WEAVERS OF STORIES: 54th World Communications Sunday

That is how many of the great or simple stories begin, the stories we have listened since we were small… Stories of adventures, of romance, of fiction… Stories that passed through our lives awakening our imagination, enkindling our hearts, challenging our minds, gathering so many experiences of life… stories…

Pope Francis wanted to point towards the symbolism of narrative stories in his message with occasion of the 54^th World Communication Sunday:

“So you may tell and record in your memory (Cf. Ex 10:2), life became a story”

Life becomes a history when there is someone to tell this story, when there is someone who wants to transform it in narration, when there is someone who will assume the challenge of narrating of what happened, of making memory to be recorded in the memory of those who will be reading it and making it life in this action. Those who assume this mission, the communicators, for example, have a great task, which Pope Francis symbolizes with the art of weaving; taking example of Pope, we could define the communicators as “the weavers of the stories”.

But “not all the stories are good”, Pope is warning; sometimes the stories that are fabricated are destructive, full of violence, awake our doubts, generate expectations and vanish like magic; they don’t transcend, only awake bad curiosity; there are stories that shouldn’t be told because they harm…

Therefore, the necessity noticed by Pope for being able to count on good narrators that would tell the good stories:

“We need human narration, that will tell us about ourselves and about the beauty we possess. Narration that knows to look at world and its events with tenderness; that tells us that we are a part of an alive tapestry; that reveals the interdependence of all threads which unite us with one another”

For us, General Communication Team, these words of Pope are filled with deep palautian meaning, and we see in them reflected…

… what we are called to announce: that we are part of a Body, “that Body animated and brought to life by the spirit of God, who lives and talks and hears” (Letter 67,6);

… what we called to construct through LOVE: “A man, loving God and his neighbor, makes himself one body with his Beloved [the Church]” (MR 3,12);

… what from the deep love for all human being, we are called to restore: “Look at Him in this body that is His Church, wounded and crucified, indigenous, persecuted, despised and bullied, and under this consideration, offer yourself to take care of Him and give Him those services that are at your hand” (Letter 42).

Out of this call and feeling ourselves identified with the words of Pope Francis, we would like to tell “…good stories: stories that construct, not destroy; stories that help to reencounter the roots and strength to progress together”.

For us, as palautian communicators, the message of the Holy Father for this 54^th World Communication Sunday is a gift and a challenge, that commits our action to continue our efforts for being able to weave strong nets in this digital continent. We want to welcome this call of Pope Francis to make of communication an instrument for building bridges, for union and sharing of the beauty of being brothers and sisters in this time marked by contrasts and divisions. We want to tell stories that will have the message of Jesus as their center; we want to let the Holy Spirit to write in the hearts of many through us; stories showing the beauty of the Church, the great gift of communion… because this way we will be able to “tell and engrave in the memory” (Ex 10:2) the marvelous stories that “life becomes a story”…

We take advantage to greet all the communication teams of our Congregation: we are thankful for the labor of evangelization that they do and we encourage them to continue telling stories of life, of hope, of truth, of communion.