For 2024, commit to a year of prayer & spirituality

Q: Archbishop J, what is your roadmap for 2024?

The roadmap for 2024 comes from two sources: first, Pope Francis’ call for a year of prayer and teaching people how to pray in a deeper way; second, a review of the three reports coming out of our assembly on November 18, 2023.

A Year of Prayer and Preparation

2025 is a Holy Year, a jubilee year on the theme, Pilgrims of hope. In preparation for this jubilee, the Holy Father has asked that 2024 be a year of prayer, a year when we rediscover the joy and beauty of prayer from the heart.
On the jubilee’s official website, it says: “In preparation for the Jubilee, dioceses are invited to promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.”

Pope Francis is calling all the faithful to use 2024 as a year of preparation for Jubilee 2025. He is calling us back to the fundamentals: prayer and learning prayer from the heart.
This requires an internal disposition that connects the interior with the divine. It is so easy to stay with the prayers that are learnt by rote. To pray is to raise one’s mind and heart to God.
This call to initiate the faithful into the mystery and simplicity of prayer echoes what we would have heard at the November 18 assembly, where, in a consistent fashion, participants called for the inner journey of us Catholics to be reignited.

November 18, 2023

In our assembly we had three separate conversations in the Spirit: first on community, second on inclusivity, and third on dialogue.
On reading the synthesis again, several points struck me, as I read seeking to discern what is required if the aspiration of the participants are to be fulfilled. It showed a convergence with what Pope Francis has called us to.
In the first of the three areas, building community, the synthesis said:

\We need a deeper more consistent spirituality by acceptance of God’s will, deepening our prayer and lived faith, and keeping the Word of God deeply rooted in our hearts. Not just at Mass but as part of our daily spiritual practice. Through the attention to the spiritual life, we will know God’s love and make God’s love known…
This desire for a deeper spiritual life echoed throughout the assembly and the three documents that summarised it. If we accept the notion of the sensus fidei, the sense of the faithful in matters of faith and morals, we need to hear the desire of God’s people for a deeper, more affective, and effective prayer life—a more sustainable prayer; prayer that is an encounter with God, which opens us to conversion and depth of discipleship.

For this to happen, we all need a commitment to daily spiritual practices—the Examen, discernment of spirits, Lectio Divina, Christian Meditation, etc.
Holy Spirit: In each report, the need to deepen our reliance on the Holy Spirit was seen as central to the way forward. It was stated: “What we need most is a well worked out understanding of the Holy Spirit, not just as a spirituality or as is needed for mission with gifts given, but as what the Church calls pneumatology—how the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the entire Church and all of its parts.”

During this year, 2024, we will need to explore our openness to and reliance on the Holy Spirit in ways that are deeper and more integral to our living as Catholics. The Holy Spirit, given to us at Baptism and again at Confirmation, is the gift that changes everything. We must again, open our hearts wide to the Spirit of God in its manifold ways.
If you have never done a Life in the Spirit seminar, this is the year to do one: the year to learn, in much deeper ways, the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the first disciples and the Church today.
For assembly participants, Conversation in the Spirit was a space for encounter and conversation. Most felt a deep sense of consolation at the end of the day. The desire was for all Catholics to experience Conversation in the Spirit as part of their Church experience.

We discerned that if we want to build community and inclusivity, then this method, which is part of the contemplative way, is vital to the roadmap for 2024. The experience of the universal Church in Rome and in our local assembly is witness to this movement of prayer which builds community and fosters inclusivity, by listening to each other we listen to God.
A resounding call of the assembly was for formation, for all our people, in the art and skills of dialogue as a pastoral tool leading to communion, mission and participation.
Church as God’s family was one of the consistent themes of the assembly, envisioned as an all-ministerial community. Each one has a gift and a vocation to offer to the Body of Christ.
When each Catholic is living their vocation fully and offering their gifts for the building up of the body of Christ, then the Church will be vibrant and alive (Eph 4:1ff).

We acknowledged that this family is imperfect and in need of conversion. That conversion will only come through the encounter with God; it is God alone who can heal our prejudices and hurts.
But we also need to engage each other fully on the journey to which we are called. Here an ecosystem of Holy Moments would go a long way to transform us into the family of God we are called to be. This means sacrificial love needs to be at the heart of this family, in little and big ways.
This calls for more formation in prayer, spirituality, relationship with the Holy Spirit, and the practice of the skills needed for Conversation in the Spirit and authentic dialogue.
Youth engagement and participation was another constant call that emerged in the groups. This is one which we need to attend to, with urgency, this year. If we are God’s family, then our youth must have a special place.

Key Message:
Deepening our prayer and spirituality is critical for our next steps as Church. This is clear both in the Holy Father’s call and the outcomes of our synod assembly.
Action Step:
This year, commit to a way of deepening your prayer life and knowledge of God. Enrol in Bible study, Life in the Spirit seminar, commit to a prayer workshop, participate in the Archdiocesan offerings inviting you to deeper commitment.
Scripture Reading:
Lk 11:1–13