August 10, 2022
Today is the feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, and in the first reading from 2 Corinthians St. Paul reminds us:
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
This month has felt like a time of bountiful sowing and abundant reaping.
We shared the first fruits of a season of deep listening as we released our synod synthesis report last week. And as reports from across the world are shared, it's evident how bountiful this global effort sow seeds for a synodal church.
I’ve been humbled and privileged over this past month to see up close, here in Chiapas, Mexico – what 60 years of sowing a synodal Church looks like. The harvest is bountiful: women exercising wide ranging and far reaching pastoral leadership; deacon couples who understand their shared vocation and responsibility to serve their community as a lifelong commitment; prophetic priests and religious women whose lives bear witness to the power of accompaniment; dynamic worker cooperatives that express an integral ecology and the dignity of work through a commitment for a collective. The struggle for peace, for self-determination, for equality - it is far from over, but here I’ve met a people who understand their lives as bound up in this struggle. People who persist in their work of organizing and reorganizing, celebrating, learning, gathering and listening… .
I tried to write up some of these early learnings and sacred encounters with you in a longer blog post this week. Thanks for reading - and thank you for your words of support, prayer and encouragement for our family on this synodal pilgrimage we’ve begun.
I hope each of us can find some time this August to make a pilgrimage. Perhaps to a place where your community has gathered to publicly witness to peace, or to cry out for justice. Or a favorite chapel that you find can hold you in whatever state you show up in. Wherever you are, you're invited to pause with us for a few minutes later this month as we pray a novena to St. Phoebe and journey towards her feast day September 3... And as 60 Discerning Deacons pilgrims plan to travel from across the Americas to bring our community’s hopes before Our Lady of Guadalupe.
There are more updates and happenings on the horizon with us at DD we look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks! And today, may St. Lawrence -the martyr of the least- remind us to always risk prioritizing the needs of the sick, the outcast, the incarcerated, the outsider in our midst – and to remember our own vulnerability and depending on the kindness of others.
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