Synod at the Vatican

The Synod on Synodality will be held in Rome between October 4 and 29. The upcoming synod is an opportunity to grow in experience and awareness of what it means to live in communion, not according to individual agendas, but by rediscovering communion in prayer and in mutual listening, letting everyone be guided by the Spirit and, thus, putting into practice a pivotal dimension of being Church. How many of us Catholics, including prelates and bishops, when dealing with problems, try to solve them with a set mind rather than asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten us? This quote from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, should be the guiding light of this Synod, which states: “Now there are variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are variety of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each of them is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor: 4-7). The Synod on Synodality is a time of revival and grace for all Catholics. It is a time for us believers to realise that there is strength in living as a community of believers, with the insistence on the value of listening – listening to our internal voice, the voice of the other person, and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Let us all follow the appeal for prayer of the general secretary of the Synod, fellow Maltese/Gozitan Cardinal Mario Grech when he states that the synod is, first and foremost, an event of prayer and listening that involves not only the members of the synod assembly but every baptised person. He goes on to say: “All of us are called at this time to unite in the communion of prayer and in the insistent invocation of the Holy Spirit to guide us in discerning what the Lord is asking of his Church today.”