The Church is convoked in Synod.
Pope Francis announced that the Church will enter into a worldwide synodal process that will take place between October 2021 and October 2023, with the theme “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission.”
Fr. Kendrick Forbes, Vicar General, speaks briefly about the synodal process:
Synodality denotes the particular style that qualifies the life and mission of the Church, expressing her nature as the People of God journeying together and gathering in assembly, summoned by the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel. Synodality ought to be expressed in the Church’s ordinary way of living and working.
Synodality enables the entire People of God to walk forward together, listening to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, to participate in the mission of the Church in the communion that Christ establishes between us. Vademecum 1.2
Ultimately, this path of walking together is the most effective way of manifesting and putting into practice the nature of the Church as the pilgrim and missionary People of God. – Preparatory Doc, 1
Synodality is not so much an event or a slogan as a style and a way of being by which the Church lives out her mission in the world.
The mission of the Church requires the entire People of God to be on a journey together, with each member playing his or her crucial role, united with each other.
Prayer for the Synod: Adsumus Sancte Spiritus
As the Universal Church is about to embark on the synodal journey,
Have you seen or heard the Prayer for the Synod: Adsumus Sancte Spiritus?
This prayer invites the Holy Spirit to be at work in us so that we may be a community and a people of grace.
A Noteworthy fact: Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus, the first word of the Latin original meaning, “We stand before You, Holy Spirit,” which has been historically used at Councils, Synods and other Church gatherings for hundreds of years, being attributed to Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 4 April 636).
#synod20212023 #walkingtogether #listeningchurch