Friday, July 13, 2018

Marketing spiritual services


IT is not, of course, a matter of indulging in commercialization of
things spiritual and of religion and piety. That would be simony, a no
no. But given the temper of the times, I think we need to be more
pro-active in promoting the spiritual services, such as the sacraments
and others like spiritual counselling and spiritual direction. We have
to make people understand that they need them badly.
  
Truth is of all the things that we most need, I believe the spiritual
things, the very means of our sanctification and of developing a
lifestyle that would lead us to our eternal life, should rank first.
  
As such, they should not be confined to some restricted and confined
means of promoting them, like just depending on some word of mouth and
putting some notices on bulletin boards of churches, etc. In fact, we
cannot anymore depend solely on homilies to do this. These spiritual
services can and should be more visible and audible in the media also.
  
I am sure we can generate a lot of interest for them. With many people
entangled if not sunk in complicated situations and predicaments, they
will soon realize that there are other very effective ways of tackling
them other than the usual material means, like pills, food
supplements, exercises, etc.
  
We cannot deny that many people are stuck with bad habits, vices and
all kinds of addiction--from alcohol to drugs to sex to the Internet
to games, etc., etc. Self-abuse, pre- and extra-marital sex are
rampant. Corruption, greed, deception in high places are now into
epidemic proportions. Cases of depression and mental illness are
increasing at a frightening rate.
  
I must say that there is a very big market out there of people who
would be highly benefited if given the appropriate spiritual services.
The spiritual services, like the sacraments of confession and the Holy
Eucharist, spiritual direction and counselling, etc., can actually
offer remedies and relief that attend more to the more important
constituent of our nature, which is our spiritual soul. If people only
know the effectiveness of these spiritual services!
  
Of course, we have to make everyone understand the priority that the
care of our spiritual soul has over that of our physical body, without
ever disparaging the importance of the latter. It is in the state of
our spiritual soul where the ultimate quality of our life is actually
determined. This is actually a point that needs to be explained more.
  
We need to do a lot of advertising the benefits of the spiritual
services, slowly but steadily explaining the details of the benefits
involved. And we can do this by making use of the usual means of
advertising, like making commercials for radio, TV and even online.
There is now a lot of marketing being done online.
  
Let us hope that we can count on competent people to do this. The
clergy should lead the way, but the laypeople can and should be highly
involved in this job. With their exposure to the real world and their
creativity, many laypeople can be most effective in this department.
  
Yes, appropriate gimmicks, slogans and the so-called “hugot” lines can
be used--anything that can legitimately grab the attention of the
people. Of course, we should not forget the traditional means of
promoting these spiritual services, but neither should we be stuck
with them.
  
Times have changed, and there are people who do not feel at home
anymore with the old traditional means. We need to adapt to the times.
We may have to do some changing of attitudes and acquiring new skills
for this purpose.
  
Let’s hope that the spiritual services can be made mainstream in the
world of media!



No comments: