My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"I have been finding the synod very stimulating. It is giving us a sense of how the bible is being used around the world, how the Word of God is bringing new life to the Church and how pastoral challenges are being met. We have been listening to interventions from bishops from the different countries. We will continue doing so for another week. Then, in the final week, we will formulate propositions to give to the pope. He has been at almost all the sessions.
The schedule is very full. We start with Mass at 7:00 am, have a morning
session until 12:30, then lunch and time for a rest, then an afternoon session
until 7:00 pm. That is the daly schedule from Monday until Saturday. Sunday is
a day of rest."
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At the morning session of the synod today, I made my intervention. A brief
summary, along with some personal observations, is included below:
Synod of Bishops - XII Ordinary General Assembly 2008
Intervention of Most Rev. Ronald Fabbro, C.S.B., Bishop of London A reflection
on Instrumentum Laboris, n. 41
SUMMARY
The Renewal of Parish Life
The dioceses of Canada realize that to renew parish life we need to foster a
prayerful listening to the Word of God in the Scriptures. A great obstacle to
developing a living relationship with Christ is formalism, which characterizes
much parochial life. Formalism means going through the motions of religious
practices without deep, engaging faith, without a living, personal
relationship with the incarnate Word.
We need to teach our people proven methods of becoming one with Christ, such
as the traditional practice of lectio divina, which enable them to meditate on
the Scriptures in a spirit of prayer. Under the impulse of the Spirit, this
prayerful reading of the biblical text draws us into a personal encounter with
Christ, who speaks to us in the daily circumstances of our lives, and who
gradually transforms, so that we can bring his message of love to others.
Prayerful meditation on the Scriptures leads us to the poor. When we are in
solidarity with the poor, our hearts are opened in fresh, new ways to the Word
which we listen to in the Scriptures.
Many of our people are coming to our churches for the Sunday Eucharist,
longing to hear God’s Word proclaimed in the Scripture readings. The breaking
open of the Word in the homily should help them to discover a firm reference
point for their lives. Within the context of this community of faith, a
remarkable transformation will occur. In a community which gathers to pray
and meditate on the Scriptures all dimensions of life are embraced and
challenged, producing in the members a sense of belonging and a commitment to
the Church’s mission.
It is incumbent on bishops to find ways to support parishes, to break through
the formalism that cripples many of our people and to lead all of them,
through the power of the Spirit, into a living, personal relationship with the
Risen Lord.