052, Gujarat,
India
Phone : +91 79 27455913, 66522333
Fax : +91 79 27489018
Email: sjprash...@gmail.com
www.humanrightsindia.in
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE 49th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAYCommunicating the Family:
A Privileged Place of Encounter with the Gift of Love The family is a subject
of profound reflection by the Church and of a process involving two Synods: the
recent extraordinary assembly and the ordinary assembly scheduled for next
October. So I thought it appropriate that the theme for the next World
Communications Day should have the family as its point of reference. After all,
it is in the context of the family that we first learn how to communicate.
Focusing on this context can help to make our communication more authentic and
humane, while helping us to view the family in a new perspective.We can draw
inspiration from the Gospel passage which relates the visit of Mary to
Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-56). “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit cried out in a
loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb’.” (vv. 41-42)This episode first shows us how communication
is a dialogue intertwined with the language of the body. The first response to
Mary’s greeting is given by the child, who leaps for joy in the womb of
Elizabeth. Joy at meeting others, which is something we learn even before being
born, is, in one sense, the archetype and symbol of every other form of
communication. The womb which hosts us is the first “school” of communication,
a place of listening and physical contact where we begin to familiarize
ourselves with the outside world within a protected environment, with the
reassuring sound of the mother’s heartbeat. This encounter between two persons,
so intimately related while still distinct from each other, an encounter so
full of promise, is our first experience of communication. It is an experience
which we all share, since each of us was born of a mother.Even after we have
come into the world, in some sense we are still in a “womb”, which is the
family. A womb made up of various interrelated persons: the family is “where we
learn to live with others despite our differences” (Evangelii Gaudium, 66).
Notwithstanding the differences of gender and age between them, family members
accept one another because there is a bond between them. The wider the range of
these relationships and the greater the differences of age, the richer will be
our living environment. It is this bond which is at the root of language, which
in turn strengthens the bond. We do not create our language; we can use it
because we have received it. It is in the family that we learn to speak our
“mother tongue”, the language of those who have gone before us. (cf. 2 Macc
7:25,27). In the family we realize that others have preceded us, they made it
possible for us to exist and in our turn to generate life and to do something
good and beautiful. We can give because we have received. This virtuous circle
is at the heart of the family’s ability to communicate among its members and
with others. More generally, it is the model for all communication.The
experience of this relationship which “precedes” us enables the family to
become the setting in which the most basic form of communication, which is
prayer, is handed down. When parents put their newborn children to sleep, they
frequently entrust them to God, asking that he watch over them. When the
children are a little older, parents help them to recite some simple prayers,
thinking with affection of other people, such as grandparents, relatives, the
sick and suffering, and all those in need of God’s help. It was in our families
that the majority of us learned the religious dimension of communication, which
in the case of Christianity is permeated with love, the love that God bestows
upon us and which we then offer to others.In the family, we learn to embrace
and support one another, to discern the meaning of facial expressions and
moments of silence, to laugh and cry together with people who did not choose
one other yet are so important to each other. This greatly helps us to
understand the meaning of communication as recognizing and creating closeness.
When we lessen distances by growing closer and accepting one another, we
experience gratitude and joy. Mary’s greeting and the stirring of her child are
a blessing for Elizabeth; they are followed by the beautiful canticle of the
Magnificat, in which Mary praises God’s loving plan for her and for her people.
A “yes” spoken with faith can have effects that go well beyond ourselves and
our place in the world. To “visit” is to open doors, not remaining closed in
our little world, but rather going out to others. So too the family comes alive
as it reaches beyond itself; families who do so communicate their message of
life and communion, giving comfort and hope to more fragile families, and thus
build up the Church herself, which is the family of families.More than anywhere
else, the family is where we daily experience our own limits and those of
others, the problems great and small entailed in living peacefully with others.
A perfect family does not exist. We should not be fearful of imperfections,
weakness or even conflict, but rather learn how to deal with them
constructively. The family, where we keep loving one another despite our limits
and sins, thus becomes a school of forgiveness. Forgiveness is itself a process
of communication. When contrition is expressed and accepted, it becomes
possible to restore and rebuild the communication which broke down. A child who
has learned in the family to listen to others, to speak respectfully and to
express his or her view without negating that of others, will be a force for
dialogue and reconciliation in society.When it comes to the challenges of
communication, families who have children with one or more disabilities have
much to teach us. A motor, sensory or mental limitation can be a reason for
closing in on ourselves, but it can also become, thanks to the love of parents,
siblings, and friends, an incentive to openness, sharing and ready
communication with all. It can also help schools, parishes and associations to
become more welcoming and inclusive of everyone.In a world where people often
curse, use foul language, speak badly of others, sow discord and poison our
human environment by gossip, the family can teach us to understand
communication as a blessing. In situations apparently dominated by hatred and
violence, where families are separated by stone walls or the no less
impenetrable walls of prejudice and resentment, where there seem to be good
reasons for saying “enough is enough”, it is only by blessing rather than
cursing, by visiting rather than repelling, and by accepting rather than
fighting, that we can break the spiral of evil, show that goodness is always
possible, and educate our children to fellowship.Today the modern media, which
are an essential part of life for young people in particular, can be both a
help and a hindrance to communication in and between families. The media can be
a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to others, to evade
physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence and rest, so that we
forget that “silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence,
words rich in content cannot exist.” (BENEDICT XVI, Message for the 2012 World
Communications Day). The media can help communication when they enable people
to share their stories, to stay in contact with distant friends, to thank
others or to seek their forgiveness, and to open the door to new encounters. By
growing daily in our awareness of the vital importance of encountering others,
these “new possibilities”, we will employ technology wisely, rather than
letting ourselves be dominated by it. Here too, parents are the primary
educators, but they cannot be left to their own devices. The Christian
community is called to help them in teaching children how to live in a media
environment in a way consonant with the dignity of the human person and service
of the common good.The great challenge facing us today is to learn once again
how to talk to one another, not simply how to generate and consume information.
The latter is a tendency which our important and influential modern
communications media can encourage. Information is important, but it is not
enough. All too often things get simplified, different positions and viewpoints
are pitted against one another, and people are invited to take sides, rather
than to see things as a whole.The family, in conclusion, is not a subject of
debate or a terrain for ideological skirmishes. Rather, it is an environment in
which we learn to communicate in an experience of closeness, a setting where
communication takes place, a “communicating community”. The family is a
community which provides help, which celebrates life and is fruitful. Once we
realize this, we will once more be able to see how the family continues to be a
rich human resource, as opposed to a problem or an institution in crisis. At
times themedia can tend to present the family as a kind of abstract model which
has to be accepted or rejected, defended or attacked, rather than as a living
reality. Or else a grounds for ideological clashes rather than as a setting
where we can all learn what it means to communicate in a love received and
returned. Relating our experiences means realizing that our lives are bound
together as a single reality, that our voices are many, and that each is
unique.Families should be seen as a resource rather than as a problem for
society. Families at their best actively communicate by theirwitness the beauty
and the richness of the relationship between man and woman, and between parents
and children. We are not fighting to defend the past. Rather, with patience and
trust, we are working to build a better future for the world in which we
live.From the Vatican, 23 January 2015
Vigil of the Memorial of Saint Francis de SalesFRANCIS © Copyright -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
