Those of you who saw my post on Investing in Failure must have been surprised to see the Member News this week in which Catholics Communicate Christ was #1 for a day! Despite that encouraging moment in its life, it’s still a glorious failure! If you’d like to offer it to your readers, it will be available for FREE download on January 28th. Please pray God will get it into the hands of those who need a ‘pithy dose of encouragement’ to become, or to persevere as, Catholic writers.
Please remember to send me (charoster ‘at’ yahoo ‘dot’ com) your link to your own favorite blog post from January, so I can add it to our Member Blog Round-Up. I’m here to help you shine!
Want to save a baby’s life? I’m convinced that Guild Member Elizabeth Schmeidler’s new book, The Good Sinner, will help do that. I can’t think of a better way to show your Guild pride than to back her up by promoting this work among your friends, followers, and fans! Consider it good practice for promoting your own work when the time comes.
I have mentioned before one sad reality in the amazing world of modern ‘communication’: the almost total lack of responsiveness among people who are completely overwhelmed by requests for action, calls to arms, pleas for help and manipulative coercion to buy. If we writers have one role in all this, could it be to encourage others to strengthen the capacity to respond? I believe so, and it’s why I write. How can we help people, through words, to struggle against the paralysis of response-ability?
Since persons are ordered to words, to The Word, I believe it is of the essence to remind one another gently that it is not enough to think up good actions, but we must also realize them. This begins with words. Speaking out truth – the Gospel message, the deadly reality of abortion, encouragement of an artist, begging for help, goosing others to respond – is the foundation of acting out truth, acting on truth.
I know people who don’t have the capacity to RSVP to a party invitation, to answer a letter, to say yes or no to a request for help, to speak up when their feelings are hurt, and yet think their spiritual life is in great shape. I put it to you that this lack of response-ability is a signal that something is wrong at a deeper level. If we are ‘word people’ then it may be our response-ability to put some hard truths into words that help others wake up.
What are you seeing, and how are you responding?? I’d really, actually like to know! Please comment here, or email to discuss this.
P.S. Remember my gifts to fellow Guild Members : Collection of Catholic Writers Guidelines, Collection of Catholic Conferences, Checklist: Promote You, Checklist: Promote Your Book
