Communication is life

The Media Ministry of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus recently organised a formation — The Gift of Communication.

May 26, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: The Media Ministry of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus recently organised a formation — The Gift of Communication.

Parish priest, Msgr Stanislaus Soosaimariam, gave the opening session on communication relating to God.

“The purpose of communication is to give life. Communication is life. The movie ET shows how humans and aliens communicate and build a relationship.”

As in the beginning of creation, God reached out to touch Adam. Communication at the service of life.

Life comes from the family, begins from the family. The purpose of communications is to transform our earthly families into holy families.

What makes the holy family holy? It is living in communion. Communication is the means to help enhance this.

The family communion was disrupted by industrialisation.

Secularisation and materialism have become distractions and family life is neglected. Many now are more concerned with material things.

Industrialisation and modernisation have created ‘necessities’ for the families who now spend less time together, becoming disunited in the need for higher incomes to afford these ‘necessities’.

We live in a modern society. Technology and media can bring our families together, and can also disrupt and isolate them.

The main purpose of communication is to bring life. Now, it is also part of a culture of death.

We need to use all the means provided to be lifegiving and allow our families to be holy again.

This was followed by an interesting session led by Dr Melissa Shamini Perry who elaborated Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages.

She explained that people express and receive love in five different ways, called love languages. They are: quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. She then conducted a Q & A with the participants to discover their ways of expressing the love languages.

The main highlight of this session was to be aware of the need to discover and understand each other’s expression of love and not to force our own understanding on them.

She also highlighted how Jesus expressed all the five love languages in His life. Some examples were: the time spent with His disciples, Words of affirmation, courage given to the vulnerable, Gifts, the gift of Holy Communion, acts of service and physical touch, washing of the feet,

The formation ended with a sharing cum presentation by the Media ministry’s leader on the ministry and the role of the ministry.

There was also a quiz to encourage the participants to get involved. The formation ended with a lunch fellowship.

This formation was initiated from the feedback received at the 2022 Parish Pastoral Assembly. — SHC