The Synod on Synodality convened on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2023 / 12:25 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of October is for the Synod.
“Mission is at the heart of the Church,” Pope Francis said in a video released Oct. 2. “And even more when a Church is in Synod, this synodal dynamic alone carries its missionary vocation forward — that is, her response to Jesus’ mandate to proclaim the Gospel.”
The Synod on Synodality, which brings clerics and laity together for nearly one month of discussions, is taking place at the Vatican from Oct. 4–29.
The Holy Father recalled that “nothing ends here,” but instead “we are continuing an ecclesial journey here.”
He paralleled the synodal journey to the journey the disciples took on the road to Emmaus where they were “listening to the Lord who always comes to meet us.”
“Through prayer and discernment, the Holy Spirit helps us carry out the ‘apostolate of the ear,’ that is, listening with God’s ears in order to speak with the word of God. And thus, we draw near to the heart of Christ,” he said.
The pope added: “Our mission and the voice that draws us to him spring from him. This voice reveals to us that the heart of mission is to reach out to everyone, to seek everyone, to welcome everyone, to involve everyone, without excluding anyone.”
He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray for the Church, that she may adopt listening and dialogue as a style of life at every level, allowing herself to be guided by the Holy Spirit towards the world’s peripheries.”
Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Sister Giustina Holubets (left) pictured during a commemorations for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in Lyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 15, 2024. / Credit: Perinatal Hospice – Imprint of Life
Rome Newsroom, Mar 10, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
Since 20… […]
Vatican City, Apr 2, 2021 / 11:10 am (CNA).- Politics turned into ideologies have wounded fraternity in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., said at the Vatican’s Passion of the Lord liturgy on Good Friday.“I believe that we al… […]
Pope Francis speaking at the general audience on St. Peter’s Square, Nov. 9, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Rome Newsroom, Nov 9, 2022 / 03:34 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Wednesday his trip to the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain was a new step on the journey to create “fraternal alliances” between Christians and Muslims.
The pope spoke about his Nov. 3-6 visit to Bahrain, a small, overwhelmingly Muslim country in the Persian Gulf, during his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 9.
“The journey to Bahrain should not be seen as an isolated episode,” he said. “It was part of a process initiated by Saint John Paul II when he went to Morocco.”
This is why, he continued, “the first visit of a pope in Bahrain represents a new step on the journey between Christian and Muslim believers — not to confuse things or water down the faith, but to create fraternal alliances in the name of our Father Abraham, who was a pilgrim on earth under the merciful gaze of the one God of Heaven, the God of peace.”
“And why do I say that dialogue does not water down [the faith]?” Francis said. “Because to dialogue you have to have your own identity, you have to start from your identity. If you do not have identity, you cannot dialogue, because you do not understand what you are either.”
The Papal Swiss Guard at St. Peter’s Square, Nov. 9, 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
The motto of Pope Francis’ visit to Bahrain was “Peace on earth to people of goodwill.” The trip included encounters with government officials, Muslim leaders, and the small Catholic community, including a Mass with around 30,000 people in Bahrain’s national soccer stadium.
The small Christian minority in Bahrain is mostly made up of immigrants, especially from India and the Philippines.
More than 70% of the total population — 1.5 million — is Muslim, while there are only about 161,000 Catholics living in the country, according to 2020 Vatican statistics.
Pope Francis said Wednesday it was “marvelous” to see the many Christian immigrants in Bahrain.
“The brothers and sisters in the faith, whom I met in Bahrain, truly live ‘on a journey,’” he said. “For the most part, they are immigrant laborers who, far from home, discover their roots in the People of God and their family within the larger family of the Church. And they move ahead joyfully, in the certainty that the hope of God does not disappoint.”
The pope pointed out that the Kingdom of Bahrain is an archipelago of 33 islands, which “helps us understand that it is not necessary to live by isolating ourselves, but by coming closer” — something which aids peace.
He said “dialogue is the ‘oxygen of peace,’” not only in a nation but also in a family: Dialogue can help bring peace to a husband and wife who are fighting, for example.
Throughout his visit to Bahrain, Francis said, he heard several times the desire to increase encounters and strengthen the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the country.
He recalled a custom in that part of the world to place one’s hand on the heart when greeting another person. “I did this too,” he said, “to make room inside me for the person I was meeting.”
“For without this welcome, dialogue remains empty, illusory, it remains on the level of an idea rather than reality,” he said.
Francis encouraged Catholics to have “open hearts,” not closed, hard hearts, and said he would like to transmit the “genuine, simple, and beautiful joy” of the Christian priests, religious, and lay people he met in Bahrain.
“Meeting each other and praying together, we felt we were of one heart and one soul,” he said.
At the beginning of the general audience, Pope Francis drew attention to two “courageous” children who had approached the platform where he was sitting.
These children “didn’t ask permission, they didn’t say, ‘Ah, I’m afraid’ — they came directly,” he said. “They gave us an example of how we are to be with God, with the Lord: go for it.”
“He is always waiting for us,” he continued. “It did me good to see the trust of these two children: it was an example for all of us. This is how we must always approach the Lord: with freedom.”
“Let us pray for the Church, that she may adopt listening and dialogue as a style of life at every level, allowing herself to be guided by the Holy Spirit towards the world’s peripheries.”
Is that the prayer?
If so, then Pope Francis is asking for more missionaries to bring the Gospel, the Light of Christ, to a world darkened and confused with sin. Are we to dialogue with those who reject creation and natural law?
“Let us pray for the Church, that she may adopt listening and dialogue as a style of life at every level, allowing herself to be guided by the Holy Spirit towards the world’s peripheries.”
Is that the prayer?
If so, then Pope Francis is asking for more missionaries to bring the Gospel, the Light of Christ, to a world darkened and confused with sin. Are we to dialogue with those who reject creation and natural law?
Heal us O Lord from deafness and dumbness. Ephphatha – “Be opened” says the Lord to His chosen ones.