THE ESSENCE OF HOLINESS

 Pope Francis says that holiness doesn't mean doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary things with love and faith."

He adds, "Having faith does not mean having no difficulties, but having the strength to face them, knowing we are not alone."

Faith Is A Lamp

 Pope Francis has said, "Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey."

Everyday Holiness

 Pope Francis has said, "Holiness doesn't mean doing extraordinary things but doing ordinary things with love and faith."

That means that the everyday routines and demands of life are occasions for growth in the spiritual life.

I must remember that the next time I clean out the refrigerator!

AFRICAN CONFERENCE FOR SYNOD

I have a hunch that the Catholic Church in Africa is taking Pope Francis’ initiative “A Synod on Synodality” more seriously and more successfully than the Catholic Church’s representatives in the United States and Canada.

African Catholics are currently engaged in a conference to discuss what synodality implies and to encourage some 200 participants (including nine cardinals, 29 bishops and 41 priests as well as laity) “to listen to each other about what the Holy Spirit is commanding the Church family of God in Africa in order to start a new era of evangelization.”

We are currently in the “Continental Phase,” the process in which seven continental meetings (Africa, Oceana, Asia, Middle east, Latin America, Europe and North America) will produce seven Final Documents that will serve as basis for the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.

The African Catholics’ continental meeting is lively, open, prayerful, and attune to African mentality. The participants are intent on making the meeting truly synodal, that is, an authentic  process calling people to listen to the Holy Spirit and share what they hear. 

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg came to Africa to address and to listen to the participants of this conference. He reminded the assembly that “Synod is not about power. It is not about democracy. It is about the Holy Spirit. It is about a Church which is open to the world. Its mission is to all humanity. It is a Church which knows how to pray. It is a Church in line with the Holy Spirit.”

I have a hunch that some conferences of bishops  have paid only lip-service to Pope Francis’ call for synodality, and have reluctantly and half-heartedly engaged in the process which was designed to listen to God’s people and offer recommendations to the bishops who will be engaging in the Bishops Synodal meeting in October 2023.

 A Lenten Insight from Pope Francis:

   There's something attractive about Lent beginning in the middle of an ordinary week, catching us in the middle of our daily occupations and asking us to take time out to find God there.  

   Lent doesn't take us away from our ordinary lives, but rather it invites us to bring a new and holy attention to those activities. This should be the way with all our spiritual practices.

   We take time apart in order to return to our daily practices with new inspiration. God will always surprise us with possibilities when we least expect them. Let this Lent be one of those surprises.

                                                                              -----

   

   

THE 2023 BISHOPS SYNOD

 SYNOD ON SYNODALITY

Pope Francis has asked the entire Catholic world to give thought and input for the Sixteenth Bishops Synod scheduled for 2023. 

According to the Roman Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law, "The synod of bishops is a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world to meet together at fixed time to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world" (#342).

This Synod of Bishops was instituted in response to recommendations from bishops gathered at the Second Vatican Council which met from 1962-65. Pope Paul VI established the Synod Bishops on September 15, 1965.

Pope Francis has invited input from the entire Church for the 2023 Synod. Each diocese has been instructed to gather this input and publicize the results of this solicitation before sending the results to the Vatican. Here are the instructions to the dioceses:

"Each diocese can choose to prepare the synthesis either before or after the Diocesan Pre-synodal Meeting, as long as the fruits of that meeting are also incorporated into the diocesan synthesis. As much as possible, everyone should feel that his or her voice has been represented in the synthesis. As a model of transparency, the members of the drafting team as well as the process of synthesizing the feedback be made public once it has been drafted, as a touchstone for the journey of the diocese along the path of synodality. As much as possible, opportunities can be given to the People of God to review and respond to the content of the diocesan synthesis before it is officially sent to the episcopal conference."

The Bishops Synodal Committe cautioned that this consultation of the people does not imply the assumption within the Church of the dynamics of democracy based on the principle of majority. Suggestions and decisions are always put in the context of what the Holy Spirit asks of us.

Pope Francis explained in his opening address for the 2018 synod that the purpose of a synod is not to develop 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 bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands."

A President Lincoln-inspired Memorial Day Address

 If President Abraham Lincoln were alive to give a Memorial Day Address in 2022, he might say something like this:

Twelve score and six years ago (1776 ) our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all  human beings, male and female, regardless of race, color or creed, are created equal.

   Now we are engaged in a national holiday celebrating that nation. We are met across this continent on this day to recall that portions of our land  serve as a final-resting place for those who  gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

   Brave men and women, living and dead, have consecrated this continent far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note nor long remember  today’s memorial observance, but we can never forget what they did here.  Rather, it is for us the living to be re-dedicated this day to the unfinished work which those who have fought for this nation have so nobly advanced.

   It is rather for us on this memorial day to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us –that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion –that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.: