Last week I was blessed to be invited as a Dominican Associate to a gathering with our local religious sisters from the various orders to listen to Sr Mary Pellegrino CSJ from Baden, Pennsylvania. Sr Mary invited us into reflection while delivering her presentation titled “Prophetic Witness - Prophetic Communities tell the truth, grieve and express hope”.
Sr Mary took us on a journey. As a group of religious sisters and associates we were invited to contemplate on and discuss aspects of:
- Telling the truth in a society that lives in illusion
- To grieve in a society that practices denial
- Express hope in a society that lives in despair
What struck me was the concerns Sr Mary focused on were similar to those raised in the recently released Social Justice Statement, Truth and Peace, A Gospel Word in a Violent World.
During group discussions many people raised the issue of the impact of AI on society. This led me to explore some of the direct influences of AI technology at a micro level of our everyday human existence. What I discovered was that digital platforms are part of what is being coined as attention economy and this can relate directly to displacement of lifestyle behaviours. In the attention economy your attention is the product and clients, who are typically advertisers, pay for this product. It is in the best interest of service providers to get as much of your attention as possible, this means that digital environments are designed to promote what's being called extended non-deliberative engagement. This basically means digital environments are designed to keep you there for a long time without you thinking about what you're doing or why you're doing it. Have you noticed that mini-series on streaming services automatically play the next episode encouraging you to binge watch the whole series at once? Algorithms pick up on time you spend viewing something online and fill your feed with similar content enticing you to spend your money on just about anything. While we all have freedom to make choices it is becoming progressively more difficult to discern if our choices are being manipulated and controlled, which makes us question what is the truth. The Social Justice Statement raises the point, ‘Artificial Intelligence adds a very powerful new tool to the kit of those who want to spread disinformation, allowing them to generate photographs, videos and audio messages which mislead and deceive’. p.4. The quietness of manipulation is permeating through anything related to technology which weaves itself into human reality. We are fed propaganda with every news station we tune into, and it all depends on the ideology held by the owner of the company to determine which points of view we are fed.
Pope Francis said nine years ago “We are not living an era of change but a change of era”. Sr Mary highlighted for attendees that about every 500 years the world goes through some massive changes. I think we are in the mix of this change now. While times are turbulent and truth is distorted, to remain centred we must endeavour to find peace. Sr Mary enlightened us with two opposing concepts to conclude the day, Force of Empire and Fostering Neighbourliness. Like the Social Justice statement, the two concepts are truth and peace. ‘The making of peace is a great task for humanity. It is a work to be done, an art to be learnt and practised. But the fulness of peace can come only as revelation, a gift from the God who wants to give it but who will not force it upon us. God wants to work with us in the making of peace and waits for us to say yes to the gift.’ p.10.
The Social Justice Statement provides some simple ways we can find peace, the first two are:
‘Start with yourself. Invite God to nurture peace in your heart. Examining the things that happened over the course of your day when you pray before bedtime is a good practice. Ask yourself how you responded to conflicts. Did you reach out in friendship and love to others, show kindness or offer or receive forgiveness? Ask God for the grace to make peace in your life.’ p.11.
The statement also encourages us all to be peacemakers, act small but think big, to act locally but think globally.
One way we can start to be peacemakers is to ensure we are at peace within ourselves first and develop good relationships with others and foster neighbourliness.
There are several opportunities that we invite you to which we hope you will find peace and foster a spirit of neighbourliness.
Formation Friday will be held at the Library on Friday 6 September from 1pm, this month’s focus is on The Season of Creation. To register go to: https://forms.office.com/r/U0q0qUp4JQ
Formation Films featuring ‘The Tree of Life’ will be held on Saturday 7 September (lunch provided). To register go to: https://forms.office.com/r/GbNTPA2DWt
This coming weekend you are welcome to join us on the aMeN caMiNo weekend retreat at the Myall Coast. For more information go to: https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/church-mission/catholic-life/faith-formation/amen-camino/
The Art and Spirituality Day will be held on Friday 13 September at Kilaben Bay for more information go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/myevent?eid=808605269127
If you are interested in learning more about the Social Justice Statement you are invited to online Zoom discussion on Wednesday 4 September to register go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/truth-and-peace-exploring-the-social-justice-statement-tickets-991438247487?aff=oddtdtcreator
Follow mnnews.today on Facebook.