Personal Reflection on Communication

The sad thing sometimes about emails and text messages is that they so easily become so impersonal.  It doesn't take two minutes to text someone personally to say hello and ask how they are, or to send a personal email.  Though a phone call is always better or a personal visit even.  We are in an age where we are now bombarded with general impersonal text messages and emails from colleagues letting us know about events or things that happen or other issues, that also go to several other people on a long list. 


We are forgetting the personal touch....the person on the other end of the text message or email could be going through a difficult time, they could even be sick in hospital or going through some other difficult circumstance and may not hear personally from the person who sent the message for quite some time.  I have done it myself.  It seems that in various Catholic circles this is now becoming quite common.  We need to stop and think about the other person at the other end of our messages and how we are communicating with them as a human being and as our fellow brother or sister in Christ......


Last year the Catholic Bishops in Italy wanted people to give up these forms of communciation for Lent....this is just a section of the article....perhaps we could think about this for Advent....

The Catholic Church has called on believers in Italy to give up text messaging for Lent, as well as abstaining from forms of virtual entertainment and socialising such as TV, iPods and Facebook.  Catholic bishops are hoping their call will help people rediscover “the art of communication” and improve their relationships with each other.

From:  http://www.christiantoday.com/article/italys.believers.told.to.give.up.text.messages.this.lent/22688.htm