Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Synod on Synodality: Communion, Participation, Mission
We continue our discussion as we prepare for the Synodal Listening Session to be held at St. Paul’s.  Specific dates are listed at bottom of this column. One may ask why all this preparation time?  Well, I want people to know what it is we are trying to accomplish in the sessions. Because of its potential spiritual fruit, it deserves proper preparation rather than throwing it all at everyone at the meeting itself.  Plus, proper preparation means the meetings will be more gracefully efficient in order to respect everyone’s time. 
I invite everyone to read my past two bulletin columns which give the groundwork.
Here are some other sources you may want to explore as well.
https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/synod
https://www.usccb.org/synod

So, what is this Synod thing?
Our listening sessions will be an exercise in “communal discernment.” Think of this process like a father calling a family meeting.  In this meeting, dad gives some basic guidelines but says, “I want you to go and reflect on this and come up with ideas and resolutions that will help the family.  Afterward I’ll give some comments and directives, but I want to hear how you discern God is calling our family forward.”  Another analogy could be a football team.  There are coaches in the booth watching from on high, but rather than dictating the plays, they allow the team to huddle and design some new plays based on their own experience and the conditions on the ground.  The huddle breaks and the team executes the plays to see how they work.
Everyone is given an opportunity to share in this communal discernment. We are the ones “on the ground” and the Holy Spirit is at work “on the ground” by giving His gifts according to His will to everyone throughout the church.  These gifts are meant to build up the communion of the Church, thus they must be ordered accordingly in their communal dimension.

The past couple weeks we have discussed some basics on Christian discernment.  We have covered the good and evil spirits, and how we experience them in general.  We reviewed the process of awareness, understanding, and judgment/action.

This week we focus on discernment as a process.  It is not something one just learns all of a sudden.  It takes prayer, study, and practice. It’s really similar to so many things we do.  In one’s professional life do we not have to learn over time, and practice?  In relationships do we not have to grow through experience and intentional action? Why should spirituality be any different?

Pray! Pray! Pray! - Study! Study! Study! - Practice! Practice! Practice!
Prayer of discernment, is not just Mass on Sunday, not just before meals, not just an Our Father before bed (as good as all of those are).  We need time of Christian meditation. Anyone who thinks, “I don’t need that,” is basically saying they are more holy than every saint and mystic and even Jesus Himself - all of whom took time for personal prayer and meditation. 
Just in case I wasn’t clear - PRAY! St. Francis de Sales says everyone should pray a half hour a day, but for those who are busy, they need to pray an hour a day! Make it a priority and do it! Even if you start small, that’s fine, but keep the goal of growing in perseverance to meditation.

Here let me say that we must not confuse our Christian meditation with other non-Christian “methods.” At times there may seem to be external similarities, but they are fundamentally different.  For some, meditation is a mere psychological exercise of self-reflection.  Some claim a “mindfulness” that helps them focus.  Now, knowing more about our psychology and being mindful or intentional in our actions is not bad, but it is not prayer.  Some of this can even stray into eastern religions or even “new age” practices like yoga, tai-chi, reiki, centering, etc. and call it meditation.  Do not be fooled, it is not Christian prayer and is spiritually dangerous for those engaged in them.
Christian mediation is exactly that, CHRISTIAN, meaning it is centered on, flows from, and returns to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  It means we pray so that our wills conform more to His, not our often selfish, inclinations and desires. 
Christ reveals Himself to us in the Scriptures, His Sacraments, and through the Church’s saints.   They are the focus of our prayer, study, and practice. 

A classic way of Christian mediation is of course the Rosary. Check this link to learn how to pray the rosary.
https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/rosary/how-to-pray-the-rosary.html

Another is Lectio Divina. Here is a link to some more info on this method. 
https://spiritualdirection.com/2012/04/21/what-is-lectio-divina-and-will-it-help-my-prayer-life-a-guide-to-lectio-divina

Also good is the examen prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Here is a link for more info. This link may seem complicated, but the prayer itself is not. Give it a read and try it.
http://www.sfcatholic.org/youth/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2020/04/Examen-St.-Ignatius.pdf

I will write more on this next week, but hopefully we can see that the communal discernment the pope is calling us to practice is not just sharing the spontaneous emotions or thoughts that come to us. He wants us to grow in this practice of Christian discernment and we can’t do that together unless we know how God is working in our personal prayer life.

Listening Session Dates:
Saturday March 5  @ 10-11:30am

Monday March 7 @  6-7:30pm

Tuesday March 8 @ 2-3:30pm

Thursday March 10 @ 10-11:30am

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Pfr