Facebook “Friends”

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Sometimes I am invited by 'friends' on Facebook to read something they posted on their wall or occasionally I get notifications to add someone as a friend.  Some of these notifications come from 'friends' who already have hundreds  of other 'friends!'  

Today it seems there are lots of other ways in which we can count our friends.  In addition to our Facebook  friends some of us can also boast of having Followers on Twitter!  

Facebook and other New Media have opened up amazing possibilities for us to connect with one another.  To even consider people we have never met as friends.  

I wonder though whether we might not be letting the Social  Network determine who we are based on who we know or how many friends  we have or can count in our circle?

Being a Religious Sister is no guarantee that I will be different but my call to live a vowed life, to apostolic community and ministry, to fidelity to Dominican ideals and Gospel values will always challenge me to view friendship differently.  

Even as I view friends as gifts and blessings I must also guard against using them to satisfy some sort of quest for popularity, or a craving for attention or as one more to count and hoard.  Rather I want to count them as wonderful opportunities for me to serve, to love and to give.  Easter makes me ever conscious of what a friend we have in Jesus!

How do you regard your friends?

Gail Jagroop, OP
St. Joseph, Trinidad

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