(written in 2003)
Every corporation or business group has some kind of regular meeting or general chapter. Being a religious order, we the Daughters of St. Paul, are no exception. We are ready to respond to the ever-changing world because we have to be alert to the signs of the times and ready to take on for evangelization the "swiftest and most effective means which progress provides and the necessities and conditions of the times require."
With this goal in mind, we are eager to learn through various meetings and experiences. One example is the Asia and Australia Continental Meeting on the Apostolate and Administration. At the fourth meeting this year 44 participants gathered together from Australia, Japan, India, Korea, Macau/ Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Unfortunately, the Philippines and Pakistan couldn't join us because they were unable to obtain visas.
The theme of the meeting this year was "together we can carry out a daring mission." It was arranged to focus our apostolic work on the needs and expectations of our receivers so as to make appropriate choices with regard to content and adopt effective diffusion strategies. With humility of heart, joy, and pride in our mission, intelligent passion, and mutual love, we are doing our best to carry out a daring mission in this rapidly changing world.
Can you imagine what kind of topics we have studied and discussed in the meeting? Many would probably be surprised at hearing that we spoke about quite practical and worldly subjects such as "Evangelization through the media of social communications: the issues and concerns of the recipients of our mission in Asia", "The challenges for our mission in Asia", "The socio-economic situation of Asia and Australia", "Economic criteria for managing our Pauline publishing house", "The Pauline editor and the recipients of our mission in the thought of the founder", "Diffusion in the Pauline Apostolate," "Contemporary marketing and the Pauline mission", "The new strategies of distribution and marketing", "New dynamics of distribution" and "Administrative management of apostolic activities".
Being daughters of St. Paul, we try to go beyond boundaries as far as our apostolate is concerned. That's why we gathered together to dream, think and plan for the future. We are sometimes distressed by the challenges of our times and also by the urgent needs of recipients. Facing such challenges, we are looking for new ways, possibilities, and opportunities to be with people around the world.
In this spiritual and apostolic journey, St. Paul, an apostle of Gentiles, is the model for our lives. He had a passion for Jesus and people as well. Reading his epistles, we can learn to love Jesus with all our strength. His only goal was to be like Jesus, to live with a sacred heart. He was truly grafted to Christ and produced his fruits. With this apostolic passion for proclaiming the truth throughout the whole world, we are inspired to do the same for others.
Two attitudes we have to adopt were pointed out in the conclusion of our meeting; a process mentality, in other words, working with a way of thinking and acting in process or network, and collaboration among ourselves first and with other lay people as well. The involvement of all the sisters in the process of a daring mission is an essential step toward greater collaboration.
Our apostolic passion springs from a single source: love for God and love for humanity. Love for God completes us to let us communicate with him, and love for humanity prompts us to find the right languages and instruments to ensure that our message will reach everyone. Through creativity and faith, we are doing our best to adopt a new way of living and acting so as to respond to the needs of our receivers today.
That's why we are being conscious of two elements of the Pauline mission; one is our charismatic and apostolic aspect of spirituality, and the other is the structural, organizational, professional, and enterprising aspect of our apostolate. We can't neglect either responsibility. To guarantee the efficacy of our apostolate, we have to study and know something about production, diffusion, marketing strategies, management, administration, money, and competition, which is not easy at all.
In this manner we dedicate "our time, our energies, our very life to the cause of the Gospel; in fact, the mission is an essential element of our consecrated life." Our priority is to spread a message of inner power to make all people happy and joyful by means of social communication. We accomplish our mission by putting at the service of evangelization--press, films, the radio, television, records, cassette tapes, CDs, videos, the computer, the internet, mini-media, and all the inventions that progress makes available to human beings for communication. Come and visit 'Pauline!'
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ Sept. 16, 2003
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