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Our real legacy – the energy we leave behind

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Several years ago, at a time when the national news was much fixated on a high-profile case of sexual harassment, I asked three women colleagues: “what constitutes sexual harassment? What’s the line here that may not be crossed? What’s innocent behavior and what’s harassment?” They answered to this effect. It’s not so much a question of a clear line, a certain remark or behavior that goes too far. Rather, we know what is innocent and what is not. We can read the energy beneath the behavior. We know when it’s harassment and when it’s not.

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

I have no doubt that in most instances this is true. All of us have very perceptive inner radar screens. We naturally feel and read the energy in a room – tension, ease, jealousy, affirmation, innocence, aggression. You see this already in very young children, even babies, who can sense ease or tension in a room.

It is interesting that the great Carmelite mystic John of the Cross, draws on this notion when he writes on discernment in spiritual direction. How, he asks, do you discern if a person is in a genuine dark night of the soul (a healthy thing) or whether he is sad and down because of an emotional depression or because of bad moral behavior? John elaborates a number of criteria for discerning this, but ultimately they all come down to reading the energy that the person is radiating. Are they bringing oxygen into the room or are they sucking the oxygen out of the room? Are they depressing you as you listen to them? If yes, then their issue is not spiritual nor healthy. People who are in an authentic dark night of the soul, irrespective of their personal interior struggle, bring positive energy into a room and leave you inspired rather than depressed.

My purpose in sharing is not for us to become more critical and start judging others by trying to consciously read the energy they are radiating. (We are already unconsciously doing that.) What I want to highlight rather, as a challenge, is for each of us to more consciously examine ourselves vis-à-vis what energy we are bringing into a room and leaving behind.

Each of us needs to courageously ask: what energy do I bring into a room? What energy do I bring to the family table? To a community gathering? To those with whom I discuss politics and religion? To my colleagues and fellow workers? To the social circles within which I move? And more deeply, as a parent or as an elder, what energy am I habitually bringing to my children and to the young? As someone teaching or doing ministry, what energy am I radiating as I try to lead others?

That’s a critical question. What energy am I habitually bringing into a room and leaving behind? Frustration? Anger? Chaos? Jealousy? Paranoia? Bitterness? Depression? Instability? Or am I bringing and leaving behind some stability, some sanity, some joy of heart, some energy that blesses rather than curses others? Ultimately, what am I leaving behind?

When Jesus is giving his farewell speech in John’s Gospel, he tells us that it is better for us that he is going away because otherwise we will not be able to receive his spirit; and that his spirit, his final gift to us, is the gift of peace. Two things should be noted here: first, that the disciples couldn’t fully receive what Jesus was giving them until he had gone away; and second, that ultimately his real gift to them, his real legacy, was the peace he left behind with them.

What may seem strange at first glance is that his followers could only fully inhale his energy after he had gone away and left them his spirit. That is also true for each of us. It is only after we leave a room that the energy we left behind is most clear. Thus, it is after we die that the energy we have left behind will constitute our real legacy. If we live in anger and bitterness, in jealousy and unwillingness to affirm others, and if our lives sow chaos and instability, that will be what we ultimately leave behind and will always be part of our legacy. Conversely, if we are trustworthy and live unselfishly, morally, at peace with others, bringing sanity and affirmation into a room, then, like Jesus, we will leave behind a gift of peace. That will be our legacy, the oxygen we leave on the planet after we are gone.

And this is not a question of who can best light up a room with humor and banter, good as these can be. It is rather a question of who has enough personal integrity so as to bring trust and stability into a room?
Given all this, it’s good to ask oneself: when I enter a room am I bringing some oxygen into that room or am I sucking some oxygen out of that room?

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)

God has you right where he wants you

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FROM THE HERMITAGE
By sister alies therese

Take a peek at Psalm 77 where the psalmist spends the first half lamenting his (and the community’s) miserable situation (1-10). A translation I like in The Message (Peterson, 2003) says, “I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord; my life was an open wound that wouldn’t heal … Will the Lord walk off and leave us for good? Will he never smile again…? ‘Just my luck,’ I said, ‘The High God goes out of business just the moment I need Him.’” What could bring something good out of this? “You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have,” Corrie ten Boom reminds us.

Later the psalmist brings another point of view … something beautiful happens beginning at 11 to the end, when he changes his focus, ceases the lamentation and focus on himself, and turns to God. In Exodus language, he prays, “Once again I’ll go over what God has done, I’ll ponder all the things You’ve accomplished and give a long, loving look at Your acts … You pulled your people out of the worst kind of trouble…” I think this is something about salvation … and the saving job is God’s. That’s right where God wants you.

How does that salvation look? What is one practical aspect? Well, Pope Francis on Holy Thursday in 2014 said, “Am I really willing to serve and help others? This sign is a caress of Jesus.” This psalmist and his community in turning to God not only to themselves, discovered what Paul was trying to get over to the Ephesians. While pondering the darkness and the sinfulness of humanity, Paul also wants them to learn that God has us right where we belong … because that is where He wants to ‘shower us with grace and kindness’ and to teach us that this saving business is His gift. The fact that it is God’s gift is traced back to the covenants of the past and the promises to Israel … God created ‘a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.’ And that’s how we are to act toward one another. We are to be that caress of Jesus in the lives of friends and foes.

Catherine of Siena adds, “To the servant of God every place is the right place, and every time is the right time.” Every opportunity that comes our way ‘works out’ this salvation we’ve been given. Our learning to share allows us challenges and opportunities to gift others with those precious gifts of God. They often look like fruits of the spirit … patience, kindness, joy, gentleness, etc.

My experience of these fruits is usually where I am the weakest, or when we are most challenged, where we fear. In the April 4, 2014, Collect, we hear: “O God, who has prepared fitting helps for us in our weakness, grant we pray that we may receive their healing effects with joy and reflect them in a holy way of life.” This holy way of life is mirrored in the blessed life of Jesus, where we use the gift of salvation He has given, for others. Psalm 77 also reminds us, “O God, your way is holy, no god is great like God.”

God has us right where He wants us and comments further in Ephesians: “You are no longer wandering exiles … the kingdom of faith is your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here.” (Peterson, 2003) “For it is the will of our courteous Lord that we should be as much at home with Jesus as heart may think or soul desire. Julian of Norwich writes in Revelations. Our salvation, our saving, is about the grace that changes us into what God has in mind. We say to become the best version of ourselves … well, yes but what we want is to be the version God has in mind right where we are! Look at some of our October saints … Therese, Francis and Teresa.

“Christ wills that where He is we should be also, not only for eternity but already in time, which is eternity begun and still in progress,” so says Elizabeth of the Trinity. There is only one place to be … right where we belong in God. This means we belong in love and are motivated from that core to act as such.

Pope St. John Paul II clarifies, “Love is the constructive force for humanity’s every positive road … the future does not gather hope from violence, hatred or selfishness.” Our world and our country are full of the latter and it is our job to change things right where we are.
Blessings.

(Sister alies therese is a canonically vowed hermit with days formed around prayer and writing.)

The battles we fight

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CALLED TO HOLINESS
By Jaymie Stuart Wolfe

“Choose your battles” is generally good advice. It’s wise to acknowledge that not every fight can be won; that we may not have the resources to sustain a war on many fronts; that victory sometimes costs us more than we can afford. But if you’re born (or baptized) on the battlefield, things become more complicated. It’s hard to resist the urge to take up the cross and march like a crusader into every engagement, especially when we see the destruction around us, know the stakes are high and suspect we are outnumbered.

Jaymie Stuart Wolfe

The practice of offering an abbreviated form of Pope Leo XIII’s prayer to St. Michael at the end of every Mass is, once again, widespread. And that’s a good thing, because if living our Catholic faith in today’s world could be summarized in a single word, “embattled” would be a strong contender.

And yet, God does not call any of us to go looking for a fight. That’s because we’re not often equipped to win a contest against an enemy that prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, (see 1 Pt 5:8). Perhaps more importantly, we also tend to forget that the battle God calls every one of us to engage in is a spiritual one, fought on the open fields of our hearts.

That is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes an entire section devoted to what it calls “The Battle of Prayer.” As the Catechism explains, “Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer…all teach us this: prayer is a battle. …The “spiritual battle” of the Christian’s new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer” (CCC 2725).

After we’ve abandoned mortal sin, after we’ve decided to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, prayer is most often where we falter. Prayer is the most sustained battle of the Christian life. It is where our faith is both fed and tested. It is how our quest for salvation plays out. In prayer, we open our hearts to God. Through prayer, God opens his heart to us.

If we want to follow Christ, we must pray. And that is never easy. What is easy is the discouragement we face when we try and fail. Despite our best intentions, the daily Rosary or Mass easily become more like every other day. We skip time with God when we are pressed for time. And that makes us vulnerable to one of the enemy’s most effective traps: self-sufficiency.

Approaching life and all its challenges alone and on our own power separates us from the grace of perseverance and sets us up for failure. We know that we cannot live the life of Christ apart from Christ. And yet, that is precisely what many of us attempt to do.

But it’s also easy for us to get distracted; to allow the values of our world to get a foothold in our hearts. When that happens, prayer can seem like a waste of time, an empty exercise in futility, a font of false hope, or an escape from reality. In the cloud of the disappointment that descends when God does not give us everything we want, we struggle to carry on. We ask ourselves whether prayer makes any difference. And when we aren’t convinced that it does, we either give up or seek our fortunes in battles we were never called to fight.

But to be victorious in the battle of prayer, we must acquire and cultivate the virtues that, ironically, arise from prayer: humility, trust and perseverance. Humility teaches us not to be surprised by our own weaknesses. It considers how the distractions we face in prayer reveal our attachments to things other than God. Trust teaches us to rely completely on the Holy Spirit, the divine presence and power given to us in God’s time and in his way. Perseverance overcomes our laziness, but it also purifies our motivations and draws us into the love that makes all things possible.

In the great scheme of things, all the other battles we choose to fight serve only to distract us from the main event. Because prayer is what transforms and guides us, it is the only battle worth fighting, and the only one we must – by God’s grace and our effort – win.

(Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a sinner, Catholic convert, freelance writer and editor, musician, speaker, pet-aholic, wife and mom of eight grown children, loving life in New Orleans.)

Synod on synodality: Second session sets sights on mission

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By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With many of the concrete, hot-button issues removed from the agenda and turned over to study groups, some people wonder what members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will be doing when they meet at the Vatican in October.

This is the official logo for the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. (CNS photo/courtesy Synod of Bishops)

For Pope Francis and synod organizers, though, taking issues like women deacons or seminary training off the table will allow the 368 synod members to focus on their main task: Finding ways to ensure “the church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.”
Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, cited that quote from Pope Francis’ 2013 exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” when explaining what the three-year process of the synod on synodality was all about.

The working document for the synod’s second session Oct. 2-27 summarized as its task “to identify the paths we can follow and the tools we might adopt in our different contexts and circumstances in order to enhance the unique contribution of each baptized person and of each church in the one mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and his Gospel to the world today.”

In the preface to a book on synodality, published in the Vatican newspaper Sept. 24, Cardinal Grech wrote that the consultations held with Catholics around the world starting in 2021-2022 “noted, not without disappointment, the problem of a church perceived as an exclusive and excluding community – the church of closed doors, customs and tolls to be paid.”

“What needs to change is not the Gospel, but our way of proclaiming it,” he said.

The task of synod members – bishops, priests, members of religious orders and lay men and women – will be to better define or at least describe what is meant by synodality and to suggest ways to live out that vision.

Specifically, that means: helping people listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit; looking at relationships within the church and making sure they empower every member to take responsibility for the church’s mission; reaching out to people who have felt rejected or excluded by the church; increasing the accountability of people in leadership positions; ensuring parish and diocesan councils are truly representative and listened to; and increasing opportunities for women to place their gifts and talents at the service of the church, including in leadership and decision-making.

While those goals make sense from an organizational point of view, the Catholic Church sees itself as the body of Christ, not an organization, and it has traditionally tied the task of governance and decision-making to ordination. How that authority is exercised can vary according to church, country and culture. Synod members come from more than 110 countries and from 15 of the Eastern Catholic churches.
Part of the synod’s discernment involves listening to each other and to the Holy Spirit in respecting people’s traditions with a small “t,” while also being open to something new. Pope Francis’ frequent observation that the Holy Spirit takes diversity and from it creates harmony, not uniformity, is a test for a church that is universal while also incredibly varied.

In the same text published by the Vatican newspaper Sept. 24, Cardinal Grech wrote, “While traditionally Catholicism has focused more on the ‘singular,’ identifying in unity ‘cum et sub Petro’ (‘with and under Peter’) a safeguard against dispersion and error, today we feel the need to rebalance the discourse by making space for the ‘plural,’ so that unity does not degenerate into uniformity, extinguishing the imagination of the Holy Spirit, who scatters seeds of truth and grace in the different peoples and in their varied cultures.”

Cardinal Grech also insisted that the synod’s criticism of “clericalism,” like Pope Francis’ criticism of it, does not come from some “philosophical or political egalitarianism” but from “missionary anxiety.”
“In fact, by sapping the potential of lay men and women in the work of evangelization, clericalism weakens mission, making the church more fragile in the face of the challenge of sharing the Gospel in the world,” the cardinal wrote.

Clericalism restricts evangelization to the clergy, he said, and it “leaves the ‘simple’ baptized in a position of passivity as if the missionary mandate of the Risen Lord did not apply to them as well.”

‘Revival of prayer and action’ needed to end abortion,says US bishops’ pro-life chair

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By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Ahead of Respect Life Month, the pro-life committee chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging “a revival of prayer and action” to end abortion and uphold the sanctity of human life.

A statement for the October observance, written by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, was released by the USCCB Sept. 19 and posted to the website of the USCCB’s Respect Life Month initiative. The effort traces its origins to 1972, just prior to the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the two 1973 decisions that broadly legalized abortion.

In his message, Bishop Burbidge stressed that “Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, gives us the fullness of life,” and “calls each of us to respect that gift of life in every human person.”

The bishop pointed to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held during July in Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, the U.S. bishops’ three-year effort to rekindle devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The congress and the Eucharistic processions leading up to it “involved hundreds of thousands of Catholics who will never be the same,” he said. “The revival continues, and is so needed, especially in our efforts to defend human life.”

He quoted a 2013 address by Pope Francis to Catholic medical professionals, in which the pope said that “every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection.”

However, “the law and millions of our brothers and sisters have yet to recognize this reality,” said Bishop Burbidge.

Despite the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, enabling elected officials “to reduce or end abortion … fifty years of virtually unlimited abortion has tragically created a national mindset where many Americans have become comfortable with some amount of abortion,” said Bishop Burbidge. “This allows the abortion industry to continue to provide any amount of abortion.”
Abortion rates actually rose or stayed at pre-Roe levels in the U.S. following the Dobbs decision, which overturned the Roe and Doe rulings.

Globally, there are a total of some 73.3 million abortions each year, according to the Guttmacher Institute – a number about 4 million greater than United Kingdom’s current population, and almost 15 million more than the United Nation’s 2019 crude death rate, or total number of deaths worldwide in a given year.

“Given this challenge, the U.S. bishops have affirmed that, while it is important to address all the ways in which human life is threatened, ‘abortion remains our pre-eminent priority as it directly attacks our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, destroying more than a million lives each year in our country alone,’” said Bishop Burbidge, quoting a 2024 document by the U.S. Bishops on conscience formation and political responsibility for Catholics.

With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, Bishop Burbidge asked Catholics in the U.S. to “renew our commitment to work for the legal protection of every human life, from conception to natural death, and to vote for candidates who will defend the life and dignity of the human person.”

In addition, he said, “we must call for policies that assist women and their children in need, while also continuing to help mothers in our own communities through local pregnancy help centers and our nationwide, parish-based initiative, Walking with Moms in Need.”

Faithful must “likewise continue to extend the hand of compassion to all who are suffering from participation in abortion,” highlighting the church’s abortion healing ministries, such as Project Rachel.
“Most importantly, we must rededicate ourselves to fervent prayer on behalf of life,” said Bishop Burbidge, who invited Catholics “to join me in a concerted effort of prayer between now and our national elections, by daily praying our Respect Life Month, ‘Prayer for Life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.’”
The text of the prayer, along with several resources for Respect Life Month, is available on the initiative’s website at https://www.respectlife.org/respect-life-month.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.)

Briefs

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A priest raises the monstrance as pilgrims gather for the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28, 2024. Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the shrine to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary. (OSV News photo/Jeffrey Bruno)

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28 to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary. “I am entirely yours, Mary, I am entirely yours,” the crowd sang in Latin as the second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage opened with a procession of a statue of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary. “All that I have, Mother of Christ, all that I have is yours.” More than 3,000 people registered for the free, daylong pilgrimage celebrating the rosary hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph and their local charters of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, a spiritual association dedicated to the rosary. Dominican friars and sisters dotted a diverse crowd of men and women, young and old, individuals and families of different cultures and backgrounds. The event at the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America, included preaching, adoration, confession, book signings, a recitation of the rosary, enrollment in the confraternity, Mass and an evening concert with the Hillbilly Thomists, a bluegrass band of Dominican friars. Founded in 1216 by St. Dominic de Guzmán, the Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Preachers, has a special relationship with the rosary: According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Dominic, entrusting the rosary’s promotion to him.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Three years after being approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops, updates to the ritual texts for distribution of holy Communion outside of Mass and for Eucharistic adoration will take effect. The revised version of “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery outside Mass” will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2024. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had signed off on the fresh texts in 2021, with the revisions reviewed by the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship and confirmed by the Vatican in March 2023. Father David R. Price, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Divine Worship, told OSV News that “the main thing to keep in mind” regarding the revisions is that “this is a new translation of the ritual book that was given in Latin in the 1970s – so it’s a new translation, it’s not a new ritual book per se.” He emphasized that “the discipline of distribution of holy Communion outside Mass that is in place now is not changing.” The new translation “should hopefully be a way for people to continue to grow and deepen in their faith and to have a sense of unity with the universal church, in that we are praying with words in English that are similar, that are the same in meaning, as words that people are praying these same prayers in other languages – and that the translations are consistent in their meaning between these different languages,” said Father Price. “And that shows the universality of the church.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Following an investigation into an influential Peru-based Catholic movement that has expanded across Latin America and the United States, Pope Francis has expelled 10 members from its ranks for physical and spiritual abuse. The group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which operates in seven Latin American countries and has communities in the archdioceses of Denver and Philadelphia, was subject to a Vatican investigation in 2023 for alleged abuses. In a letter from the apostolic nunciature in Peru posted on the Peruvian bishops’ conference website Sept. 25, the Vatican announced the expulsion of the 10 members, including the former superior general, a retired archbishop and three other priests. The 68-year-old Peruvian Archbishop José Antonio Eguren of Piura, the highest-ranking expelled member, resigned from leading his archdiocese in April, eight years shy of the mandatory retirement age for bishops, amid an investigation into Sodalitium. The forms of abuse listed in the Vatican letter include: physical abuse “including sadism and violence,” deploying tactics to “break the will of subordinates,” spiritual abuse, abuse of authority including the cover-up of crimes and abuse in the administration of church goods. “Abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism” was also cited as a form of abuse committed; the list of those expelled included Peruvian journalist Alejandro Bermudez, founder and former executive director of Catholic News Agency, which is now owned by EWTN.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Calling St. John Paul II “one of the men who most shaped the last century,” Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to get to know him better, especially through what he did and wrote before being elected pope Oct. 16, 1978. “Saint John Paul II, despite the time that has passed since his pontificate, continues to be a source of inspiration and draws people to Christ through his way of life, the depth of his teachings, and his ability to connect with the lives of people,” Pope Francis wrote in the introduction to a book titled, “The Goal is Happiness.” Published in Italian, the book offers 366 short passages from St. John Paul’s writings, “most of them unpublished outside of Poland, and some even unpublished within Poland,” Pope Francis noted in the introduction, which was translated into English and posted on Vatican News Sept. 26.

WORLD
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – Six migrants were killed after soldiers shot at a vehicle evading a military checkpoint in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state – a tragedy condemned by Mexico’s bishops as “the disproportionate use of lethal force on the part of agents of the state.” The Mexican bishops’ conference’s migrant ministry expressed solidarity with the victims and called for a “serious, impartial and investigation” of the shooting. A green truck carrying 33 migrants failed to stop at a checkpoint roughly 50 miles from the Guatemala border, at 8:50 p.m. on Oct. 1, drawing fire from two soldiers, according to an army statement the following day. Six migrants were killed in the incident while 10 were injured and 17 escaped unharmed. The migrants hailed from Nepal, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Cuba. The army said two soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, which was traveling at high-speed and taking evasive actions. It added that two other trucks, “similar to those used by criminal groups in the region,” were following behind. “Military personnel reported hearing shots, so two (soldiers) fired their weapons, stopping one of the flatbed trucks,” the statement said. A collective of human rights and migration organizations sponsored by the Jesuit-run Iberoamerican University condemned the army’s actions, along with the Mexican government’s militarized response to migration enforcement. The stepped-up enforcement ahead of the November U.S. election has coincided with the Biden administration placing restrictions on asylum-seekers.

FEATURE PHOTO …Bishop’s Cup …

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MADISON – A tropical storm didn’t keep golfers away from the 42nd Bishop’s Cup Golf Tournament held by The Catholic Foundation at Lake Caroline on Thursday, Sept. 12. The rains from downgraded Hurricane Francine moved on by the afternoon tee time, and golfers set off to win the Bishop’s Cup. Coming in with a score of 19 under par, the winning team was from St. Paul Flowood, sponsored by Tico Hoffman, consisted of Father Gerry Hurley, Dan Huffman and Hoffman. Pictured is Dan Huffman ready to drive his ball down the fairway. (Photo by Joanna Puddister King)

Calendar of events

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SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT
FLOWOOD – St. Paul, “Bee Attitudes” Women’s Retreat, Oct. 18-20 at Our Lady of Hope Retreat Center in Chatawa with Father Anthony Quyet. Ladies of St. Paul, come experience the Beatitudes from the perspective of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Paula D’Arcy’s A New Set of Eyes. Details: email finance@spaulcc.org.

GREENWOOD – Locus Benedictus, Healing Retreat with Maria Vadia on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The retreat is free; a love offering will be taken. Details: call (662) 299–1232.

JACKSON – St. Richard, “Inspire” – a day retreat for women of all ages, Saturday, Nov. 2 from 8:30-3:30 p.m. in Foley Hall. Suggested donation: $30. Register by Oct. 15. Details: claudiaaddison@mac.com or (601) 594-3937.

OFFICE OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION – The OCE hosts a Zoom Rosary the first Wednesday of each month during the school year at 7 p.m. On Nov. 6, St. Elizabeth School will lead us in prayer. Join early and place your intentions in the chat. Details: Join the rosary via zoom at https://bit.ly/zoomrosary2024 or check the diocese calendar of events.

PARISH, FAMILY & SCHOOL EVENTS
COLUMBUS – Annunciation, Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat, Sunday, Oct. 27 from 4-6 p.m. Have an amazing Halloween experience for youth with trunk or treat, cake walk, games, contests, hall of saints, food and more. No pets. Details: church office (662) 328-2927.

FLOWOOD – St. Paul, Trunk or Treat, Saturday, Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. Details: church office (601) 992-9547.

GLUCKSTADT – St. Joseph, Parish Picnic and Trunk or Treat, Saturday, Oct. 26 after 4 p.m. Mass. Details: church office (601) 856-2054.

GREENWOOD – Immaculate Heart of Mary, CYO Spaghetti Supper and Halloween Carnival, Monday, Oct. 28. Spaghetti supper available for drive-thru, carry out or dine in beginning at 4:30 p.m. Carnival booths open at 5:30 p.m. and bingo at 6 p.m. Cost: $15 Details: church office (662) 453-3980.

HERNANDO – Holy Spirit, “Hope – an Anchor in Today’s World” Study with Leanne Skinner Meng, Oct. 21 and 28; Nov. 4 and 11, in the Chapel Hall from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Snacks and refreshments provided. Registration fee: $6 for materials. Details: register at holyspirit-catholic.com or call (662) 429-7851 for more information.

Holy Spirit, Knights of Columbus Pumpkin Patch, open through Oct. 31, Monday – Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 12-7 p.m.

OLIVE BRANCH – Queen of Peace, Halloween Bash, Sunday, Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. Enjoy games, food trunk or treat and more. All are welcome. Details: church office (662) 895-5007.

Queen of Peace, 50th Anniversary Celebration for Deacon Mark White, Sunday, Nov. 10, Mass at 10 a.m. with Bishop Kopacz. Details: RSVP to queenop@shsm.org.

MADISON – St. Francis, Trunk or Treat, Wedneday, Oct. 30. 6:30-8 p.m. Details: We need trunks – call or text Todd at (601) 809-6640 to participate.

NATCHEZ – St. Mary Basilica, Parish Dinner/Halloween Fun, Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in the Family Life Center. All are invited! Details: church office (601) 445-5616.

St. Mary Basilica, Fatima Rosary, Saturday, Oct. 26 at 12 p.m. in the prayer garden.

St. Mary Basilica, Knights of Columbus Spaghetti Dinner, Sunday, Oct. 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Family Life Center. Dine-in or take-out (bring your own container). Tickets: $10. Details: Darren at (601) 597-2890.

SHAW – St. Francis, Spaghetti Dinner, Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 4-7 p.m. Drive-thru only at parish hall. Cost: $15, must be purchased in advance. Details: (662) 754-5561.

SOUTHAVEN – Christ the King, Adult Halloween Party, Saturday, Oct. 26, doors open at 6:30 p.m. Enjoy a night of dancing, food, fun, fellowship and fright in the social hall. Music by DJ Fernando. Details: church office (662) 342-1073.

Christ the King, Halloween Bash – for kids in grades K through fifth, Thursday, Oct. 31 from 6-8 p.m. Cost: one large bag of candy. Enjoy carnival games and more.

DIOCESE
JOB OPENING – The Diocese of Jackson’s Office of Communications is looking for a full-time communications specialist. Role involves creating and promoting content across multimedia platforms, including social media, websites and promotional materials. The position requires strong communication skills, knowledge of Catholic teachings and proficiency in design and communication software. College degree required with two years experience. Send a cover letter and resume to joanna.king@jacksondiocese.org no later than Oct. 25, 2024. If you would like a full job description, visit https://jacksondiocese.org/employment-1.

YOUNG ADULTS – Trivia on Tap, Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at Blaylock Photography in Ridgeland. Guest speaker will be deacon candidate, Jeff Cook. Ages 21+ are welcome.

Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage, May 12-27. Father Lincoln Dall will be leading this once in a lifetime journey. Space is limited. Email amelia.rizor@jacksondiocese.org for more information.

YOUTH – Diocesan SEARCH Retreat for tenth through twelfth graders, Jan. 17-19, 2025 at Camp Wesley Pines, Gallman. Diocese High School Confirmation Retreat, Jan. 25-26, 2025 at Lake Forest Ranch, Macon. Diocese Catholic Youth Conference – DCYC for ninth through twelfth grades, March 21-23, 2025 at the Vicksburg Convention Center. Details: contact your individual parish offices or contact Abbey at (601) 949-6934 or abbey.schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org.

CATHOLIC ENGAGED ENCOUNTER – CEE is our diocesan marriage prep program for couples preparing for the sacrament of marriage. The upcoming weekends for 2025 are: Feb. 21-23, 2025; August 1-3, 2025; and Oct. 24-26, 2025 at Camp Garaywa in Clinton; and April 25-27, 2025 at Lake Tiak-O’Khata in Louisville. Register at https://bit.ly/CEE2024-2025. Details: email debbie.tubertini@jacksondiocese.org.

Youth

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Around the diocese

SOUTHAVEN – As part of a fundraising campaign Sacred Heart students could build a bear on Thursday, Sept. 19. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)

CLARKSDALE – Laken Smith and Graves Walker play games at the annual St. Elizabeth fair. (Photos by Mary Evelyn Stonestreet)

GREENVILLE – St. Joseph sixth graders, Javeon Easley and Adalyn Thompson, meet their K-5 buddy, Madolyn Clanton and build crazy animals in the library. (Photo by Nikki Thompson)
JACKSON – Ms. Morris’ Kindergarten class watched their butterflies grow from hungry caterpillars to dull chrysalis to colorful butterflies. Her class cheered and watched as their butterflies were released. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)
MERIDIAN – Third graders, Hunter Gillespie and Caroline Augustine help lead Friday Rosary at St. Patrick School. (Photo by Owen Kasey)
FLOWOOD – Teddy Walker works on his activity from the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. (Photo by Susan Irby)
MADISON – Paige Loyacono, St. Joseph Catholic School’s 2023 Homecoming Queen, crowns senior Jennifer Crotty Homecoming Queen for 2024 during halftime of the Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, Homecoming football game. Dr. Dena Kinsey, St. Joe principal, watches in front. (Photo courtesy of St. Joseph School)
PEARL – St. Joe Madison, Jr. High Bruin, Riley Bianchini out runs Park Place Academy for a touchdown on Thursday, Sept. 26. (Photo by Joanna Puddister King)
JACKSON – Clovis and Silas Berlin of St. Anthony School set up a lemonade stand one weekend to raise funds for the Hurricane Helene victims. (Photo by Victor Gray-Lewis)

Seven things to know about the second and final session of the Synod on Synodality

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By Maria Wiering

(OSV News) — The second meeting of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops begins Oct. 2 at the Vatican. Like last year’s meeting, it’s a four-week-long gathering of 368 voting delegates — with scores more of nonvoting participants — from six continents to address the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission” and experience synodality, a posture of listening, accompaniment and communion in the church.

Unlike last year’s meeting, hot-button topics are not expected to compete for participants’ attention. Instead, the focus is expected to be on synodality itself.

Pope Francis presides over Mass marking the end of the first session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 29, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Here are seven things to know about this year’s second and final gathering for the Synod on Synodality:

1. This meeting is rooted in a three-year process, which began in 2021 with diocesan-level consultation on synodality in the church. That consultation advanced to the level of bishops’ conferences and then included a continental phase. Information gathered from those phases influenced the framework for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which has been distinguished by including, for the first time, voting lay delegates, and for being held over two meetings. The first meeting was held at the Vatican Oct. 4-28, 2023. Following that meeting, bishops and delegates engaged in further consultation on how to grow as a synodal church, which was synthesized and shared with the Holy See and the public. Meanwhile, eight U.S. priests participated in an International Meeting of Parish Priests from April 28-May 2 to consider the topic of “How to be a synodal local Church in mission?” Participants in the synod’s October 2024 meeting are expected to craft a synthesis report. In the past, synods of bishops have ordinarily resulted in the pope issuing a document on the topic addressed.

2. The “roadmap” for the delegates’ work in October is outlined in the “instrumentum laboris” published in July. This document is the second “working document” of this synod, with a different “instrumentum laboris” issued before the synod’s first meeting in October 2023. The 2024 document is rooted in a wide-ranging synthesis report synod delegates adopted at the end of last year’s meeting that identified areas worthy of further attention ahead of this year’s meeting, as well as the additional consultation undertaken between the meetings. With the overarching theme of “how to be a missionary synodal church,” the working document emphasized questions around Christian formation, communal discernment, and transparency and accountability.

3. The synod formally opens Oct. 2 with a papal Mass, but a penitential liturgy will be held the evening Oct. 1 at St. Peter’s Basilica. With Pope Francis presiding, the penitential liturgy is expected to include three testimonies, including one from a victim-survivor of clergy sexual abuse. It will also include the confessions of “a number of sins,” according to a document from the Holy See: “The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless.” Among the sins are those against synodality. The penitential liturgy will conclude a two-day retreat for synod delegates.

Last year’s synod meeting was preceded by a special ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square that brought together leaders of other Christian denominations, including Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. An ecumenical prayer service has been planned this year for the evening of Oct. 11, the 62nd anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

  • – 4. The structure of the second synod meeting is expected to mirror the first meeting, with delegates sitting at round tables, listening to presentations and participating in “conversations in the spirit,” an approach to listening to the Holy Spirit and each other that includes periods of silence and an opportunity for everyone to share and respond.
  • – 5. Widely controversial topics — such as women’s ordination to the diaconate, married clergy and ministry to people who identify as LGBT — have moved from the synod’s roundtable discussions to special theological study groups. With these study groups doing the heavy lifting on these topics, synod participants are expected to focus more on the meaning and experience of synodality itself. However, delegates expect to receive a progress report from the study groups, and they are expected to submit final reports on their work in June.

One topic that is expected to be discussed — formally or informally — is the December issuing of “Fiducia Supplicans,” a pastoral instruction issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that outlined the “possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.” The document was met with controversy worldwide, both for its content and its promulgation, with some critics suggesting that the mode for crafting the document did not include proper consultation, or that bishops were underprepared for its publication. Bishops in Africa and elsewhere formally rejected the pastoral guidance offered in the document, and, while the document was not tied to the synod, some African leaders told OSV News that they felt “Fiducia” tainted the synod process.

  • – 6. Of the 368 voting delegates — 272 bishops and 96 non-bishops — the vast majority are returning from the first meeting. The U.S. will have the same 18 delegates with the exception of Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, whose seat has been assumed by Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore. Archbishop Lori was among the bishops initially chosen to attend both synod meetings, but he was unable to attend last year.
  • – 7. For many, “synodality” continues to be a difficult-to-define concept. The synthesis report acknowledged this challenge, noting that “the terms ‘synodal’ and ‘synodality’ require a more accurate clarification of their levels of meaning in different cultures.” The document also explained synodality this way: “In its broadest sense, synodality can be understood as Christians walking in communion with Christ toward the Kingdom along with the whole of humanity. Its orientation is towards mission, and its practice involves gathering in assembly at each level of ecclesial life. It involves reciprocal listening, dialogue, community discernment, and creation of consensus as an expression that renders Christ present in the Holy Spirit, each taking decisions in accordance with their responsibilities.”

Last year’s synthesis report also stated that the assembly members agree, by and large, “that, with the necessary clarifications, synodality represents the future of the church.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)