Continued from LAST WEEK
Artifacts: are uses of Objects and images as communication tools. On an online forum, for example, teaching with objects will reinforce the messages will enable the listeners store the information in long term memory communicate information about who you are and the things you like. Using relevant images surrounding themselves with objects designed to convey information about the things that are important to them. to transmit our faith and gospel values is a tremendous thing. However, with the invasion of the new media technology in all aspect of society, it is pertinent that parents, guardians and faith formators need to get attuned and relevant with their delivery approach of faith formation. For instance, the Social media platform such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube channels etc should be created, functionally utilised to disseminate catechetical contents which engages the mind and intellect of the children and adults. These platforms could be linked to the parish website where activities like Know your Faith, Homilies, bible quiz, puzzles, even short video clips of life of the saints. Pope Francis in his 49th World Communication Day 2015 message, themeCommunicating the Family:
A Privileged Place of Encounter with the Gift of Love said it is the context of the family that we first learn to communicate. So our source of inspiration is the Gospel passage which relates the visit of Mary to Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-56). This episode first show us how communication is a dialogue intertwined with the language of the body. He said the womb is the first “school” of communication, a place of listening and become familiar with the outside world. He said it was in our families that the majority of us learned the religious dimension of communication, which in the case of Christianity is permeated with love, the love of God bestowed upon us and which we then offer to others. He further highlighted that the family is where we daily experience our own limits and those of others, the problems great and small entailed in living peacefully with others. A perfect family does not exist. We should not be fearful of imperfections, weakness or even conflict, but rather learn how to deal with them constructively.
The family, where we love one another despite our limits and sins, thus becomes a school of forgiveness. Forgiveness is itself a process of communication. God always communicates non-verbally than verbally. He speaks in a very gentle way to the children often without words. God communicate through pictures and creation. The language of God is a sacred language which is not found in books. The one sees a child pause suddenly in the midst of an activity, brought to silent contemplation of some natural object or living creation or picture. Thus divine pedagogy is the basis of every visual catechesis. {Phawa 2015}To lift our mind and our hearts to something which is beyond, to bring faith meaning and faith experience to our everyday life and to make flesh and blood the teaching of the Church is something like a challenge in the catechetical ministry. Jesus as a catechist used both verbal and non-verbal language in his catechesis. His parables and use of analogies such as water, birds, fish, wind etc, make us wonder that he used almost all the visual elements that were around him at that time.
The Role of Social Communication in family catechesis
Catechetical pedagogy must use the method of social communication in impacting faith. The means of social communication have become as important as to be for many the chief means of information and education, of guidance and inspiration in their behaviour as individuals, families and within the society at large. This is unifying humanity and turning it into what is known as a global village. The great possibilities offered by the means of social communication to catechesis are: television, radio, the press, disc, tape recording, and video. In today’s situation we should not forget the important role of the computer and Internet in propagating faith. Catechesis should make use of the media for sharing the faith but it must also educate the faith to discern the nature and value of things presented through the mass media. In order that work of communication of faith will be a successful one, Vatican II document, Inter Mirifica, posited that the press, cinema, radio, television and others of a like nature. These media tools should be utilized in each country {church community} in accordance with the local possibilities, to preach the Gospel of Christ. All the faithful of Christ who are personally involved in the management of the media or use of the media should strive, in so far as they can, that the Church can effectively exercise its mission through these means
Catechesis and Audio Visual techniques
The catechist is essentially a mediator. In the family parents are thereby the mediators that facilitates communication between the members of the family, church and the mystery of God, as well as with the faith community. For this reason, their cultural vision, social condition and life style must not be obstacle to the journey of faith. Tad Guzie, said that catechetical educators have the duty to communicate with the people at their home especially in the family meal around the table like how Jesus taught and communicated himself on the last Supper to his apostles. That “To Communicate the Christian message” said Bernard Lonergan, is “to lead another to share in one’s cognitive, constitutive, effective meaning”. Communication of faith takes several forms: the witness of an authentic Christian life, preaching, catechesis, the sacraments and the utilization of mass media.
Visual Language in Catechism
The Church has used visual means in the process of handing the faith to the faithful. Pope Gregory the great said the early icons were the Gospel of the poor. Wassily Kandinsky viewed art as protest against materialism, was convinced that art could be a source of spiritual reform. He believed that abstract forms, lines and colours communicated a common religious language, transcending national values and orientations.Mass communication has a great value for the Church. It enables the Church to preach and communicated the word to vast audiences.Communication through parables or figurative language meant to keep the meaning hidden and at the same time render it powerful and appealing to those who are disposed to understand them. It is very important to be familiarized with this art of symbolic communication that can unfold a comprehensive plan for Gospel catechesis
Conclusion
The family, in conclusion, is not a subject of debate or a terrain for ideological skirmishes. Rather, it is an environment in which we learn to communicate in an experience of closeness, a setting where communication takes place, a “communicating community”. The family is a community which provides help, which celebrates life and is fruitful. In the words of John Paul II, “it is also necessary to integrate that message into the new culture created by the modern communications with new languages, new techniques and a new psychology. (Redemptoris Missio, no. 37). Today the modern media, which are an essential part of life for young people in particular, can be both a help and a hindrance to communication in and between families. The media can be a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to others, to evade physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence and rest, so that we forget that “silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist.” (BENEDICT XVI, Message for the 2012 World Communications Day). The media can help communication when they enable people to share their stories, to stay in contact with distant friends, to thank others or to seek their forgiveness, and to open the door to new encounters. The family as a locus of catechesis has a unique privilege: transmitting the Gospel by rooting it in the context of profound human values.
.Rev. Sr. Josephine Odorwike, EHJ is the Communication Director of Sisters of the Eucharistic Hearts of Jesus (EHJ).
