austraLasia 1257
A Salesian Blog worth seeing - and a new approach to sharing spirituality
SIHANOUKVILLE: 23rd September 2005 -- A blog from Sihanoukville? And what is a blog anyway? The second question needs answering before the first, and if 'seeing is believing', then following the given link will largely answer the first anyway! But given the increasing number who are asking for a definition/description of a blog, the one indicated here is as good as you can get to support the answer that follows.
If you have been following the Rector Major's 'open forum' discussions as reported in these pages, whenever he visits a province or region, you will have noted his regular insistence on the sharing of our faith, confrere to confrere, and especially in the context of 'the community'. Now blogging can be a contemporary form of this sharing, since it is essentially an online diary. Of its very nature it is not meant to be the kind of journalling hidden in a book to be discovered after death. It is meant to be read, shared, even responded to. Of course blogging (a word derived from a longer form, 'web-log' or a record kept online, then shortened to 'blog') is as open to all the negative uses you can imagine, but when used as a plain channel for shared reflection, along with a modicum of writing ability and a bit of taste, it takes on a distinct beauty.
Enter, at this point, one Salesian missionary, Fr Gerard Ravasco, Salesian missionary to Cambodia. In the journalist's business, they say that personal stories attract readers. You cannot help but be attracted by this particular example of blogging. It wasn't easy at Poipet, where he had to rely on internet cafes to keep up any online contact. But in Sihanoukville, at the Don Bosco Technical School there, he has 24/7 online capacity, which in plain language means they are always connected, if electricty and phones are working.
Our good missionary puts up regular reflections under the general title of 'journey'. It's his journey, but it can be ours too, and there's a sense of privilege from the moment you open the site; privilege that you are entering into where aesthetics, simplicity and faith have created a place, not just a space, in this case a little online home, parish, school....you know the sort of thing I am driving at.
Now I'm sure Gerard (he calls himself Gigi to friends), isn't Albert Einstein, despite the 'photo' in his complete profile, but he does have his MCP or Microsoft Certified Professional [certificate] and that must help, in this blogging business. But you should also read his blog entry on that too, since it is an insight into a man who is prepared to gvie things another go. If at first you don't succeed....
Really there's nothing more to say. Just go there and see for yourself....and believe that this is, well, really something.
___________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml If you subscribe, email this information and your name will come off the regular email list. RSS eliminates problems such as multiple mailings, viruses, email bloat. Think about it!
A Salesian Blog worth seeing - and a new approach to sharing spirituality
SIHANOUKVILLE: 23rd September 2005 -- A blog from Sihanoukville? And what is a blog anyway? The second question needs answering before the first, and if 'seeing is believing', then following the given link will largely answer the first anyway! But given the increasing number who are asking for a definition/description of a blog, the one indicated here is as good as you can get to support the answer that follows.
If you have been following the Rector Major's 'open forum' discussions as reported in these pages, whenever he visits a province or region, you will have noted his regular insistence on the sharing of our faith, confrere to confrere, and especially in the context of 'the community'. Now blogging can be a contemporary form of this sharing, since it is essentially an online diary. Of its very nature it is not meant to be the kind of journalling hidden in a book to be discovered after death. It is meant to be read, shared, even responded to. Of course blogging (a word derived from a longer form, 'web-log' or a record kept online, then shortened to 'blog') is as open to all the negative uses you can imagine, but when used as a plain channel for shared reflection, along with a modicum of writing ability and a bit of taste, it takes on a distinct beauty.
Enter, at this point, one Salesian missionary, Fr Gerard Ravasco, Salesian missionary to Cambodia. In the journalist's business, they say that personal stories attract readers. You cannot help but be attracted by this particular example of blogging. It wasn't easy at Poipet, where he had to rely on internet cafes to keep up any online contact. But in Sihanoukville, at the Don Bosco Technical School there, he has 24/7 online capacity, which in plain language means they are always connected, if electricty and phones are working.
Our good missionary puts up regular reflections under the general title of 'journey'. It's his journey, but it can be ours too, and there's a sense of privilege from the moment you open the site; privilege that you are entering into where aesthetics, simplicity and faith have created a place, not just a space, in this case a little online home, parish, school....you know the sort of thing I am driving at.
Now I'm sure Gerard (he calls himself Gigi to friends), isn't Albert Einstein, despite the 'photo' in his complete profile, but he does have his MCP or Microsoft Certified Professional [certificate] and that must help, in this blogging business. But you should also read his blog entry on that too, since it is an insight into a man who is prepared to gvie things another go. If at first you don't succeed....
Really there's nothing more to say. Just go there and see for yourself....and believe that this is, well, really something.
___________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml If you subscribe, email this information and your name will come off the regular email list. RSS eliminates problems such as multiple mailings, viruses, email bloat. Think about it!
