Category Archives: Social Media

Theological Hour at Loyola School of Theology

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This morning I gave a talk during the “Theological Hour” at the Loyola School of Theology in Quezon City. The title of my talk was “Trending: #TheWord” and it was about how to effectively utilize social media for evangelization. The main aim of my hour-long presentation was to broaden the participants’ understanding of social media as well as to show them how they can best use social networking, visual storytelling and digital gaming to proclaim the Gospel to everyone. The audience consisted of students and faculty of the premiere Jesuit theology school. Take a look at the pics below and you’ll notice that they come from various parts of the globe. All photos were taken by Anthony Coloma, SJ.

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Prayer of Saint Francis (Reloaded)

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I wrote this prayer while preparing for a talk on using social media for evangelization. It is not an entirely new prayer as it is based on the traditional prayer of Saint Francis. I wanted to build on the Franciscan prayer as I wanted mine to be both traditional and modern, both familiar and fresh. The main idea behind this prayer is that in a world obssessed with sensationalism, wealth, enterntainment and individualism, every Christian is called to live a life rooted in simplicity, contemplation, authenticity, the desire to serve and other Gospel values.

PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS (RELOADED)

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is sensationalism, let me bring your truth
Where there is flaunting of wealth, your simplicity, Lord
And in the midst of noise, prayerful silence

Make me a channel of your peace
To those obsessed with entertainment , let me bring joy
To the vain and the greedy, your humility, Lord
And to the virtual world, authenticity

O Master grant that I may never seek
Quantity over quality
Individualism over solidarity
Anonymity over transparency

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in friending that we initiate dialogue
In networking that we create positive relations
And in the giving of self in love that we truly communicate

Guiding Principles for Digital Shepherding

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Many priests who actively maintain an account with Facebook and other social networking sites do so mainly for the purpose of shepherding their digital flock. One of the exciting things about social networking is that it has enabled priests to build stronger fellowship with the people entrusted to their care and to dialogue with them beyond the confines of space. Priestly ministry has never been this global.

Web-based social networking has now become an integral fabric of modern life. It is utterly impossible for today’s generation to imagine life without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks. In the context of pastoral ministry, this means that it is also utterly unacceptable for priests not to place social networking at the service of the Word. Continue reading →

6 Must-Have iPad Apps for Catholics

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Read books. Watch a movie. Play games. Compose music. What you can do with your iPad is almost limitless. According to the iPad’s official page, there are now more 65,000 apps for the 9.7-inch iOS device. As if that’s not enough, developers from all over the world submit more apps every single day. The more apps I install on my iPad, the more I am convinced that there is indeed an app for almost anything.

What interests me most are the apps that help people deepen their knowledge of God and practice their faith. I have downloaded, installed and tested many faith-based iPad apps for about a year now and I use some of them on a daily basis. Continue reading →

4 Free Androip Apps for Father’s Day

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There are many creative and fun ways to show your Dad some love this Father’s Day. You can go skydiving with him, create a podcast of his favorite songs, home-cook his favorite steak for him, or go to Mass with him and the rest of the family. And if you want to celebrate fatherhood with something digital, these free Android apps might help you put a smile on your Papa’s face. Continue reading →

How to Use Facebook for Evangelization

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Facebook now has more than 600 million users worldwide and that number will probably reach a billion in July 2012. That’s how big and popular Facebook has become. According to Socialbakers, in the Philippines alone, 24.7 million out of the 30 million Filipinos who have internet access have Facebook accounts. That’s 83.48 percent of the entire online population. Thus it is not an exaggeration to say that practically every Filipino who goes online is on Facebook. Continue reading →

Film and Sacraments

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Today I facilitated a workshop on “Film and Sacraments.” The main purpose of the day-long workshop was to teach participants how to use films to teach the seven Sacraments. As instructional tools, films help to focus on the nature, meaning and purpose of each of the seven Sacraments as well as provide pertinent points for discussion. Continue reading →

A Facebook User’s Prayer

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God Our Father,

Direct our lives that we may use Facebook to proclaim Your Word. Grant that our wall posts may serve as a source of inspiration and joy to our friends.

Guide us as we update our status and let all our comments be pleasing to You. Make us realize that we need to read the Bible more often than we check our news feed. May we find more time correcting our bad habits than editing our profile pics.

Lead us in Your wisdom that we may we be more concerned about following Your precepts than about the size of our friends list. May we poke others only because we want to show we care.

Deliver us from privacy problems, from spam applications and from the temptation to post other people’s images, ideas and videos without permission. Allow us to remain in an open relationship with You, to bear much fruit, and to give glory to Your name.

We ask all these through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.



This Week’s Featured Video and Links

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Starting today and henceforth, every Friday, I will feature videos and links that I think will be of interest to regular readers of my blog. And I encourage you to email me (stephencuyos@gmail.com) videos, links and whatnots that you think others might benefit from.

In this week’s roundup, we’ll find out what CBCP Cinema has to say about Shrek Forever After and why 10 European countries support Italy in defending the Crucifix. We will also take a look at the meaning of the names of Jesus’ disciples as well as their occupations. You might be interested to take advantage of the 90+ essential social media resources and 35 fesh free fonts for designers and developers.

  • Film Review: Shrek Forever After
    The film is a fitting farewell that has explored all the possibilities of Shrek’s hyper-narrative with branches of stories coming from various fairy tale inspirations. Shrek Forever After still has the old charm audiences fell in love with. Read more…
  • 10 European States Join Italy to Defend Crucifix
    The “crucifix trial” in the European Court of Human Rights has given rise to an unprecedented intervention of 10 member States as third parties. The European Centre for Law and Justice, which was also authorized to become a third party in the court hearing regarding the legitimacy of displaying crucifixes in Italian schools, reported today that ten other States will have this amicus curiae status in the “Lautsi vs. Italy” case. Read more…
  • Jesus’ Disciples Names: List, Meaning and Occupation
    The Greek word of Disciple is ‘mathetes‘ meaning ‘learner’ or ‘follower’. The word means accepting and following the views and practices of the teacher. Apart from a large following of people, Jesus chose twelve disciples during his earthly ministry. Read more…
  • 90+ Essential Social Media Resources
    Now you’ve gone and done it. You’ve come across a list so enormous, so useful, and so awesome, our futile attempts to describe it have been lost in the tubes of cyberspace. Read more…
  • 35 Fresh FreeFonts for Designers and Developers
    It’s essential for Designers to have a good understanding of typography and selection as the importance of typography in design can’t be neglected. The proper selection of typography can convert your normal design into attractive piece of art. Read more…

Featured Website: Faithful Catholic Girl

URL: http://www.faithfulcatholicgirl.blogspot.com/

“I’m 15 years old and I’m Catholic. I love my faith and I really want to share it, which is basically why I created this blog and my magazine (Faithful Magazine). I’m also totally Pro-life.”

Featured Video: Amazing Grace

Source: http://vimeo.com/4169677

The following video features real-life stories of ordinary people who have experienced God’s amazing grace.


Amazing Grace from David Tate on Vimeo.

A Webinar on New Media for Evangelization

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About a month ago I facilitated a webinar (online seminar) for Singaporean youth communicators. The title of my presentation was “Church 2.0 – New Media at the Service of the Word”. The main objective of the one-hour presentation was to teach participants how to take advantage of new media in proclaiming the Word of God. The participants gathered at the St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Singapore and I talked to them from Manila via Skype. It was my first time to do such an endeavor so it was kind of a milestone in my media ministry.

The Catholic News, the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore, recently featured the webinar in its website. Please click here to read the full article.