PASAY CITY – Around 30 Daughters of St Paul working in the various fields of the communications media learnt to “tame their dragons” at their fifth Pauline Media Practitioners Assembly May 6-8, 2013 at the Paulines Communication Centre (PCC).
Themed “Managing Relationships” the assembly was facilitated by Sr Consolata Manding fsp, Directress of the Paulines Institute for Communication in Asia (PICA) Foundation. She used two movies: How To Tame Your Dragon and The King’s Speech to illustrate her presentations.
Prior to the movies shown, the participants were given time to reflect on their relationships with self, community, apostolate and pastoral involvement. They were then divided into eight groups by number of years in the convent – the youngest, 15 years; the oldest, 56 years – for sharing of insights and experiences.
From Sr. Consolata’s talk on analyzing the communication process, the participants learned that both listening (with mind, heart and will) and speaking (manner, tone, expression, body language) are equally important in establishing and maintaining good relationships within and outside the community.
The two movies were shown as case studies. From How to Tame Your Dragon, a viking boy learns to befriend a dragon after trying to kill it. The dragon represents the violence or negative energies in us that we are afraid of, run away from by all means or try to kill at all costs. We, too, must learn to befriend our own dragons and put them into good use.
From The King’s Speech, Bertie (George V) learns to overcome his speech defect with the help of a speech therapist and the encouragement of his wife. The participants looked into their deficiencies in the context of relationships. Normal, cordial, respectful and friendly relationships are prerequisite to carry out the Pauline mission.
“The process of being effective,” Sr Consolata said, “requires good relationship. To be efficient also requires good relationship. Our manner of handling our relationships will either support or hinder our mission. Our credibility as witnesses of God’s love is shown in our dealing, interacting, negotiating, talking and listening.”
On the third and last day, the participants welcomed Atty Eugenio H. Villareal, MTRCB chairman, and his staff. Villareal explained the scope and functions of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) which was created under Presidential Decree No 1986. He also touched on the MTRCB Rating System and the duties and functions of the Local Regulatory Council (LRC). Following an open forum, Villareal handed out LRC cards to the participants, after which they had the oath-taking as LRC members.
The participants agreed to meet in April next year in a venue yet to be decided.
By: Sr Anna Yap, fsp
