Prayer Service Seeks Holy Spirit’s Guidance for Bishop Rhoades, Other Synod Members Less than 10 days before Bishop Rhoades traveled to Rome to take part in the second session of the Synod of Bishops, dozens gathered at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead him and his fellow delegates as they discern how to make the Church more effective in spreading the Gospel of Christ. Following the first session of the synod on synodality, which took place last October, the second session will begin with a two-day retreat for the delegates that will conclude on Tuesday, October 1, with a penitential liturgy led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica. The next day, Pope Francis will celebrate the opening Mass, and the synod will be in session through Sunday, October 27, as participating delegates, including Bishop Rhoades, will discuss, per Pope Francis’ instructions, “How to be a missionary synodal Church.” On the evening of Thursday, September 16, St. Matthew Cathedral hosted the hourlong prayer service that consisted of Scripture readings, music, silent prayer, and personal reflections on synodality by Alicia Nagy, Father Andrew Budzinski, Sister M. Mercy Briola, and Bishop Rhoades. Below is a summary of these reflections. Photos by Scott WardenA father and his children look on during a prayer service for Bishop Rhoades and other participants of the upcoming Synod of Bishops during a prayer service at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend on Thursday, September 19. The service included reflections on synodality, music, and Scripture readings. ‘I See the Gifts of God in My Life’ Stepping up to the ambo to begin the series of reflections on the synod and synodality, Alicia Nagy, who is the director of music at Sacred Heart Parish on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, explored the theme of Jesus the Winemaker, who lovingly tends to us, His branches, so that we might produce abundant fruit for His glory. The process of winemaking isn’t quick or easy, Nagy said. “God provided the beautiful gift of the grape vine, that human beings have for a very long time … learned how to cultivate. They’ve known what soil to grow the vines in, and how to prune it just so, and how to tie it up so the grapes can hang down and not get moldy. … It’s a process of years to get good grapes, and once you have the fruit, it must be harvested,” she said. “And the grapes must be crushed. … And the juice must be then taken and put into vats and left in the darkness to ferment. You have to wait and wait and wait until things that are outside of your control happen.” And then finally, she said, you have the wine. This process is similar to our own lives of faith, Nagy said – making sure our roots are planted in fertile soil, tending to what is good and cutting away what is bad so that the harvest might be abundant. “I see the gifts of God in my life – in my husband and children, my father and friends,” Nagy said. “And I see lots of collaboration with all the natural gifts and graces of each day. But I also see a lot of waiting, a lot of breaking down and crushing, a lot of messiness, a lot of darkness, a lot of things needing to happen that are out of my control. But God has worked with me in all of it. God is doing His work through all of it.” So, too, it is with the Body of Christ, Nagy said. “I look at the Church, and I see the same process,” she said. “There’s been persecutions, divisions, heresies, and dogmas and councils and synods that had to reconcile factions, refute heresies, and clarify doctrine. Fruits of old ways are plucked, and vines of traditions are pruned, and we can fear the crush of our secular society and the ferment of the digital age. All of these things are part of our journey through the world of God, who’s collaborated with our efforts, working through the messiness and the darkness. Out of all of this, can we believe He is providing choice wine?” Then Nagy asked, “How today can we collaborate with Bishop Rhoades, who’s being sent to the synod in Rome for the next month?” She answered, “Well, I think about the parable of the true vine, in which Jesus says, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in me and you will bear abundant fruit.’ I hear the instructions right there. Each of us are branches on the vine that make up Jesus in the world. He works through us. Each one, in our state of life, is helping to bring about the fruitfulness that comes from keeping His commandments when we live in faith, when we each take up our battles, our personal struggles against our fears and anxieties, our addictions, against our exhaustion and our dissipation, disillusionment, and despair. It might threaten to take us off the vine. We choose instead to cling to … the promises of God, who says, ‘Remain in me and you will bear abundant fruit.’” Father Andrew Budzinski, pastor and rector of St. Matthew Cathedral, gives a reflection on synodality during a prayer service for Bishop Rhoades and other particpants of the Synod of Bishops that was held on Thursday, September 19, in South Bend. Father Budzinski reminded those in attendance that “everything good and true and beautiful has been authored by God.” The second session of the synod begins on Wednesday, October 2, in Rome. ‘God Is the Author of All that Is’ Following Nagy was Father Andrew Budzinski, the pastor and rector of St. Matthew Cathedral. Father Budzinski shared a story about a trip he and his family made when he was a boy. On their 12-hour drive from South Bend to Washington, D.C., Father Budzinski reminded the faithful gathered at his parish that this was in 1980, “when the only screens people had were the stationery ones in their living room.” To keep him occupied, he said, his parents got him activity books that needed invisible ink in order for him to do the puzzles and such. “If you were doing your maze, you’d uncover arrows pointing you in the right direction … or a red X would let you know you chose the wrong path,” Father Budzinski recalled. “Now, I could have used my own Sharpie and written what I wanted on the pages,” he added. “But if I had done that, I would have never uncovered what the author wrote. I had to use the right tool – the invisible ink marker – if I was to play right and win the game.” So it is with our faith, Father Budzinski said. “God is the author of all that is, and it’s our job to understand and do His will, to read what He has written.” Father Budzinski continued: “Everything true and good and beautiful has been authored by God. All we have to do is use His tools and not our own. His invisible ink pen, if you will, is His invisible Holy Spirit, who reveals the mind of the Father. … And so let’s take some time just to pray, personally, in our lives, for our Church, for the synod. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit that we stand before as we pray to begin this evening to guide us, to teach us the way we must go. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the will of the Father for each and every day of our lives and the life of the Church.” ‘The Church Is Constantly in Need of Renewal’ The third speaker to offer a reflection at the prayer service was Sister M. Mercy Briola, who professed her final vows with the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in 2022. She is a teacher and the chair of the mathematics department at Marian High School in Mishawaka. Sister Mercy opened by acknowledging – and appreciating – the role of the Holy Spirit in the synod process, noting that it “has begun at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, has been influenced and directed by the Holy Spirit, and will come to a conclusion and bear fruit by the Holy Spirit. He is the primary agent in this synodal process,” she said. Reflecting on the evening’s responsorial psalm – “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth” – Sister Mercy noted that the Church “is constantly in need of renewal, since she is not a static entity but a dynamic, living organism.” She continued: “Especially in our own troubled times, the Church must renew her commitment to proclaim the Gospel to all people and to see unity among all Christians.” Sister Mercy illustrated the importance of the synod by relaying her experience in religious life, where a “chapter” is held to plot a path forward for the order. At the synod, she said, “The Holy Spirit has called people from all states in life and from all corners of the globe to come together and discern and discuss a path forward.” This seeking the input of others, she said, can be observed in the founders of her order – St. Francis of Assisi, who founded the Franciscan order, and Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel, who founded the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Each regularly sought advice, and each shows “that God’s voice can be heard equally by all.” She added that her own vocational discernment “took the form of ongoing dialogue, attentive listening, and vulnerability of the heart. These are the same virtues that we see exercised by synod participants.” Bishop Rhoades shares a reflection on his participation in the upcoming session of the Synod of Bishops during a prayer service at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend on Thursday, September 19. ‘A Church which Goes Forth’ Bishop Rhoades concluded the series of personal reflections by focusing on the task Pope Francis has charged him and all the delegates of the synod with – namely, “How to be a missionary synodal Church,” the very theme of October’s synod. Bishop Rhoades chose to reflect on the word “mission.” “Sometimes, in all our discussions on becoming a more synodal Church, we can forget that the end or purpose of all we do is the mission,” Bishop Rhoades said, adding that this emphasis on being missionary disciples is “the pope’s dream for the Church.” He continued: “Impelled by the love of Christ, like St. Paul, we are to be an evangelizing community, a community of missionary disciples, bringing God’s mercy and love to all. … Becoming a more synodal Church entails our conversion and renewal and is ordered to more dynamic and fruitful mission, recognizing that all of us, all the baptized, are co-responsible for mission. The Holy Father wants us to be bold and creative in our missionary task.” Bishop Rhoades then reflected on the time he spent with his fellow delegates in Rome during the synod last year, noting that “it was beautiful for me to witness the common faith and hopes of the synod delegates.” He continued: “Though we came from often vastly different situations and circumstances, our communion within the Body of Christ was clearly evident. We prayed and conversed together, listened attentively to one another, and shared our challenges and our hopes. As you know, listening to one another is an essential step in the practice of synodality and, of course, listening first and foremost to the word of God as transmitted to us through Scripture and Tradition. Called to read the signs of the times, as the Second Vatican Council taught and the synod reminds us, it is always to be done in the light of the Gospel. … The world needs the Gospel. For me, this is what the synod is all about. We are called to be a truly missionary synodal Church, not a self-centered or self-referential or overly bureaucratic Church. May the Lord bless all of us with joy and hope as we strive to do His will, to be a Church which ‘goes forth’ to offer everyone the life and truth and love of the Lord!” The post Praying for a Synodal Church appeared first on Today's Catholic.