Making online friends.

Posted by Therese.

This is my first post on the Australian Catholic families blog. Thanks so much Sue for inviting me to post here. I thought I would write about being a Catholic mother and how the internet has helped me in my role as a home schooling mother and helped my faith.

For the first 10 years of our marriage, Steve and I lived in Adelaide. We had a lot of support and our faith really grew. We belonged to a couple of different Charismatic communities and for me; it was like icing on a cake. It made my faith more alive and I loved being a Christian because of it

At the beginning of 2001, we moved to the South East of South Australia. I loved the quiet life living in the country, but really noticed not having a community of friends to share my faith with.

In 2003, we had another move and I spoke with Steve about the lack of friends that shared my faith. We had the parish community but after being a part of a group that shared prayer times and social times together, I noticed a big difference.

Steve really encouraged me to look online and find some online communities. He had posted on a couple of forums that were hobby based and thought I should get involved in some Catholic ones.

I resisted for a while because I wanted friends in person, not on the internet. After nearly 12 months of this though, I joined Steve Ray’s Catholic Convert forum.

It was great. At first, I just wanted some information to defend our faith because an evangelical had challenged me on it but after being a part of the general discussions, I asked to be added to the ladies forum.

For the next few years, I built so many relationships with the other women posting at DCF. I felt encouraged in my faith and knew that this group was a gift from God.

Fast forward to 2006, I started my blog. This was another opening to find other friends and build relationships online. At first it was hard. I visited many other blogs and left comments. This was so against my nature since I was a naturally shy person. I overcame my shyness though and made many more friends online.

Through my blog and the relationships I have built at DCF, I have the icing on my faith cake again. It has been so valuable for me to have friends only a click away.

I have also found a lot of support for my care of my two children with type 1 diabetes. This was another blessing I got from the internet.

I really hope to meet all my online friends one day. I hope that Steve and I will be able to travel over to the USA when we retire.

The internet has made me feel less isolated in my faith journey and has helped me to make some very valuable friendships.

You can read more by me at my blog Aussie Coffee Shop.

The Gospel according to Twitter

By Anthony English

Pope Benedict spoke recently about this blog. Well, not about this blog in particular, but about the Gospel in the digital era. It was the Holy Father's Message for the 45th World Communications Day and it was specifically about how the new technologies can promote or inhibit the Gospel.

It was pleasing to see Pope Benedict warning about the superficiality which can easily creep in to the transmission of the faith when we have to fit the message into a technological 2 second grab. Technology, helpful as it can be, can also cause us to water down or dumb down the message of Christ:

The task of witnessing to the Gospel in the digital era calls for everyone to be particularly attentive to the aspects of that message which can challenge some of the ways of thinking typical of the web. First of all, we must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its “popularity” or from the amount of attention it receives. We must make it known in its integrity, instead of seeking to make it acceptable or diluting it. It must become daily nourishment and not a fleeting attraction.

There's something about these new media which tempts us to turn into observers and commentators, and for those of us for whom technology is our bread and butter, it's good to have a reminder that there's a world of truth and friendship outside first of all:

The truth of the Gospel is not something to be consumed or used superficially; rather it is a gift that calls for a free response. Even when it is proclaimed in the virtual space of the web, the Gospel demands to be incarnated in the real world and linked to the real faces of our brothers and sisters, those with whom we share our daily lives. Direct human relations always remain fundamental for the transmission of the faith!

Surely one of the great ironies of technology today is that family members in the same home can be "communicating" with the world outside and never speak to each other in any depth. One mother pointed out recently that we used to start the day with morning prayer and breakfast (maybe even together). Now it's replaced by logging in to check our messages.

You can find the pope's whole message for World Communications Day here.


* Photo by jscreationzs/FreeDigital.Photos.net