6, 13, 20, 27 February; 6 & 13 March 2014
Thursdays 09:30-12:00 - At The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas
With Rev. Stephen Rehrauer, CSsR* & Veronika Baur**
The prevalence of the mass media in our daily lives has a major impact upon how we think and feel about important moral and spiritual questions. Our thoughts and feelings are both informed and challenged by what we see others doing and hear others saying. Some of these are sources of inspiration to deeper faith and meaning. Others offer suggestions about the proper way of responding to life's more difficult challenges.
In this program we will critically examine a variety of images and scenes from films and television programs, lyrics from popular songs, and other sources all drawn from the contemporary mass media, in order to identify and understand the messages about life and models of choice and behaviour that are being communicated in narrative form.
*Rev. Stephen Rehrauer, C.Ss.R., (Associate Professor of Moral Theology at the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome) will start each morning with a 15 minute orientation about how diverse genres code specific messages about moral issues, then we will together examine the media content itself with an eye toward what is being communicated – what solutions to problems are being offered, value systems, forms of decision making, etc.), Time for discussion will follow concerning whether we believe the message being communicated is in harmony with Christian values and discernment and how we should respond to what we are being fed by the media. Fr. Rehrauer will conclude with a 10 minute recap tying everything together. One session would focus primarily on film, another on television programming, another on popular music, news commentary programs, and if time perhaps even theatre or printed media and advertisement, to show how entertainment and morality have become seriously entwined in contemporary life.
**In one of the six sessions, on February 27, Ms. Veronika Baur, doctoral candidate at the Pontifical Gregorian University, will be looking at  "Decision-making. When St. Ignatius goes to the Movies...". Illustrated by various movie scenes we will reflect together on typical situations of a decision-making process and enter into a dialogue with St. Ignatius' Discernment of the Spirits.
Each Thursday morning starts at 09:30 and concludes at noon, includes two 45 minute sessions with a coffee break in between, followed by Mass at 11:20.
If you would like to sign up for this program please email info@laycentre.org or tel. 06.7726761