Synod – upgrading ‘systems’ and conversing in the Spirit

Q: Archbishop J, why a gathering of the church on Saturday, November 18?

The Church is going through monumental changes. Pope Francis has set in motion a spiritual movement that we need to understand, practise, and become proficient in.

The Synod on Synodality is not just another synod; nor is it just another thing the Church is doing. It is a spiritual movement that is inviting the whole Church to become more attuned to Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit.

This awareness needs to infiltrate every level of the body—groups, parishes, religious congregations, ecclesial communities. This is what we are celebrating and learning about on November 18.

Every year or so, our technology gets an upgrade in its operating system. Pope Francis has given us the opportunity for a major upgrade.

Each time you upgrade the operating system you need to learn again how to do familiar things. You also need to learn how to do new things. A change in the operating system does not change the device; it makes the device more suitable for purpose and more effective.

At the opening Mass of Synod 2023, Pope Francis reminded the delegates that the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the Synod. He repeated this several times during the Synod and again at the closing Mass. This point that needs to be understood, believed, and lived: the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the Church. What we are doing is in, though, and with the Holy Spirit.

The entire Church is invited by the Spirit to a pastoral conversion as we become attuned to the rules and practice of discernment, conversation in the Spirit, and communal discernment.

These approaches are not new to the Church. In his 14 Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, St Ignatius of Loyola spoke about the good spirits and the bad spirits and how to distinguish between them.

Discernment

When we hear the term discernment of spirits in the Caribbean, exorcism or evil spirits come to mind. What St Ignatius is speaking about is more subtle. He believes the whole spiritual life is about discernment of spirits.

The Devil, he calls, “the enemy of human nature”. The enemy will seek to subvert and distort everything that makes us truly human and distract us from fulfilling this objective.

Discernment assists us to recognise—in the moment, in the interaction, in the conversation—the movement of the good spirit or a bad spirit. This is vital as it attunes us to the action of God through the Holy Spirit (the good spirit) or the action of the enemy of human nature.

Think of any gathering at which you were present recently. Recollect the moments when you felt consolation or a sense of God’s presence. And the moments when you felt desolation—that something was not right or not attuned to God.

Think of the conversations where ego dominated the conversation, or when you were led to a wonderful sense of peace and well-being.

Imagine if we were all able to discern these movements in every situation in our day, and all of us were able to make ourselves available to the leading of the good spirit and allowed the good spirit to dominate our human interactions. Imagine what that would do to your family interaction, your work life, your circle of friends.

You have often heard me praying the prayer, “Bend my heart to Your will, O Lord.” Discernment in the Spirit is a significant tool in the spiritual toolkit that helps the disciple discern and comply with the movement of God in the soul, group, community, and family.

Conversation in the Spirit

When the tools of discernment of spirits is combined with Conversation in the Spirit, we have a very different way of being Church. This is not just a fad or a passing phase. Conversation in the Spirit is an essential application in the new operating system that Pope Francis is inviting us to embrace.

In this form of conversation, the group sits around a table to discern God’s will on a given matter or issue. In preparation for the discernment, each person is given material to read and pray through.

Then, in prayer, each is guided by the Holy Spirit to the important elements of the discernment. Each participant, through prayer and reflection writes up a three-minute synthesis of their interior movements on the topic that represent their best thoughts and discernment.

In the first round, each person will share for three minutes on his or her best thoughts, ideas, and discernment, while the others listen and take notes. In the second round, you now speak about what you heard as a movement of the Spirit from someone else.

We have progressed from I to you. In this second round, you do not repeat anything you have said to talk about movements from others. What gets received is interesting.

In the third round, we now work on a synthesis of what the Holy Spirit has said through us, and we have received.

This is a process of communal discernment. Together the group listens to God through prayer, study, reflection, and discernment. Then, they listen to each person’s discernment and then to what touched each from what was shared and, finally, to what the Spirit has brought them to, in convergence, divergence and matters for further study.

Synodality, a Way of Being Church

At Synod 2023, in Rome, a light bulb went off in my head when one presenter said, “we already have synodal structures”. Of course. Our parish councils, Ministry Animation Teams, and finance councils are synodal structures.

At the archdiocesan level, we have the presbyteral council, College of Consultors, Finance Council, Pastoral Council, the Engine Room—a group of leaders who meet to discern.

Our gathering on November 18 will update the operating system of the leaders in the Archdiocese, so we could all continue to move towards proper discernment, Conversation in the Spirit and a synodal Church.

This is a very important meeting where priests, deacons, religious, and leaders at parish and diocesan levels meet to celebrate, learn, and discern God’s will for us as Church.

As parish and diocesan leaders, we have been meeting twice a year for the last three years. With the Synod on Synodality, we now have a new operation system. If we continue with these meetings and the work the Director of Synodal Transformation is to do, we will discover a new way of being Church, a relational way that leads each of us deeper into the heart of God.

Key Message:

Synodality is an upgrade in the Catholic operating system. It gives us a new way to be Church based on discernment, Conversation in the Spirit and listening.

Action Step:

Pray for the gathering on November 18, so we may celebrate and learn all that God wants for us.

Scripture Reading:

1 Jn 4:1–5