The Gift of Communication

What is communication?  In my own life and our family’s journey, communication has been more of a struggle.  The very real impediments to being able to communicate properly, however, has  granted us the gift of slowing down to learn about and see the beauty of rightly ordered communication.  The definitions of communication - which closely resemble the definitions of education - are quite interesting to ponder if you have a moment to look them up, but the one that most resonated with me recently was: “to open into each other.” (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, 1997)

Recently, at an all School Mass, Bishop Strickland brought attention to the simple yet profound lesson: "Words Matter!"  Communication is such an essential and powerful part of life.  It is essential for our life with God.  I think it may have been St. Teresa of Avila that said prayer is to the soul what air is to the lungs.  We can find so much on prayer from the saints imploring us to seek and find this great way.  It should come as no surprise to us then that communication with God opens up His Life in us!  

Beautiful communication is also essential for strong marriages, families, communities, and our world!  It allows relationships to grow and communities to flourish.  Proper communication with one another shows the great dignity and respect that we have towards another person.  We can show one another how important that person is to us by how we communicate with them and about them.  God gave us such a great gift indeed in communication!

Communication also aides us in partaking in the fullness of the Life of the Church - God’s Salvific and Sanctifying Power and Authority.  We can express our sins in the Sacrament of Confession and receive the most amazing experience and power of Jesus’ absolution through His Priest’s words.  We can continue to learn about and express the richness and treasures in all of God’s Sacraments through the communication that came all the way down from the Apostles to this day.  Finally we express our solemn and humble assent to all the truths of the Faith; we link up with the great Saints of the past and future - uniting in one common conscience and life with all the Church and its Mystical Body - when we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in the precious gift and reception of Holy Communion - a seemingly simple and brief act, but one that holds a weight beyond any value or comparison.

As much as communication can be beautiful, we also know that communication and therefore relationships can unfortunately be hampered.  On a spiritual level, sin - like the Tower of Babble - gravely obstructs our communication and relationship with God and one another.   Again, citing Bishop Strickland in his recent talk at the Defending Our Faith Conference, sin and rampant mendacity can debilitate us and our communities.   Truths of the Faith coming from the Apostles and early Church Fathers can eventually be lost if we do not seek to and actively preserve and  treasure them.  We must as a Church and in our families continue to communicate them to our children and their children - continually opening these treasures for all.

On a natural level, there are many things that can also impede communication.  Physical and mental impairments can make this a real daily struggle.  We have all heard of Hellen Keller and her story.  The secondary language that developed from her great teacher - sign-language and then braille - is remarkable and has opened up the world for people with similar physical disabilities.

Almost 40 years ago now a speech pathologist in Australia, Gayle Porter, began to understand that there is still much work to do!  There are individuals with cross-categorical impairments - severe to profound sensory and developmental difficulties.  For these individuals sign-language, braille, and more do not adequately aide their needs.   As Gayle Porter, Claire Cotter, and Linda Burkhart - to name a few pioneers - took the time with each precious individual, PODD communication was developed.  It is a beautiful language that can be taught to any person.  In taking the time to learn, teach, and use PODD, we are opening up a whole new life of relationships and community for individuals that are often isolated from this.  We know from our Faith that it is often in the hidden, quiet moments where the greatest of God’s treasures and communications can be found.  It should not be a surprise to us, then, that in these quiet individuals with special needs there are exceptional abilities or God’s great lessons to be found.  They have important things to communicate - things that we all will be better for having quietly listened to and heard!

We hope to share or open this new life with all communities and our church.  We hope it will be understood that these individuals have important things to communicate to our church and world at this moment in history - that they are true treasures for our Church.  We hope to also aide these individuals and their families to be able to enter more fully into the great Sacramental Life and Mission of the Church.  Each life is so essential.  The Sacraments are essential for each and every soul.  Every individual can have important things from God to communicate to the world!  Let us begin!

+ St. Gabriel, Archangel of Mercy and Communication of God’s Word to man, please pray for us that we and our church may give a place to these little ones among us and allow them to communicate His Truths to us, and to be all that He created them to be - conduits, educators, and leaders of the paradoxes and beauty of our Faith - opening up the great Life and Truth of the Cross and His unfathomable Mercy - for our church and world today.