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Twitter a little prayer

03 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The world doesn't know the children of God, says the First Letter of John, because they did not know God. Perhaps the world would get to know God better if people Twittered a few prayers to friends and family. That's the recommendation of the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady. The cardinal, speaking at Mass in Country Mayo last Sunday, said that it was a good way to send people prayers. "Make someone the gift of a prayer through text, Twitter, or e-mail every day," urged Brady. "I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional Twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them." Brady's sermon was delivered to mark the centenary celebration of Father Patrick Peyton, the "Rosary priest" who had a "great gift" for communication. The cardinal urged people to start up prayer groups using modern technology such as Twitter. "Such a sea of prayer is sure to strengthen our sense of solidarity with one another and remind those who receive them that others really do care," he said. Source: BBC News and an article by Anne Thomas at ChristianToday.com

patrick peyton sean brady twitter

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Working on commission

07 Jun 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations" is the great commission in this Sunday's gospel. In ages past that often meant lengthy and dangerous journeys and much hardship for missionaries. Now there is the Internet to help spread the Word. This week a German news agency reported that the entire Bible had been posted in German on the social networking, micro-blogging website Twitter. More than 3,000 Internet users took part in the 10-day effort, posting the Bible in 3,906 messages, each one a maximum of 140 characters long. Source: An article by Ecumenical News International

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Iranians elect to protest

21 Jun 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading the Lord addresses Job out of a storm. In response to a storm of protest, Iran’s supreme leader reversed course this week and ordered an investigation into allegations of election fraud in last Friday’s presidential election. Earlier having called the reelection of Mahmud Ahmadinejad a “divine assessment,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday directed a high-level clerical panel to look into the charges of fraud. The move was not enough to placate supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have daily taken to the streets of Tehran to protest. Tuesday the country’s most senior Islamic cleric, an opponent of Khamenei, threw his weight behind charges that Ahmadinejad’s reelection was rigged. “No one in their right mind can believe” the official results from Friday’s contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi’s charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers “in the worst way possible.” In an effort to quash media coverage, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued a ban on foreign news reporting of rallies in Tehran, revoked the credentials of those with temporary visas, and ordered them to leave the country as soon as possible. Cell phone service was cut in the city. To counter these restrictions a U.S. State Department official Monday emailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: Delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran. The State Department said its request did not amount to meddling in Iranian affairs because the department did not contact Twitter until three days after the vote was held and well after the protests had begun. Source: Articles by Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay for McClatchy Newspapers, Mark Landler and Brian Stelter for the New York Times, and Hashem Kalantari and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters

twitter ministry of culture and islamic guidance ali khamenei hossein ali montazeri tehran mir hossein mousavi fraud mahmud ahmadinejad election iran state department

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Are we screening out community with our time online?

08 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be,” Jesus says to his disciples in this Sunday’s gospel. When it comes to online activity, Americans increasingly treasure mobile communication devices and social networks, according to research results released this week. What Americans Do Online, a report released Monday by the media research firm Nielsen, says that use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter has increased 43 percent in the past year and that they now take up more than a third of time spent online. As for the device of choice, smart phones (those with internet and text capabilities) that utilize Google’s mobile Android operating system appear to have supplanted Research in Motion (RIM)’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone as the most popular smart phones in the U.S., says market research company Canalys. According to the Canalys study, Google controls 34 percent of the market compared to RIM's 32 percent and Apple's 21.7 percent. That's not to say that Apple or RIM is posting financial losses. In fact, Apple grew 61 percent in sales year-to-year and RIM grew 41 percent. Part of the overall industry growth is explained by the exploding popularity of smart phones as the preferred method for online communication. Overall smart phone sales rose 64 percent on a year-to-year basis. As for what people do once they are online, within a few years social networks may supplant email as the number one activity. "The rise of social networking hasn't pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity just yet. Although both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains as the third heaviest activity online . . . while instant messaging is fifth," said the report from Nielsen. Behind all the numbers lie some larger questions: What does all this time spent online and in front of screens say about us as a society? Are we becoming more isolated and removed from one another as we become more attached to our gadgets and screens? What happens to personal interactions and the sense of community in the meantime? And how do we find a balanced way to enjoy the benefits of the new technology without getting swept away by it? Source: Articles by Jason Mick for DailyTech.com and Tim Conneally for Betanews.com

twitter facebook social network smart phones nielsen canalys

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Mideast upheaval has State Department a-Twitter

20 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Leviticus instructs Israel to “take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.” In the wake of Egypt’s cyber-aided uprising, the U.S. State Department is using Twitter to prod Iran’s repressive leadership to let up on the Iranian people. After launching an Arabic Twitter feed last week to communicate with Egyptian protesters, the State Department began posting in Farsi on Sunday to reach media-savvy Iranians. One message called on Iran "to allow people to enjoy same universal rights to peacefully assemble, demonstrate as in Cairo." Commenting on the new diplomatic strategy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that the United States stands with cyber-dissidents and democracy activists from the Middle East to China and beyond. She pledged to expand the administration's efforts to foil Internet repression in autocratic states. The State Department will spend $25 million this year on initiatives designed to protect bloggers and help them get around curbs like the Great Firewall of China, the gagging of social media sites in Iran, Cuba, Syria, Vietnam, and Myanmar as well as attempts such as Egypt's recent one to thwart anti-government protests by simply pulling the plug on online communication. She also said the department would broaden the reach of its online mini-appeals for human rights and democracy by creating accounts to cater to audiences in China, Russia, and India in their native languages. In related news, events in Egypt have set off a chain reaction of revolt around the Middle East and North Africa, with anti-government demonstrations Wednesday in Libya, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, and Iraq. Articles by Matthew Lee and Sarah El Deeb for the Associated Press, Paul Taylor for Reuters, and Yahoo News

twitter iran state department hillary rodham clinton

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Add some sizzle to the sermon, urges Vatican cardinal

13 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s second reading is likely to gain the full attention of the congregation, with its warning that the day of the Lord will come ”like a thief at night” and that “sudden disaster” will come upon those who are not alert and sober “like labor pains upon a pregnant woman.” That kind of vivid language would likely gain a nod of approval from Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s senior cultural official, who this week encouraged preachers to liven up “grey and dull” sermons with more forceful language such as that found in the Bible. Speaking at a conference in Rome, Ravasi said preaching in churches had become so formulaic and boring that it risked becoming "irrelevant" to congregations accustomed to the excitement and immediacy of television and the internet. "The advent of televised and computerized information requires us to be compelling and trenchant, to cut to the heart of the matter, resort to narratives and color," said the cardinal, who as the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture is the Vatican's unofficial minister for culture. Too many priests employ theological language that is "grey, dull, and flavorless" and instead should spice up their sermons with graphic stories contained in the Bible, said Ravasi. He also recommended Twitter as an effective way to spread the Word of God. "We need to remember that communicating faith doesn't just take place through sermons. It can be achieved through the 140 characters of a Twitter message." Source: An article by Nick Squires for The Telegraph (UK)

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The Vatican all a-Twitter

09 Dec 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The gospel this Second Sunday of Advent focuses on the ministry of John the Baptist who, in the tradition of the prophet Isaiah, spoke with “a voice of one crying out in the desert.”Communications technology has evolved a bit since biblical times, so it was perhaps inevitable that the pope would begin posting messages on the social network Twitter. The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI will tweet under the handle @pontifex, a Latin term meaning "bridge-builder." Within hours of the announcement he had more than 250,000 followers.Benedict is expected to send his first post at a general audience at the Vatican on Dec. 12 in response to questions about matters of the faith that are now being accepted via the hashtag #askpontifex, officials said. “The pope’s presence on Twitter can be seen as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ that is the church’s presence in the world of new media,” a Vatican statement said.Benedict’s posts will go out in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Other languages are expected to be added in the future. The messages will mostly feature the contents of the pope’s speeches at his weekly general audience and Sunday blessings as well as homilies on major holidays and reactions to major world events like natural disasters.The pope, who still writes his speeches and books by hand, has given a qualified blessing to social networking. In a document issued last year he said the possibilities of new media and social networks offered "a great opportunity" but warned of the risks of depersonalization.Benedict will post messages however often he feels like it, just do not expect him to start following others on Twitter or retweeting their posts, said Greg Burke, a former Fox News correspondent in Rome who was named a Vatican communications adviser this year. “He won’t follow anyone for now,” Burke added. “He will be followed.”Homily hint: How many of those gathered today use Twitter? Facebook? Other social media? A show of hands likely would reveal a dramatic generational divide on these questions. Parents, teachers, and all those in ministry need to gain some “internet literacy” in order to better understand the online world many younger people inhabit. Sources: Articles by Philip Pullella for Reuters and Haia Pianigiani and Rachel Donadio for the New York Times

benedict xvi twitter social media pontifex greg burke new media

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