About a year ago, Meredith Gould wrote a post here called “Christ Has No Online Presence But Yours.” The title played off St. Theresa of Avila’s famous prayer “Christ Has No Body but Yours.” Her point: just as Christ relies on our hands and feet and brains to bring his love to the world, he also relies on our blogs and tweets and Facebook pages to be present online.
A provocative idea, no? Even an inspiring one. How can we use social media for spiritual work? What might Christ’s “online presence” look like concretely? What is social media, anyway?
Moving forward, Meredith will be writing about social media here on dotMagis. She has lots of ideas about it, and much experience. Most importantly, she has a passion for helping Catholics understand and use these new online tools.
We’ll kick this off on Monday with a blog-alogue. Tell your friends.
I too, am looking forward to Meredith`s blog-alogue.
To Larry above, my best wishes. You are like a frontier`s man, being led by God to cover new territory and people for Him. Wonderful!
Great!
As always, I look forward to Meredit’s sage comments.
Enjoy the weekend.
Bob
St. Theresa is the inspiration (on several levels) for starting my blog. The biggest being overcoming my thoughts of “Why should I write? No one, cares what I think.” But I write. I write not for others, but for myself. The only time I hit the “Publish” button is after I’ve felt the Holy Spirit has been with me.
I also write in a public forum, but I don’t advertise it, yet. I’m just not comfortable with it. It is something I need to overcome. It may be acedia, or it may be the evil spirit attacking me. There have been a couple of times where I’ve tried to share it but something always comes up that interferes with my intent and I remove the links to my writing. I think that if the Lord wants what I have to say to get out, it will get out.
The reason I’m writing now, is the mention of AMDG above. I have one tattoo, and it was supposed to be AMDG, but as I contemplated on it, it got larger, and I decided I needed to spell it out, so it wraps all the way around my arm. I don’t flaunt it, but the artwork is beautiful, and the people who are comfortable talking about it are usually “tattoo people”. No one in my circle of friends knows what it means until I tell them, and once I do, they change the subject (maybe they are concerned that it is something dark and nefarious). I think some people “get” tattoos, and others don’t. those who “get it” are the ones who start the conversations, and the conversations turn spiritual, and I get to hear thoughts and inspirations. The conversation goes deeper once I ask why they don’t think the “spiritualism” they are talking about is God manifesting himself in their life. The answer is usually something having to do with the way they’ve been taught about religion is that people who believe in God don’t … (insert lifestyle here, e.g. get tattoos)
I feel the tattoo opens up doors to people who might otherwise not hear the message, and make them want to talk to me, and open themselves up. I don’t imagine many of them would seek it out on their own. I also think that the people who actively try to talk to them about God are more interested in Preaching the Word, than having a conversation, so people shut down and aren’t open to the message. I’m not a preacher, I don’t have the skills, knowledge or background. What I do have are thoughts and opinions based on the skills, knowledge, experience and background that I do have. That I’m comfortable with, so I can talk about it.
I guess I want to say there are MANY outlets to reach people, and the internet is another one. Therefore, there are different ways to reach different people on the internet and how God directs you to use your voice, will get to the people that He wants you to reach.
(This started as a single sentence thanking you for the story, but the Spirit just told me to “hit the button.”)
Larry, there are many people whom you can reach that I would never be able to reach. Thank you for listening to the Holy Spirit and thus providing a way for God to touch people’s lives.
Yes, “tell your friends” and also tell folks who think social media is “nonsense,” a “waste of time,” “of the Devil,” and undermines all that is and should be sacred. Social media is none of those things! AMDG, indeed.
Always!
What a great post to find here today! Thanks be to God, AMDG! As a Catholic blogger since 2007 and as someone who is doing a year-long pastoral formation in graduate school (Pastoral Studies degree program) in social media ministry, I am thrilled to read this.
Of course Meredith is a trusted friend and mentor in this area. I am so much looking forward to what she has to say. Thank you! I am sharing on social media, as we speak!