How shall we tell our stories in the age when traditional and new media converge are creating new languages that in turn create new networks, communities and contested discourse? What are the key elements to craft our stories and to mediate those produced by the culture? I will highlight examples of image and sound from popular cinema, YouTube and other sources, in order to enhance and expand our understanding of the heart of story telling in a noisy world that is competing for our attention.

1. The Heart
of the Story
Rose Pacatte, FSP
Pauline Center for Media Studies
PaulineCMS.com
Slideshare.net/rosepacatte

3. What was the last one you
saw that impressed you?

4. The glory of God is the
human person fully alive
• http://youtu.be/lNBhwTUZVe4
• Babies playing with rubber hands

5. • Jesus told parables, stories about something else to
make a point about some truth or reality.
• What holds us back from doing the same?
• Take a moment. Close your eyes. Can you think of a
parable about your own life? Your vocation story.
• What is a visual that represents your life thus far?
• Make a note of that on your iPhone or devise. When
you get a chance, share it with your friends on social
media – if you wish

6. SILENCE
What you are doing
is so noisy
I cannot hear
what you are saying.

7. Stories are facets of grace
let loose in the world
Katy Perry and Jodi singing “Fireworks”

8. The shortest distance
between the truth and
the human person is a
story
Anthony de Mello

9. Storytelling
makes people thrive
in a series of endless holy
moments
“The Sultan’s Wife”Angela Carter (1940-1992; as quoted by Marina
Warner in From the Beast to the Blonde: Fairytales and Their Tellers,
1994, xi

10. Storytelling
The history of grace within
the heart of the world

11. Sacramentality of film:
Makes visible invisible
realities

12. Revelation
God’s loving self-communication

13. We know God when God
communicates
• The self-communication of God is
transcendent.
• It transcends all of the tangible means in
history by which we have known God, such as
holy people, places, and things.
• God cannot be contained by them.
• If not, then how do we know God? We know
God when God communicates, that is, gives to
us the divine self.

14. Gift & Forgiveness
• The gift takes place in the human being, the
person who is the "event" of God's call.
• When God gives people a share in the divine
self, God not only frees them to respond.
• God also offers forgiveness.
• God forgives in the ever-renewed offer of a
relationship with God. (Karl Rahner)

15. The Trinity:
Communio
“Through the
contemplation of
this icon we come
to see with our
inner eyes that all
engagements in
this world can bear
fruit only when
they take place
within this divine
circle.”
(Nouwen, Henri J. M. Behold the
Beauty of the Lord: Praying with
Icons. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave
Maria Press, 1987.)
By: Andrei Rublev

16. And all things are
made new again
“One might say that the first pastoral plan in
communication was Creation, the second
was Revelation, the third was Incarnation, but
the fourth pastoral plan involves
evangelization: how to communicate the
significance of Creation, the richness of
Revelation, and the tremendous reality of the
Incarnation….”
Cardinal John P. Foley (Pastoral Planning for Social Communication, ed.
Sunderaj, 1998, Montreal)

17. Speaking of revelation:
Exodus: Gods and Kings

18. A story’s beginning
• http://youtu.be/xtE0SyqIdFI
• Little boy upset to learn mom’s news

19. Introducing Liz Dunbar, our
first vocation from

20. Sometimes it’s not what it
seems
• http://youtu.be/v76f6KPSJ2w
• Apple Christmas Commercial

21. Eat Pray Love? Alas
• http://youtu.be/mjay5vgIwt4
• Trailer

22. Hearing the voice of God on
the bathroom floor

23. Grace

24. Storytelling reveals
meaning without
committing the error of
defining it.
Hannah Arendt

25. Joe vs the Volcano & the
stories we hear
• http://youtu.be/A9lceeNQMwk
• Trailer

26. The Missing: An Encounter
• Five People You Will Meet in Heaven
• A Journal
• Self knowledge

27. Elements for Storytelling
• Imagination: moral, spiritual, religious
• Really living
• Humor
• Brevity
• Passion
• Premise: God’s loving self-communication in the
world.

28. Why?
• Vocations? It’s starting
• Funders are increasingly coming from the web
• Sharing the heart for no reason other than to
share the joy and passion of religious life:
• You have to give away something for free without
expectation of gain – even for a good cause.

29. Be organized
• W, W, W, W, H, Why?
• Review current practices
• Revise as necessary
• Give people a reason to return to your website
• Brevity
• Good writing
• Articulate your vision your story (story board as the
organizational tool)
• Budget, fund raising

30. The Personal
• We are all watching something on TV – what is it?
• Many of us are online – what are we
communicating?
• As a community, how do we process the
entertainment and information media we
consume?
• Intentionality
• Discernment

31. Before and after you watch,
play, create, post ….
?

32. Cinema Divina
annual retreats
• 7 - 8 days
• Films on six days
• Silent
• Directed (or not)
• Informal conversation after each film
• Liturgy

33. Why? To experience the
ineffable
• http://youtu.be/nhQzn2gVGjQ
• Of Gods and Men Swan Lake or scene “Allow a
free man to pass”

34. The Cinema Divina format follows that
of the lectio:
• Lectio (attending; listening; experiencing the
Word of God in the film; not always as an explicit
“word” but as “reality”; what did I hear,
experience? What is the story?)
• Meditatio (reflecting on the film and the Word of
God; what aspect of the Gospel and film “chose
me”?)
• Oratio (prayer; how has the Word touched my

35. Cinema Divina: Lectio
• Comunio (how has the Word influenced my
communication, my communion, with God and
neighbor?)
• Contemplatio (contemplation; entering into the
silence)
• Actio (what does God ask of me through Word and
film?) The participants sharing on the film can respond
to any of the questions above; a person may remain
silent.

36. Sewing Hope
• http://youtu.be/hUbGD6waqvs

37. “The cinema has always been
interested in God” – Andre’ Bazin

39. Christ has no online presence but yours
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this
world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is
shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is
revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.
(© Meredith Gould based on the prayer of
Teresa of Avila)

40. Resources
SisterRoseHomePage.com
SisterRoseMovies.net
Pauline.org