A prayer for peace in the Basilica of St Mary Major and a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world. The Pope made this double surprise announcement at the end of his homily for Holy Mass in St Peter’s Square on the occasion of the opening of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”. In his closing remarks, Pope Francis invited all 368 participants in the Synod’s final session to “turn their gaze to the world.” “There is need for this – the Pope remarked – when the winds of war and the flames of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations.” “I will recite the holy rosary and make a heartfelt plea to the Virgin in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major this coming Sunday”, the Pope announced. “If possible, I ask all the members of the Synod to join me on this occasion. The following day, 7 October, I invite everyone to participate in a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world.”
“As we walk down the path of this Synod,
the Lord places in our hands the history, dreams and hopes of a great people: they are our sisters and brothers scattered throughout the world, inspired by the same faith, moved by the same desire for holiness. With them and for them, let us strive to understand the path we must follow in order to reach the destination the Lord desires for us.” This is the opening image chosen by the Pope. “We must listen to and understand these voices — that is, the ideas, the expectations, the proposals — so as to discern together the voice of God speaking to the Church”, the task of the final phase of the synodal process.
“Ours is not a parliamentary assembly, but rather a place of listening in communion,
where, as Saint Gregory the Great says, what someone has in himself or herself partially is possessed completely by another, and although some have particular gifts, everything belongs to everyone in the “charity of the Spirit”, Francis said, for “those who arrogantly claim to have the exclusive right to hear the voice of the Lord cannot hear it.” Instead, every word “is to be received with gratitude and simplicity and can become an echo of what God has given for the good of our brothers and sisters”, the Pope recommended, with an invitation
“Not to see our contributions as points to defend at all costs or agendas to be imposed”,
but rather “as a gift to be shared, ready even to sacrifice our own point of view in order to give life to something new, all according to God’s plan.” “Otherwise we will end up locking ourselves into dialogues among the deaf, where participants seek to advance their own causes or agendas without listening to others and, above all, without listening to the voice of the Lord”, he said. “The more we realise that we are surrounded by friends who love, respect and appreciate us, friends who want to listen to what we have to say, the more we will feel free to express ourselves spontaneously and openly”, the Pope said expressing his good wishes for the Synod: “This approach is not just a technique for facilitating dialogue and group communication dynamics:
Embracing, protecting and caring are in fact part of the very nature of the Church.”
“Among us there are many strong, well-prepared people, capable of rising to the heights with the intense movements of reflection and with brilliant insights”, Francis noted: “All this is a great advantage to us. It stimulates, challenges and sometimes forces us to think more openly and to move forward more decisively. It also helps us to remain firm in our faith even in the face of challenges and difficulties. This gift must be combined, when necessary, with the ability to relax our muscles and bend down to offer each other a welcoming embrace and a place of refuge: that way we will be, as Saint Paul VI said, a house of brothers and sisters, a workshop of intense activity, a cenacle of ardent spirituality”. “We must have open hearts, hearts in dialogue.
A heart that is closed in personal convictions is not proper to the Spirit of the Lord”,
Francis added off-text: “It is not about majorities and minorities. What is important, what is fundamental, is harmony, the harmony that only the Holy Spirit can achieve.”
“The Church needs peaceful and open places,
to be created first of all in our hearts, where each person feels welcomed, like an infant in a mother’s arms and as a child lifted up to a father’s cheek”, the Pope’s last snapshot for the Synodal mothers and fathers. “Given the importance of a Synod, in a certain sense we must try to be ‘great’ in spirit, in heart, in outlook, because the issues that we must deal with are “great” and delicate, and the situations are broad and universal”, Francis argued: “But it is precisely for this reason that we must not lose sight of the child, whom Jesus continues to place at the centre of our meetings and work tables, to remind us that the only way to be worthy of the task entrusted to us is to lower ourselves, to make ourselves small and to receive one another humbly.”
“The greatest in the Church is the one who bends down the lowest”,
he added in unscripted remarks. “May we live the days ahead in a spirit of listening, mutual care and humility – the Pope’s final message – that we may listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, that we may feel welcomed and embraced with love, and that we may never lose sight of the trusting, innocent and humble eyes of the little ones, of whom we seek to be the voice, and through whom the Lord continues to call out our freedom and our need for conversion.”
