Saint Phoebe

Saint Phoebe

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

Saturday, September 23: “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent: Rethinking Women’s Participation”

Saturday, September 23: “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent: Rethinking Women’s Participation”

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: Thursday, July 20 on Zoom

FutureChurch Celebration of Mary Magdalene: Thursday, July 20 on Zoom

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.

Synod News: “Instrumentum laboris” Frequently Asked Questions

Synod News: “Instrumentum laboris”  Frequently Asked Questions

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…

Instrumentum laboris: Vatican releases Synod working document

Instrumentum laboris: Vatican releases Synod working document

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…

Synod Update: Big News from the Vatican

Synod Update: Big News from the Vatican

Last month, the Vatican announced that for the first time, lay people – including women – will serve as full members of the Synod of Bishops with voting rights, as part of a broader series of changes to the rules governing these papally convened summits. Under the previous norms, a synod was defined in canon law as a gathering of members, of which “the greater part are bishops” elected by their national bishops’ conference. Other members, usually bishops or male religious, were either appointed by the pope or by their religious institutes.

Bishops Release North American Final Document to Conclude Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod

Bishops Release North American Final Document to Conclude Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) have issued the North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission (also available in Spanish and French.)

Begun in late 2022, the Continental Stage of the Synod was the second stage of the three-year process initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021. For the North American Continental Stage, the United States and Canada held twelve virtual assemblies: seven in English, three in Spanish, and two in French between December 2022 and January 2023. In total, 931 delegates and 146 bishops from Canada and the United States were appointed to participate in one of these twelve assemblies to share their reflections and responses…

Synod News: “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent” – Document for the Continental Stage Released

Synod News: “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent” – Document for the Continental Stage Released

On October 27, 2022, the Working Document for the Continental Stage – the fruit of the Syntheses resulting from the consultation of the People of God in the first phase of the synodal process – was released… The document, titled “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent” was produced by a team of 30 advisors who gathered in Frascati, Italy for two weeks in late-September and early October, the majority of whom were lay Catholics…

Please take some time to read the Working Document for the Continental Stageyou will find many of the major themes that were central in our own SJSP Collaborative Synod Synthesis Report are reflected in the document…

Faith Enrichment Opportunities: Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

Faith Enrichment Opportunities: Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

Becoming a Synodal Church: Issues and Challenges
Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ Undersecretary for the General Secretariat of the Synod
Thursday, October 27 at 5:30pm to 7:00pm – Corcoran Commons, Heights Room, Chestnut Hill Campus – Attend in person or virtually
The Synod on Synodality is a transformative process in which all the baptized are protagonists and discern together the calls of the Holy Spirit, uniting as a listening Church of participation and co-responsibility…

Pope Francis extends Synod

Pope Francis extends Synod

In a surprise announcement after reciting the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on October 6, Pope Francis has significantly lengthened the final Roman phase of the ongoing Synod on Synodality.  It will now extend over two sessions from October 4-29, 2023, and in October 2024.

“I hope that this decision will favor the comprehension of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the church and help everyone to live it as a journey of brothers and sisters who witness to the joy of the Gospel,” the pope said when he broke the news.

“The fruits of the synodal process that has gone ahead are many, but in order for them to bear much fruit, we can’t hurry,” said Francis.