My dream for a synodal Church – Interconnected. Discerning. Prayerful

I dream of a Church that is synodal in every way. It will be nurtured, at every level, by its encounter with Christ and the guidance of His Spirit. We will learn to walk together towards Christ, while listening to one other and to Christ.

It is a Church that will lead us to mission and becoming a community of people who seek God’s will in things both great and small. This Church, a family of families, recognises that we are all sinners who constantly encounter the mercy of God, and live lives of mercy.

My dream is that along this journey, we realise how often our hearts burn within us as we encounter Christ in the breaking of the Word and the breaking of the bread; that the experience and recollection of that communal fellowship would lead us to build deep bonds of unity among ourselves, as members of Christ’s Body.

In this Church of my dream, the burning issues that divide the society become matters for discernment and opportunities to seek God’s will. At all levels of this synodal Church, tools of discernment become standard operating equipment for every Catholic in their ministries, groups, families, business places, and wider society.

Conversations in the Spirit will become the normal way to respond to the myriad issues that confront us. Then, it will be the Church that points the way to build and hold unity in a society being fragmented by partisan, class, and other divisive matters.

I dream of a Church that is more agile, where spiritual fellowship is lived as a sacrament in daily life—in the family, workplace, and community. It will be one that witnesses to the truth of the Gospel, where all members are ready, even at great peril, to proclaim the Good News and witness to the truth in all things.

This Church becomes a conscience to the nation and is willing to pay the price for such witness through courageous ministries to the most vulnerable.

Missioning Families

In this synodal Church, the family is the locus of formation and the school of love. Here, every member of the family is on pilgrimage to holiness and, through love and service to God and each other, this domestic Church becomes a community of life and love.

Members, in unique ways, consciously and actively pursue familial rites of worship, fun, and service. It is the domestic Church, with its rituals, that sets the foundation for the next generations of disciples—its ministers, priests, leaders—its saints!

By equipping parents to discern and live their vocation, continually, we create a community that is constantly discerning vocation, a community where each member is available to Christ and His mission.

A mark of this Church is that members characteristically and regularly come to Church together, come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation together, come to Eucharistic Adoration together. Their deepest devotion is to the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship, the Eucharist, and the prayer (Acts 2:42).

In living out this mission, and in their love for the poor and marginalised, families reach out to others, and accompany them towards transformation by a radical inclusivity. Families of the domestic Church support and learn from one other, welcome all, absorb and impart Christian values, and strive for all members to achieve their full potential.

The children, in turn, are happy to invite their friends to Church and fellowship. In our parishes, the gifts of the young will be valued and integrated into the life of the community—shaping both culture and ethos.

Amazing Parishes

I dream of a synodal parish that is a family of families. Where everything in the domestic Church is lived, witnessed, and taught in the parish. The pastoral and finance councils are leadership communities of discernment who make decisions and provide direction to the community by seeking God’s will together, as members listen deeply to one another and the whole community and put God’s will above their own opinions and agendas.

Leadership in the synodal parish is inclusive, with each person contributing to the depth of understanding, both of the current context and the will of God, by enforcing the importance of the collective rather than the individual. It is a community where leaders serve willingly, lay down their lives for their family, ministry, group, and the Kingdom.

The parish Sunday liturgy will become formative. The holy sacrifice of the Mass, the joy of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit will animate the congregation in worship. The liturgy will also forge a contemplative vibrant community where every member is a missionary disciple.

In the synodal Church, the priest is a missionary disciple who makes his office the street corner and his workbench the school, panyard, sports fields and the homes and institutions of the community.

This is a priesthood that constantly initiates people into the sacred mysteries, leading all to an encounter with Christ, to taste the goodness of the Lord, and awakens members to their profound identity as part of the mystical Body of Christ. The parish is seen as a geographical space and its ministry is to all people living in that space. In this wide tent of the parish, all people, especially the most vulnerable, will find a shelter and a home, be valued, and accompanied towards integral development, that is to Christ.

Nurturing Schools

I dream of Catholic schools led by principals and staff who are missionary disciples; schools where each child achieves his or her full potential. These schools seek to nurture the whole person and cultivate a rich inner life of staff and student, in a continuous cycle of encounter, conversion, discipleship, communion and mission.

Here, parents lead their families, and children evangelise their siblings and their friends. The schools are communities of excellence in faith, learning, wisdom, compassion, and discipline, welcoming and forming all to be children of God and great citizens of the nation.

Rooted in the Gospel and the depth of the Catholic spiritual traditions, in this synodal Church, members of the families, the school and the parish join hands in mission and are on a continuous growth path in the four quadrants of human development: Intellect (IQ), Emotional (EQ), Physical (PQ), and Spiritual (SQ). Nurturing this growth becomes an essential part of the culture, excellence in discipleship, mercy, and love.

Humility in Leadership

I dream of a Church where leaders see discipleship as more important than position and where service is a culture. In this Church, leaders will regularly pray together and are visible before the Blessed Sacrament, setting off a daily rhythm of prayer that becomes the engine of the community and a source of inner transformation.

In this way, we will inspire new leaders, ministers, and new ministries to contribute to the Church’s life and mission, in a meaningful way.

In this Church, members are leaders who are continually conscious of discerning their vocation and equipped to better live it as their first priority. The variety of gifts and charisms are all used well for the building up of the Body of Christ and the evangelising mission to the world.

In this Church, there is no competition between disciples, except the competition to love more deeply, to sacrifice more earnestly, and to serve more humbly.