1st Recipe: Spaghetti alla carbonara
At this time more than ever, the events we are experiencing generate anxiety, anticipation of negative sense of helplessness, almost the impossibility of a better future. We are bombarded by a hypnotic communication, made up of repetitive, invasive, and often manipulative messages; and the tool of manipulation is fear.
The use of technology and the pandemic have animated a revolution in everyone’s life, a process of radical change. This change affects not only the world of work, but different social spheres that find gratification or frustration in work. Communication has taken over reality by conditioning everyday life, from relationships to the organization of the day and we fail to fully understand how much this phenomenon has global repercussions.
The Church supports considerable efforts and continuous refinements to promote “good communication.” Despite this effort, however, it has not been a sufficiently incisive voice for consciences, it has not reached the human heart. Men and women today are alone. Catholics are slow to understand the need to overcome the fragility of our communication, especially at this time: we have missed precious opportunities to live fully and in an engaging the process of humanization that brings with it consolation, relief, respite.
In this ocean of communication, it becomes increasingly important, and I would say now urgent, to know how to listen and consequently be authentic and credible communicators for the common good. We cannot stubbornly proceed using an obsolete methodology; the world has totally changed, society is totally different, and we have a duty to adapt our message to the needs expressed by the people of our time.
Looking forward to the Assembly of the Missionary Servants of the Poor to be held in Rome at the Casa General of Torre Gaia, from Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 we will be able to discuss the various topics necessary for the improvement of the Congregation’s Communication. A section is planned that will address the topic through a path that can make communication, a more pleasant working tool and a valuable support for Your mission.
We will try to publish every 15 days, from June 15 to August 30, 2022, articles that can arouse curiosity and interest about communication; we will give useful notions and try to render an informative service on how to deal with Communication today.
Communicating always involves risks; communicating one’s faith necessarily requires the courage to put oneself fully on the line and to accept failure and restart, in order to be consistent and faithful witnesses. Neighbors in empathy, true missionaries of charity.
We posed some questions that we suggest:
1. Is it possible to form a new mentality of communication that responds to the needs of man today, that can listen to him, understand him and help him express himself in a language that is current and understandable to all?
2. Is it possible to become men and women capable of orienting themselves in the society “defined as liquid,” and to move on different fronts, devoting themselves carefully and flexibly to change constantly?
3. Is it possible to achieve authentic, free communication, the result of trials, failures, of effort, of waiting, of searching, with the conviction that the Gospel message is clear, but our our communication may not be and reduce the effectiveness of that message?
Do these three questions above, belong to our communication style or are they considered a value to be invested in in the future, for the formation of the younger generation to an ownership of communication?
Let us ask ourselves what the level of our knowledge is, whether it still allows us to be incisive or reinforces the conviction that we already are with fruit, or, if after complaining about the lack of vocations in the increasingly empty Churches, we are unable to see the distance growing Church from the problems that society is experiencing.
What does it mean to communicate?
What does my communication look like?
How am I perceived by my listeners?
Communication is a process of interaction that cannot be considered as a one-way phenomenon, proceeding from speaker to listener.
We are constantly in relationship with others, but we often fail to communicate, i.e., we cannot manage to make ourselves understood, nor to understand the other person.
The first reason this happens is that people may very well say something, but actually want to express something else.
Second, the primary need in communication is to be understood and therefore each interlocutor has the same expectations. It may sound strange to you, but to be understood one must understand the other person and therefore, paradoxically, if you do not understand the other person, you cannot make yourself understood. Of course, it is legitimate to ask to be understood, but it is not so legitimate to demand that the other understands us. The most common mistake that prevents effective communication is to take it to assumed that what we say will achieve the desired effect.
The proof is the recipe for carbonara try your hand at buying the ingredients, assembling them following the recipe directions tasting and offering the “Carbonara” listen to the judgments … observe the reactions … it’s communication.
INGREDIENTS for 4 PEOPLE
– Spaghetti 280 gr.
– Guanciale 200 gr.
– Whole egg 1
– Yolks 3
– Pecorino Romano DOP120 gr.
– Pepper to taste
PROCEDURE
Boil plenty of salted water and in the meantime that you put the spaghetti on to cook, start prepare the sauce for the pasta carbonara.
Dice the guanciale (pork Jawl) and brown it in a frying pan, as soon as it takes color remove the fat, but remember to set aside a small amount, you will need it later.
In a bowl beat one whole egg and the three yolks, add the small amount of fat from the guanciale that you had set aside, it will help give softness to the dressing, and mix it well. To the mixture you get, add the grated Pecorino Romano DOP and plenty of pepper
freshly ground, mix well.
Drain the spaghetti al dente, put them in the pan where the guanciale is, add the rest of the mixture and mix vigorously with the heat off.
Plate and serve the pasta carbonara with guanciale and pecorino accompanied by a good glass of red wine, to consolidate friendships and find new alliances.
Massimo Ilardo
