Friar Alfonso Dávila, from Madrid, shares his experience in the institutional communication of the Church and how, through patience, good cheer and hope, he has learned to transform his work into a testimony of faith.
Five years telling stories
I have been celebrating Social Communications Day for five years now as my own thing, as the feast of my work. In this time, dedicating a large part of my day and, above all, my sleepless nights to communication, I have learned many things. But perhaps one of the most important has been to learn patience, good cheer and hope.
Patience: trusting in God’s timing
Patience, because things in the palace go slowly; if it is episcopal, a little more, and if it is a provincial curia, a lot more – mindyou, this is a phrase I made up out of thin air… -.Even if things do not go as one plans or in the times one desires, I have learned not to forget to whom I am communicating: the Lord Jesus, the greatest Love, the Lord who made the sky and the stars. He knows better than I do about timing. I have learned to trust in his times and to know that, with patience, everything comes in its time.
Good cheer: communicating with joy
I learned this from Chiara Lubich: tolove always, immediately and joyfully. Communicating the things of God is not always easy; many times you don’t find the answers you expect. But remember: you communicate to the Lord, and He knows why things happen. You, always smile and do your best so that everything is done from the heart and with heart. There is more to be gained from a drop of honey than from hundreds of jars of gall, and it is better to smile than to live bitterly. The world needs joyful news, and to be able to tell it, we have to live that joy first.
Hope: Sowing light in the midst of darkness
Hope, this has been my great learning this year. It is true that the one who sends us – the Lord – and the wounded society in which we live need stories that give joy and hope. I am sure that the stories we tell today will be beacons of hope in the future. That is why our work is worthwhile.
The year I made profession, I read a letter of St. Thomas of Villanova addressed to the novices who were about to make profession. It was very beautiful and made me dream: I hope that someday some writing of mine can help others to have hope; to know that we have survived pandemics, earthquakes, floods, and we have not forgotten to smile or to do good or to share what we have.
I hope that someday a young communicator like me, in a moment of need, will come across this writing and know that it can be done: that it is necessary to have patience, good courage and hope.
Thank you
Thank you for being on the other side of the screen, for reading and sharing. God bless you from above, from where he watches over us with love.
Friar Alfonso Dávila
Madrid, 2025