This weekend, we celebrated the feast of the Ascension, forty days from the resurrection, and ten days before the great feast of Pentecost. The weekend of Pentecost was deliberately chosen for the second session of our Diocesan Synod, with the continued hope that we will listen to, and be guided by, the Holy Spirit. We now know that there will be about 300 people gathered in the six hubs across our diocese, discerning if the content of the five foundations will provide us with a spiritual framework from which to imagine a way forward, to build the Kingdom of God together in our Diocese. The Synod Papers have resulted from the listening and dialogue processes of the Plenary Council, and our own listening and dialogue over many years in our Diocese.
I trust that the words from this week’s second reading, from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians (1:17–23) will be our experience next weekend:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit, and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.
And in Mark’s Gospel (16:15-20) for the weekend, we are charged to go out to the whole world proclaiming the Good News (euangelion) to all creation. I believe this to be the essence of all of the words that have been written in preparation for our Synod. We gather at Eucharist, to be sent out on God’s mission to the whole world. Through the Diocesan Synod and the Plenary Council. we are being asked to renew our commitment of service in and to Australian society.
When we gather, I hope the focus will not be on getting people back into church, but on our going forth, on reaching out, and on serving the communities in which we live and work. The early church grew in numbers because of the witness provided by the followers of Jesus Christ. Surely, we have also been baptised with both water and the Holy Spirit.
I note that this week we celebrate National Volunteer Week with its theme – Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine. Evidently there are six million volunteers in Australia and our past year has made this evident when we have dealt with drought, bushfires, floods and a global pandemic. In our parishes, we have many who come forward as disciples to serve the community. These parish workers give generously of their time, talent and treasure for the good of the community. Many of these church workers spend time being formed for mission, not only growing in their own faith but also witnessing to this faith in the hope that others may see the reason for their joy. We are indeed blest to have such good people in our midst.
When we gather next weekend, separated by distance but unified in purpose, may the Holy Spirit come upon us, as we have prayed since 2019 with the Plenary Council Prayer and now our Synod Prayer:
Synod – Plenary Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia and
guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories
and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
Come into our Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
And show us how we can build the Kingdom of God.
Give us the courage to face our past,
the heart to look to the future with clear eyes
the grace to listen to each other with love and respect
as we work for justice, peace, and reconciliation.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
bread for the journey from age to age. Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
I ask that you keep praying this prayer beyond Saturday, as we journey towards the Plenary Council in October and our third session of Synod in November.
Recently, I was given an article written by Joan Chittister called Climbing the Eight Mountains of Religious Life (National Catholic Reporter 1998). In it she explores the meaning of the different mountains in scripture and the insight they provide for us spiritually.
- Sinai – the mountain of spirituality (Moses)
- Gilboa – the mountain of delight and letting go (Saul)
- Olive – the mountain of solidarity (Crucifixion)
- Moriah – the mountain of sacrifice (Abraham)
- Carmel – the mountain of choice (Elijah)
- Hermon – the mountain of corporate prophesy (Transfiguration)
- Gerizim – the mountain of feminism (Woman at the well)
- Beatitudes – the mountain of unlimited inclusiveness
She then goes on to talk about our call to be spirituality centres of the world.
It is time, I think, to offer spiritual seekers the right to find with us the treasure for which they are obviously in quest – meaning, purpose, prayer and spiritual development in a sterile and secular world – before they are confronted with its choices, burdened by its demands or lured by its false promises. They should be able to find with us the direction they need to turn their lives into the stuff of sanctity in the face of an unwholesome age.
Will our Synod inspire us to dream of such a hope?