The Australian catholic website XT3 has a suggestion that could apply to all of us…

Ahead of this year’s World Communications Day (25 May in Australia & 1 June around the world), Xt3 has teamed up with Catholic Talk and we are inviting you take up Pope Francis’ challenge to use your online connections to have an experience of “True Encounter”. How?

1. Follow “Catholic Talk” on Facebook and Twitter

2. Turn a virtual interaction into something practical.  For example:

• After you ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ a friend’s post, call him/her and ask how they are.
• Instead of ‘sharing’ a cause on Facebook, write a letter to a politician or give a generous donation to practically support that cause.
• Use Facebook to invite one or more of your online connections out for a coffee.
• Think about someone who you know who doesn’t have Facebook or Twitter and go and visit them.
• ‘Accept’ an invitation to a Catholic event, and actually show up!
• Or another idea that you can come up with…

3. Share a photo, or tell us how you responded to this challenge, by using the hashtag #TrueEncounter

“It is not enough to be passersby on the digital highways, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters. We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and to be loved. We need tenderness.”

– Pope Francis, Message for World Communications Day 2014