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| Sr. Beatrice Njau, FSP, ZAS National Chairperson |
The Zambia Association of Sisterhoods (ZAS) National Chairperson, Sister Beatrice W. Njau, FSP has urged consecrated women to communicate effectively.
Speaking during a meeting to ZAS National Communications Team last week Sr. Beatrice said consecrated women need to learn to talk and listen to one another, not simply to generate and consume information.
“Let us together start making a difference by communicating the Gospel of joy in all our interactions, be agents of evangelization and not of conformity to the false image of communication portrayed by the media, that the whole world may resound with the, “Joy of the Gospel,” she said.
She added that religious sisters are invited to communicate God’s joy and love, thereby contributing to the life of the Church and society.
Sr. Beatrice further said that Pope Francis, in the midst of celebrating the year dedicated to Consecrated Life said one very important point that, “Where Consecrated persons are, there should be joy.” She said this sentiment is also emphasized in the Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, (Evangelium Gaudium).
The ZAS National Chairperson said the modern media is an essential part of our life today: “Today the modern media, which are an essential part of life for young people in particular, can both be 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.”
Sr. Beatrice further said consecrated women are called to bless by the way they communicate: “In a world where people often curse, use foul language, speak badly of others, sow discord and poison our human environment by gossip, the family can teach us to understand communication as a blessing. It is only by blessing rather than cursing, by visiting rather than repelling, and by accepting rather than fighting, that we can break the spiral of evil, show that goodness is always possible, and educate our children to fellowship.”
She said forgiveness is itself a process of communication and asked the religious sisters not to be fearful of imperfections, weakness or even conflict, but rather learn how to deal with them constructively.
The Chairperson also urged the sisters to love one another as the Pope underlines, “It is in the family that majority of us learned religious dimension of communication, which in the case of Christianity is permeated with love, the love that God bestows upon us and we then offer to others.”
Source: Sr. Helen Kasaka, Zambia