If you are hesitant about getting online, starting a blog, organising a parish or group website, setting up a twitter profile – let me encourage you not to hesitate. Any of these are now so simple to set up, free, and easy to run. They need not be time-consuming. You may not know the positive good you are spreading through a ripple effect. I receive many tweets, comments, and emails affirming the value of a cyber-presence. Here is one recent email as an example
You may be interested to learn of the ripple effect of your website. Some time ago I visited it after reading about your “Liturgy of the Notices” on the […] list. After reading your recommendation I bought Benedictine Daily Prayer and began observing the Liturgy of the Hours. I put a brief note about this on the […] Facebook page, a site I check into very infrequently. Another member contacted me about this after buying the book, asking for help in navigation, so I sent him the list of page numbers for a couple of offices and he figured it out after that. His life has become so enriched from observing the hours, as has mine, he is now becoming a Benedictine Oblate.
Thank you for all your good work. I’m sure there are many more blessings you’ve spread that you don’t even know about.
So if you have wondered whether to get online – I hope this post is the encouragement you need to give it a go.
I totally agree! Twitter has connected me with so many positve and inspirational people! More often than not a someone says something that I needed to hear at the exact right time! It is truly amazing!
I’ve had the experience, on a political blog, of someone telling me that my writing had affected them in a spiritual way. That the person felt more able to connect with God now. At first I demurred, but the person insisted – no, she credited this to me.
You just never know how or where – on the web or elsewhere – you may make a difference.
Here’s my blog at a political site today. I didn’t plan it to intersect with this post. But in a sense, it does:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/therap/2009/11/the-great-divide.php
My parish makes a Lenten Devotional booklet every year. 40 parishioners each take a day of Lenten readings and writes an essay which is put into a booklet form for all to read. I enjoy writing this, and my husband suggested I do so on a daily basis as I read the lectionary anyway. We set up a Google blog. Then the Rector said how great it would be to have a *yearly* devotional. I thought – can I do this for a year? Well, I’ve gone through John, Luke, Mark and now we’re in the midst of Matthew (I tend to focus on the gospel readings). I’m not sure if I’ll keep going after Matthew but … what do I do with the people, all unknown to me, who have become subscribers and are presumably getting something out of it? I’m thinking I will continue, and hopefully what I do will be better informed by the previous thinking. Perhaps not so strangely, I doubt that my subscribers are fellow parishioners 🙂 Many subscribe via email and I don’t recognize any of the addresses.
If (Janine) you choose to stop, then those already blessed will have been blessed, and some may choose to take over/carry on/do something new; or not. If you choose to continue you may find that it grows/changes/develops into something else entirely. If you explore the distinction between “choice” and “decision” your “but” may change to an “and”. And thank you for the inspiration.
Thank you Richard! You are most kind.