VATICAN SYNOD: Let Us Be a Church with Open Arms Like Jesus on the Cross: Sr. Ignazia to Synod Assembly Participants

Fr. Andrew Kaufa smm

The attitude of trusting in God who allows us to make mistakes while we are growing up is what Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini OSB proposes to the synod delegates who gathered for a three-day pre-synod retreat at Fraterna Domus Retreat Centre, Sacrofano.

Prior to the evening Eucharistic celebration on the first day of the retreat, she gave a reflection on the Parable of the two sons whom their father asked to go to the vineyard, Mathew 21:28-29 in connection to the synod and said, “The Synod we are undertaking is like a school in which we learn to listen to one another, a space in which the Church hears the words of Saint Paul: “Have within yourselves the dispositions that are in Christ Jesus”! (Phil. 2:5)

Referencing Saint Paul in his letter to the Philippians, again Mother Maria Grazia reminded the 16^th General Assembly of the General Synod that God expects during the Synod on Synodality the same attitude and pedagogy of mercy to be present among the people of God.

“Shared among us, God’s mercy gives birth to unity and transforms the world by introducing into it the seeds of the Kingdom of God. This is possible in the Church because this is how we learn to walk with one another, at all ages, thanks to our sisters and brothers who open their arms to us no matter the fall,” said Sr. Ignazia.