Thanks to all of you who let me know you were pleased to receive the links to the Synod Retreat. Below, you will see the official Synod Prayer, and Sessions 5 and 6 of the Retreat.
I have also included, at the end, Pope Francis’s response to a questioning letter sent to him by five retired conservative Cardinals, Walter Brandmüller and Raymond Leo Burke supported by three other Cardinals, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, Robert Sarah, and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun. On the threshold of this momentous gathering, the men’s questions express their fears rather than their hopes for the Church, and attempt to limit the dynamism of the Synod solely to specific moral and doctrinal concerns. Their letter and questions may confuse and distract people from the real power and purpose of a synod. I found Pope Francis’s thoughtful, pastoral, and eloquent response most inspiring.
Last night, I fell asleep reading a passably written book with a yet undisclosed mystery. I wanted to solve that mystery before sleeping, but Sandman prevailed. This morning, which I consider the most precious time of my day, I was tempted to pick up that book and satisfy my curiosity.
Then I said to myself, “What are you doing! This time belongs to the Holy Spirit.” So I picked up instead one of the beautiful reflections from the Synod Retreat.
As many of you know, the Synod on Synodality has begun in Rome. Currently, the invited participants are on a short retreat to prepare their hearts, minds, and spirits for the sessions which open on October 4 – the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
The retreat is being offered by Dominican Friar and former Master of the Order of Preachers, Father Timothy Radcliffe, and is available on the internet.
In my own prayer, I have been following the sessions and have found them deeply enriching. The session I prayed with today (meditation 3) particularly touched me.
I thought some of you might like to benefit from these sessions. They are rich, direct, and profoundly simple with the deep simplicity of holiness. Certainly, they bear directly on the Synod itself, but they are universal in their wisdom and inspiration.
If you are not already familiar with the Vatican News website, I have included links to the sessions below. Even if you don’t have time now, the message they convey is timeless. You might like to access them some time at your leisure. But maybe, like me this morning, you might choose to use your current leisure for one of these transformative sessions instead of a middling book or a game of Candy Crush.
In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.
Ovid (Ovid a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He is most famous for the Metamorphoses, one of the most important sources of classical mythology today.)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, with passages from Numbers and Deuteronomy, we begin a week and a half of readings that complete our scriptural journey through the Pentateuch.
The Book of Numbers, so named because of the two censuses within it, draws the Exodus journey to a close. The people are nearly at the edge of the Promised Land – but not yet. They are tired and frustrated and they let Moses know it:
The children of Israel lamented, “Would that we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna.”
“Not Yet” is one of the hardest times in a journey. Driving from Philly to Knoxville to visit my family, I marveled at how the last two hours seemed so much longer than the eight which had preceded them! If there are kids in the car, the point is painfully driven home:
Are we there yet? x 1000!= Frustration
In today’s reading, the Israelites frustrate Moses with their “Are we there yet” attitude. Moses begs God to give him a break because his leadership is crumbling in the hungry unrest of the people:
“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the LORD. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who conceived all this people? Or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Numbers 11:11-12
A core message from today’s Numbers passage is that the people need to be “fed” or they will not continue on the journey. Jesus acknowledges this universal fact in today’s Gospel. The story recounts the miracle of a physical feeding of the crowds, but the real miracle is the resuscitation of their faith because they witness the power of God in Christ.
We, individually and as a Church, need to be fed in order to continue our journey of faith. It is important for each of us to build into our lives those practices which will nourish our faith and spirituality: reflective prayer, enlivening spiritual reading, and merciful service. It is also critical for us to assess the kind of communal nourishment we receive within our faith communities and, where that nourishment is lacking, to acknowledge distress and seek alternatives as the hungry Israelites did in the desert.
Recently I was with a group of deeply faithful Christians where this shocking phrase was spoken and acknowledged: “The Catholic Church is dead“. What the phrase connotes is that, in light of the clerical abuse and other institutional scandals, coupled with the absence of inspirational Church leadership, many Catholics are starving for nourishment on the journey. Clearly, the same may be said of other Christian Churches.
To varying degrees, we may be familiar with the Synod 2021-24 initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021.
The word synod comes from the Greek: σύνοδος [ˈsinoðos], meaning “assembly” or “meeting”; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium meaning “council”.
The word synod comes from the Greek meaning “assembly” or “meeting”; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium meaning “council”.
Traditionally, we are familiar with such gatherings being constituted primarily by the hierarchy of the Church. Synod 2021-24 is different.
The Synod on Synodality represents a new and exciting phase in the life of the Church. This phase deepens the ecclesiology of the People of God developed at the Second Vatican Council and invites us to generate processes of conversion and reform of relationships, communicative dynamics and structures in the Church. This will require a process of common discernment and formation in the short, medium and long term to stimulate the awareness of a Church lived and understood in a synodal key.
Boston College – School of Theology and Ministry
Many of us are old enough to remember the intense enthusiasm and hope which sprang from the Second Vatican Council a half-century ago. The inspired Vatican II documents fueled a dynamic revitalization for the People of God.
But over the course of 5o years, the Church’s landscape has changed:
plummeting numbers in religious and priestly vocations
scars from the sexual abuse scandal
misalignment between practice and teaching on sexuality, gender, and marriage
disaffection of women and young adults with the Church
widespread persecution of the missionary Church in totalitarian and extremist Islamic states
These are issues that must be addressed by the whole Church acting in a synodal manner similar to that of the inaugural Christian community:
At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.* Select from among you seven reputable disciples, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task.
… The proposal was acceptable to the whole community.
Acts 6:1-5
The aim of the current synodal process is not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term. A basic question prompts and guides us: How does this journeying together allow the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the mission entrusted to Her; and what steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church?
Vatican Commentary on the Synodal Process
The prayers, participation, and support of faithful people are critical to the success of this Synod because it is truly a synod of the people. It is important for us to pray for the Church, for the Pope, and assess the level of our own contribution to the life of the community. I know I need to take my awareness and attention up a notch, and I thought perhaps some of my readers might too. Many of us may look to this synod as the sign of hope we need in deeply challenging times.
Prose: from Pope Francis on World Youth Day
We recall that the purpose of the Synod is not to produce documents, but to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.
Music: I Am the Bread of Life – Suzanne Toolan, RSM
Lavish Mercy 