On February 8th, we had our first Listening Session for the Synodal Process at Ss. Francis & John Parish. We are thankful for the team that facilitated the process and moved us through the session with great success! The session was well-attended and represented many ages and stages of life which was very beneficial to learning more about the needs of our community. As Father Linh has communicated, this is just the beginning! Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, each session will bring us closer to the tangible goals needed to move us into our future. Thank you to all who took the time and were open to this process. More information will be upcoming as the team gathers all the information and makes plans for the next steps. Stay tuned!
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
One of the beautiful things about our Catholic faith is the rich history and firm foundation upon which the Church is built. Throughout the ages, even in times of darkness, the Church remains standing. It is the uniqueness of our faith that provides specific pathways to keeping the Church unified in times of peace and in times of trial. One of these pathways used by the Church to unify and keep the Church striving for excellence is the synodal process. Simply put, a synod is a gathering of clergy and/or laity to pray, listen, and discern together what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church today. The most recent Synod, referred to as the "Synod on Synodality", officially began on October 10, 2021, when Pope Francis opened the synodal process in Rome. The Synod on Synodality was a three-year process of listening and dialogue beginning at the Vatican and trickling down to individual dioceses throughout the world. The synodal process concluded in 2024. Recently, the Pope tasked dioceses to share the synodal process with individual parishes to use as a format to discern the future of their parishes. In turn, our Diocese invited our parish to send representatives to be trained on the synodal process and how we can implement it in our community. Our SSFJ representatives, which will be introduced in the upcoming weeks, have completed their training, and we are now ready to take the next step to implement this discerning process within our parish. I want to emphasize the importance of this process for our parish. Due to the rapid growth of our community and the ongoing transition to the Cardome Campus, it is more important than ever to take a step back and evaluate our path forward. The needs of our parish are changing at a rapid pace and the decisions we make today will greatly impact how effective we are in our future mission of evangelization. This is the time to discern how best to serve our current needs while setting the stage for future growth. The Church in Her wisdom realizes that the Holy Spirit is an essential part of this process of discernment and that is where the synodal process will lend a hand to guide us forward in this endeavor. In the upcoming weeks, you will hear me speak about this process and how you can participate fully in this time of discernment. I will begin by speaking about the synodal process during masses next weekend. We will begin the journey by inviting you to take some time to reflect on how you feel our parish is doing regarding fulfilling the needs of our people and how we can prepare for our future as a community. We will follow this time of individual discernment with a series of listening sessions to discuss together the insights that have been brought forward and work together to mold these into tangible goals for our parish. I want to personally invite you to mark your calendars for our first Synodal Listening Session on Saturday, February 8th, from 10a-12p in the Parish Hall. It will take all of us, coming together as a family, to make this an effective process for our parish. I want to leave you with a quote from Pope Francis on the synodal process and ask you to take it as a personal invitation to truly be part of the Body of Christ within the Church at Ss. Francis & John Parish. “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium. This journey… is both a gift and a task: by journeying together and reflecting together on the journey that has been made, the Church will be able to learn through Her experience which processes can help Her to live communion, to achieve participation, to open Herself to mission." —Pope Francis In Christ, Father Linh