A Nun’s Life Ministry will be launching a new podcast soon! The Digital Ministry Podcast will be on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. We’ve been using these things for 4 years now and get many questions asking us “how’d you do that?” The new podcast will be a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance our capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. (FYI: Podcast was initially called Social Ministry Podcast)

This podcast is for anyone who ministers online or who uses the Internet to connect with people: vocation directors, youth ministers, online community managers, religious communities and parishes, webmasters for religious organizations, churches and parishes, individuals, and more!

This is a place where no question is too foolish and everyone can share their wisdom and questions.

We’ll share our experience with blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, equipment, software, consultants and collaborators, books and resources, and interacting with people online. We’ll also interview folks across the social media landscape who can provide expertise, insight, and concrete help on a variety of related topics.

Here are some of the kinds of things we’ll talk about:

• How to get people to comment more on your blog
• Can one really do ministry “virtually”?
• What can I do to spread the word about my website?
• What are some good, solid Catholic organizations that I can go to for help or direct my visitors to?
• What is podcasting and how could it benefit my ministry?
• How do I start a blog?
• What would Jesus do with today’s Internet technology?
• Is it important for me to know what SEO is?
• Which social networks should I belong to?
• What do I do if I get negative comments?
• What is the difference between Twitter and Facebook and blogging?
• Can an iPhone or Blackberry really help me minister better?
• How do I explain to my community/organization why this online stuff is important?
• How do I manage all this online stuff AND still do my regular job?
• How do I care for and nourish my online community?

We’d like to hear from you! If you’d like updates on this podcast by email, click the SIGN UP button below.**  We just need your first name, email (never made public), and check the Digital Ministry Podcast box. If you wish, please let us know your other info, such as ministry position, organization, and website. If you are interested in being an underwriter of this podcast, please contact us for more information.
** If you’ve already signed up by commenting below or emailing me prior to June 14, 2010, then you’ve already been signed up!

Some of the most incredible architecture can be found among churches. Two of my favorite books are about the construction of churches: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter’s by R.A. Scotti. I find fascinating both the actual process of building and all the theology that is literally and figuratively built into churches.

Wikipedia notes that church architecture (a.k.a. ecclesiastical architecture) “has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by imitating other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions. Christian architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Christianity to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Christian culture. From the birth of Christianity to the present, the most significant period of transformation for Christian architecture and design was the Gothic cathedral.”

Architects can get pretty creative when designing churches. Here is one of my faves from the post 10 Most Unique Churches in the World by Holly Sendy.

The Chapel of Saint Gildas is found upon the bank of the Canal du Blavet in Brittany, France. It is built into the base of a rocky cliff. This was once a holy place for the Druids in AD 540 where Gildas preached Christianity to the people. There are some cool pictures of the exterior and interior of this church at the blog Breizh Bretagne Llydaw Brittany including the one below.

I love how this chapel is tucked right into the earth. It speaks to me of the incarnation, of faith being born right out of the stuff of God’s good creation.

Where have you come across stunning or unusual church architecture? What does it say to you about God?

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a Catholic feast day that originated with Saint Faustina Kowalska. Saint Faustina was a Catholic nun belonging to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She experienced visions Jesus Christ including a message about spreading the word about God’s mercy to the whole world. When Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina, he made Divine Mercy Sunday part of the church’s liturgical calendar.

The scripture readings today are beautiful and offer a kind of “action plan” for our Christian journey. Visit the blog From the Pews in the Back to read my guest post A Divine Action Plan, a short reflections on the readings for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Since today is a day to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, I want to explore a bit more what “mercy” means. It’s one of those words that is fairly ordinary and unassuming, yet loaded with meaning. It is simple yet it is life-changing.

Mercy.

My first research destination: Merriam-Webster dictionary

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French merci, from Medieval Latin merced-, merces, from Latin, price paid, wages, from merc-, merx merchandise

1 a: compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power; also: lenient or compassionate treatment b: imprisonment rather than death imposed as penalty for first-degree murder

2 a: a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion b: a fortunate circumstance

3: compassionate treatment of those in distress

My next stop: Theological Dictionary (Rahner and Vorgrimler)

Mercy. Readiness to help those in need. The Old Testament expresses God’s mercy chiefly by the verbs meaning to “be motherly” and to “bend down”. Throughout the Old Testament, assurances of God’s mercy, graciousness, and fidelity to his covenant outbalance all references … to the wrath of God; these qualities dominate the New Testament conception of God….

Human mercy, according to Scripture, is not measured by any display of feeling but by concrete proofs.

Which brings me to my final research destination: The Works of Mercy

The Corporal Works of Mercy

• feed the hungry
• shelter the homeless
• clothe the naked
• visit the sick and imprisoned
• bury the dead
• give alms to the poor

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

• instruct
• advise
• console
• comfort
• forgive
• bear wrongs patiently

What does mercy mean to you? Which word or phrase above resonates with you, draws you, calls for some kind of response from you?

Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, recently gave a conference on Media and Evangelization and how the Catholic Church is committed to using new media.

What I found particularly intriguing was how the Archbishop framed his remarks about communication. He referred to the work of the late Cardinal Avery Dulles on the theology of the Trinity in order to illustrate his thoughts on communication and how such a theology is foundational to how we connect with others, especially via the new media

The Trinity is, of course, one of the great mysteries of our Catholic faith. The One God is at the same time three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Many mystics and theologians of our faith have looked to the Trinity as a model of how to relate to and communicate with God and one another. The Archbishop quoted Dulles on what this relationship and communication “looks” like within the Trinity:

“The Trinity is communication in absolute, universal perfection, a totally free and complete sharing among equals. In generating the Son as word, the Father totally expresses himself … the Holy Spirit completes the intradivine process of communication” (The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System).

Although this particular quote doesn’t make mention of it, love is key to Dulles’ understanding of the Trinity and of how the Triune God communicates among the three Persons as well as to all of creation. For example, Dulles writes:

“Within the Trinity the Spirit is the subsistent love breathed forth by the Father and the Son. He is the personal bond of union expressing and sealing their mutual love, and proceeding from them” (The Catholicity of the Church, 45).

Key messages about the nature of good communication can be found in both of Dulles’ quotes:

• Good communication is “a totally free and complete sharing among equals”.

• Good communication is the generation of not only words (information) but of a word about who we are; we express ourselves, give ourselves to others when we communicate with them.

• Love proceeds from good communication.

What does this mean in this age of mass communication where we can relate to and communicate with others immediately and through huge variety of media? Do we treat others as equals when we are communicating with them, especially when we are hidden behind the veil of anonymity? Are we attentive to how are words are expressing how we are? Do all of our communications (yes, even that 140 character tweet on Twitter) express love? I’m not talking about sentimental love, but a love that Saint Paul so well articulates in 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let’s talk more about this. What key messages do you hear in the Archbishop’s conference or in Dulles’ theology of the Trinity? How can we make the blogosphere, especially the Catholic blogosphere, more of a place where good communication is the rule, not the exception?

Other thoughts, ideas, wonderings …