Hi there! Happy to find this group and listening people from different places about synodality.

In this synodal walk, our hearts and voices intertwine 🤞 We want to hear your feelings, your thoughts, your joys and your concerns. Share with us how you are feeling, because in synodality, your voice is an echo of what we hope to be together❤️🗣️ Leave your vote below! And if you want to share more about how you feel in the comments, welcome! 🙌🤗👂

In the last chapter of a book from Piero Coda, theologian belonging to the Focolare movement, ca lled 'Chiesa Sinodale nell'oggi della storia' (only in Italian), the writer makes an interesting link between Mary and a Synodal Church. We are all invited to enter into the school of Mary and grow into her style of life "meditating on what we have heard and seen". He refers to the place Mary has relating to the Church as described in Lumen Gentium of Vatican II and to the message of Pope Francis for the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church in 2022. Mary is the principle and the profile of the Church being the mother of the Son of God.

I've read the report and used up a few highlighter pens. I have to be honest and say my initial reading left me feeling a bit deflated. I know we were told to manage our expectations but clearly I hadn't managed them enough. However, I see Cardinal McElroy of San Diego is calling it a "transitory document - it's for this moment." And read in that light, yes, then it becomes more understandable. Over the next year the language in it needs to be unpacked and guidelines need to be issued from the Synod office for local churches to implement. Many of the proposals need to be taken up by commissions and ultimately the Pope if they are to be brought forward. As James Baker, American Secretary of State said in 1991 after the Israelis first sat in talks with the PLO, "we have to crawl before we walk, walk before we run, and today, we all began to crawl."

This is to introduce myself. I am Richard Hunt, SJ and I live in the Bronx, New York. I am living in a Jesuit retirement community. My mission has always been to listen and walk with those suffering in the periphery and with the young. I was a psychotherapist for many years in clinical practice in counseling and as a marriage and family therapist. I also did graduate work in comparative religion with an emphasis on the study of mysticism and spirituality. This took m into inter religious work. I also studied healing with many teacher and this led to teaching in wellness centers. I also worked for many years in campus ministry at a secular university. I am presently assigned to pray for the church and the Society of Jesus. I write icons and work with a community of Ursuline sisters. My pray life has been influenced by Ignation spirituality, Zen, Insight Meditation, John of the Cross and my practice id the Prayer of the Heart. I’ve just finished reading the Synthesis Report of the Synod. I found it joyful, inspiring and a hope for the future. I want to be supportive as possible of the incorporation of synodality into the life of the church.