The SJSP Book Club will meet Thursday, September 14 at 7:00pm in the St. Paul Rectory to begin a study of Women of Hope: Doctors of the Church by Terry Polakovic. The book covers Saints Teresa of Ávila, Catherine of
October 2023 will begin a process of communal discernment in a month-long Vatican assembly of Bishops, Cardinals, Priests, Consecrated, and Lay People representing the experiences of the whole People of God at the Synod on Synodality. Throughout this two year process, their guiding document will be the Instrumentum Laboris, a document which was compiled from the sharing of millions of Catholics worldwide participating in the Continental Stage of the Synod… For the first time in history, women (more than 50!) will be voting delegates of the Synod. A significant area of focus for the Synod will be the equal baptismal dignity of Women in the Church…
I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is also a minister (diakonos) of the church at Cenchreae,
that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones,
and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well.
-Romans 16:1,2
I am so happy to introduce you to Sister Colleen Gibson, SSJ, the new Coordinator of Pastoral Care for our Collaborative. Sister Colleen, whose primary office will be at the St. Paul Rectory Offices, will work in partnership with Kelly Meraw, our Director of Pastoral Care, on adult faith formation programs, service and outreach initiatives, and coordinating sacramental liturgies and services across the Collaborative. Below is a brief introduction – please join me in welcoming Sister Colleen to our Collaborative!
Sister Colleen Gibson, SSJ is a Sister of Saint Joseph from Philadelphia and recent graduate of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. An award-winning writer, her work appears regularly in Give Us This Day and the National Catholic Reporter…
I am thrilled to let you know that we will be welcoming a new deacon to our St. John-St. Paul Collaborative community!
Rick Vatcher will be ordained a Permanent Deacon on September 9, and will be joining our Collaborative pastoral staff in a part-time capacity after that.
Below is a brief introduction – I know you will join me in welcoming him to the Collaborative!
Enlarge the Space of Your Tent: Rethinking Women’s Participation is a Global Synod Gathering hosted at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Boston in Braintree on Saturday, September 23 from 2:00 – 5:00pm. Participants will be invited through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the resources of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to fruitfully contribute to Conversations in the Spirit. The event will include: a gathering and invitational liturgy, small group sharing, personal witnesses, fellowship, and a Vigil Mass celebrated by Father Richard Lennan.
Preregistration required…
FutureChurch Celebration of Mary Magdalene: “Rethinking Women’s Participation – Stories of Synodality Then and Now”
Thursday, July 20 from 7:00 – 8:30pm on Zoom
Jesus himself practiced synodality and sought to teach it to his disciples – both women and men – through example: teaching through parables; seeking out those on the periphery, whose voices had been ignored or silenced; placing each person he encountered on his path at the center of his ministry.
Perhaps the greatest ‘miss’ in the history of Synodality was when the other Apostles dismissed the witness of Mary Magdalene, who was commissioned by Jesus to “go and tell” the good news.
What is the Instrumentum laboris (IL)?
As the Latin word suggests, the IL is first and foremost a working tool for the participants in the work of the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. In this sense, the IL does not suggest answers, but notes, articulates some insights that have emerged in the process, opens up questions and invites further study.
It is therefore also a document for the discernment of the participants in the October 2023 Assembly. In fact, unlike previous synods for which the IL was a document to be amended, improved, in order to arrive at a new document, the current IL is primarily aimed at and in support of the assembly’s methodology…
On June 20, the secretariat for the synod published the working document (known by its Latin title instrumentum laboris) for the first session of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality that will be held in the Vatican from October 4 to October 29, 2023. The second session will be held in October 2024.
Cardinal Grech described the working document as “the fruit of a synodal process” that started on Oct. 10, 2021, and “involved the whole church” in an exercise of listening to the people of God…
We will continue with Chapters 5-6 of How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, by Thomas E. Woods. (Available online and at local booksellers.)
In this short book, Professor Woods provides a survey of the Church’s contribution to literary preservation, education, science, art and architecture, law, economics, charity, and morality.
NEWCOMERS WELCOME! Meetings are in person on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings of each month at St. Paul. To register or make inquiries, please email: bookclub@sjspwellesley.org