The second assembly of the Synod on Synodality opened this week with a Mass in St. Peter's Square, led by Pope Francis

This Synod is about listening to Catholics from all walks of life, and then discussing and discerning the issues together with the goal of hearing where the Holy Spirit is calling the Church.

The day before Synod opened, Pope Francis tweeted: “The Church – semper reformanda – cannot pursue her journey and let herself be renewed without the Holy Spirit and his surprises. Without letting herself be shaped by the hands of God the Creator, his Son Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit.”

As we have previously said, Pope Francis encourages us not only to engage in the Synod process but also to become living expressions of being Church. How might we respond to that invitation in our own lives and context that we might catch those grace-filled opportunities?

Commenting on the opening of Synod, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, priest in charge at the Jesuit church in Farm Street in central London, said:

“The words journey, pilgrimage, process, are already well used when talking about the experience of the Synod, but in Farm Street Parish they are still, after these last three years of engagement, the best to describe our response. Our parish, like most, is something of a microcosm of the Church, aiming to bind together the Body of Christ as a unity in diversity.  

"Over the last three years our wonderful gifted team has facilitated so much listening, praying together, and discerning the needs. For me, now the watchword for the future is 'mission'. How do we move from a community that listens to a community sent out on mission, especially to those still on our margins, that is those who are without a voice, are in need of healing and nurturing, that is the poor, those who feel marginalised and hurt by the Church, those who are waiting to be invited in through our reaching beyond the boundaries we have created.

"This requires creativity through how we evangelise both in the real world of everyday outreach through relationship building and the virtual digital world. This is the next challenge emerging from the Synod, for all of us to respond to the call as Christ’s Body United in our wonderful diversity, not to be served but to serve”.

Banner photo by Benjamin Fay on Unsplash