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December 22, 2022

Thursday December 22nd: Building Communities of Inclusivity and Dialogue

 “He has… lifted up the lowly; filled the hungry with good things”…

Luke 1: 46

Certainly, this is a prayer of synodality! Mary, experiencing the love and favour of God, is moved to recite this beautiful canticle which will be forever the church’s prayer of praise and worship and also a model of how we submit to  God’s plan, as individual and as world.

In this post-pandemic world, the poor are increasingly poorer and the rich, richer. This is a prayer that reminds us that there is a special place in God’s plan for the oppressed, the hungry, the downtrodden, the marginalized. We live in a world where so many injustices go unchallenged – in the church: the oppression of women especially those who challenge clergy and religious; in politics: those who  challenge entrenched leadership and whose reputation is maligned and disfigured. The practices in both places are not dissimilar.

In this time of synod and synodality Pope Francis reminds us that we must go out to meet those on the periphery and journey with them to the centre. In either movement, we are all making a journey of encounter, building communities of inclusivity and dialogue.