On Wednesday morning, the icon of Mary and Elizabeth, synodal women, accompanied the Superiors General during morning prayer on the third day of their week-long Plenary Assembly.

D. Jessie Rogers, the first lay person and the first woman to be dean of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, presented reflections regarding Wisdom for the Synodal Journey. “Developments in human knowing invite us to see the cosmos as an interconnected web that is on a journey of becoming”, she said at the beginning of her presentation. Peace is our final common destination, she continued. “Our mission is to build up the body of Christ…and to be a channel of God’s blessing to the world.”

D. Rogers then developed the ways in which wisdom is pursued: staying near to the Lord, recognizing “God’s footprints,” remembering the past while forgetting “just enough to create a space for God’s newness”. The three attitudes necessary to see what new things God is doing are: “contemplative wonder, compassionate attentiveness, and hope.” In the end, the God of the Exodus who is the same Father of Our Lord, provides us with a wonderful surprise in the Paschal Mystery. In that Mystery, we understand St Paul’s affirmation that “God’s folly is wiser than human wisdom.” In embracing the “way of nonviolent resistance,” Dr Rogers said, we too can “embrace the wisdom of vulnerability”.

The Superiors General were then led in a reflection on how the synodal journey can change religious life and how it can contribute to the synodal journey. Sr Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishop,s and Jesuit Father David MacCallum together addressed the assembly on this topic. 

Regarding change, they mentioned that the conversion to being a “listening/learning Church” contains a call to exercise authority from a “generative” and “empowerment” stance so as to “liberate the freedom” of the individual sisters. New models of leadership include “collaborative, servant and discerning” leadership models. Regarding what women religious can contribute to the synodal journey, mystical experience, a vocation in following the self-emptying Christ, and individual charisms of religious institutes were cited.

Archbishop José Carballo, Secretary of the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life celebrated mid-day liturgy. “The Eucharist is a celebration; otherwise, it is not Eucharist. If there is no Easter there is no joy”, were his opening words. 

Later in the afternoon, he focused on synodal formation so that “synodality can become a way of life and of acting” in religious life as well. This means that each sister embrace her vocation to live “in communion with God and others” by walking alongside others. The primary action in this type of formation is listening to new members in formation, and listening to God, the Archbishop said, and to know how to distinguish God’s voice from other voices as Samuel did.

Sr Bernadette Reis, fsp

Photos of the day