MARFAM FAMILY WEEKLY ENEWSLETTER

I live in a retirement village as many regular readers know.  Our own life stories may not terribly exciting these days and many of us spend much time watching TV, sometimes sport but also often the soapies and series, which are essentially stories.  Are they true to life or idealized, or peppered with scandals as many popular stories are?    How involved are we? Do we envy, emulate, hate or love the characters, hope for their reward or their punishment, more so than we do for our own flesh and blood, young and old?   Some of us are addicts in one area or another, watching good or bad, but bad tends to make for a “better” story line.  I don’t watch much TV, and when I do it is mostly news stories covering current events, wars, disasters or stuff on climate change which, let’s face it, is seldom good news but may nevertheless have elements of hope.  All of the stories we watch or listen to may be from different angles and carry more or less fact or opinions. How much time do we spend in not just watching but sharing stories, interacting with one another in any context?

Jubilee 2025 is intended to be a year of spiritual renewal, taking us out of negativity, hopelessness and despair and re-establishing our relationship with God, others and with creation.  Pope Francis writes, “hope does not disappoint,” it is built on faith and supported and motivated by love.  Its traditional biblical purposes are noted, and we can consider how they apply to us. :   

  • Forgive debts
  • Return land to its rightful owners
  • Encourage holiness of life
  • Strengthen faith
  • Promote charity and brotherly communion
  • Seek spiritual renewal
  • Work for peace and justice

One of the first big jubilee events celebrated in Rome was the JUBILEE OF THE WORLD OF COMMUNICATION 24-26.Jan.  Its expressed aims were to bring the many different media roleplayers together and reflect on their important role of spreading hope through networking and speaking out truthfully but with gentleness and compassion.  Some of those working in the world of communication especially invited to this jubilee event: (journalists, media professionals, managers and editors of newspapers, Boards of Directors , video makers, graphic designers, copywriters, PR staff, social media managers, audio and video technicians, typographers, IT experts etc.)  

I watched a review of the parts of the event. Various speakers addressed the 10 000 attendees. Story-telling and its importance in communication featured quite a lot as did technology, AI in particular as a gift and a promise but also a peril, a risk of spreading disinformation and even hate. One speaker said” stories are the shortest distance between people.”   However, stories can be deliberately negative or positive, with a good moral or with destructive values, truth or lies, information or disinformation.   

Particularly impressive for me was Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist who had fought long and hard for freedom of speech in her country and been harassed by the state frequently.   In her battle for justice and peace she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. She shared some of her own experience and the conclusion she had reached for communicators – calling us all to order.   Build communication on the 3 points fact – truth – trust.   Present facts that are true and tested for accuracy. Only this can lead to trust. Her words of advice for communicators. 1. Collaborate,   2. Speak truth with moral clarity – prophetic voice.   3. Protect the most vulnerable.    4.   Recognize your power adding that building peace is not for heroes only.   Building peace and so healing our world is for ordinary people, active and relentlessly, telling their stories, listening with love.

My family Jubilee year focus is on Signs of Hope, noted in Pope Francis document SPES NON CONFUNDIT.  He notes that signs of hope do exist, but at the same time we are called to build hope.  Who and wherever we are, not only Catholic or Christian but everyone, even the old “need  to recover the joy of living, since men and women, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26), cannot rest content with getting along one day at a time, seeking fulfilment in material realities alone. This leads to a narrow individualism and the loss of hope; it gives rise to a sadness that lodges in the heart and brings forth fruits of discontent and intolerance.”  SNC 9. The elderly and grandparents need to share stories with the youth as a sign of hope.

Signs of Hope  and communication remind me too of a focus on dialogue.  In an article last year, for the SA Catholic magazine THE SOUTHERN CROSS I wrote about the Synod on Synodality last year and I discussed the value of communication in families in the special way of dialogue proposed by the synod.   Sharing from the heart, listening attentively, telling the stories that are important to us.     The current issue of SOUTHERN CROSS   contains a feature article about me, my life and work and is much appreciated. Thank you.

Some messages for the Jubilee of the World of Communications: http://www.vaticannews.va

Eli Pariser; Technology must serve the common good and incorporate the dignity of human beings.   Elevate the moral quality of stories. Chris Walters.  Telling stories of hope builds community.      Colum McCann, noted how important telling stories is as it brings people together. “The shortest distance between any people is a story,” so our ability to tell our story and our ability to listen to somebody else’s story is actually paramount to who we are and how we continue.”

For old and young and across the generations let that be a Sign of Hope for each of us. .

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY – February overview

Introduction. February. Love gives Families life. Hope, built on faith is sustained by love.God creates out of love for love. As God is Trinity, God’s love is life-giving, creating, sustaining and renewing creation. Our task and gift as humans and life-givers is co-creation with God, from conception to natural death, nurturing relationships and caring for children. There is a strong focus on marriage, the ideal love relationship in this month’s reflections but loving relationships are one of the essential aspects of what family is all about, total, lifelong commitment. Love of nature and of creation sustain life in all of creation. The human and divine love of the Sacred Heart can teach us the way of love. Pope Francis: Love always gives life. The couple in giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves, but also the reality of children, a living reflection of their love. AL165. Loving human relationships are mirrored and carried forward in care for creation. Caring for trees and rhinos and rejecting unborn human life and the cry of the poor are not loving and fully lifegiving. Every creature is the object of the Father’s tenderness. LS 77.  JUBILEE 2025. Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross.  That life becomes manifest in our own life of faith, which begins with Baptism, develops in openness to God’s grace and is enlivened by a hope constantly renewed and confirmed by the working of the Holy Spirit. SNC/DN 

Setting the scene.  With the theme for the month in mind parishes were asked to focus most strongly on marriage but also on other forms of family life.  Parish liturgy teams, catechists and all prayer groups and sodalities were invited to include marriage in their programmes and sessions as it is a Sacrament of the Church for the Church and not only for married couples.   Hold a special celebration on World Marriage Day.