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INTENTION : |
For the Gift of Diversity in the Church: Let us pray that the Spirit will help us recognise the gift of different charisms within the Christian community, and to discover the richness of different ritual traditions in the heart of the Catholic Church.
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Gift of Diversity leads to Conversion
To experience the gift of diversity, one only needs to hop onto a public train and be immersed in a myriad of connections. The human variety on a public bus extends to all ages, races, ethnicities and almost all human conditions: parents with children in strollers, students laden with books, office workers, executives, women with baskets to the market and once in a while people with disability. Here is the richness of everyday diversity. It's a wonderful motivator for prayer. Pope Francis who used public transportation in Argentina would have seen this richness.
And when we contemplate the gift of diversity and charisms that God has raised up over the centuries, this can only reach full maturity when they are placed at the service of one another, each with its own beauty and particularity. Each charism has its own contribution to make, a contribution incomparable to any rigid ideology or structure.
As the Church embarks on the synodal process, where diversity of charisms and traditions are recognised, she makes it clear that there can be no discernment without a constant renewal of life, what St. Ignatius calls a "permanent reformation of life". At the heart of our Catholic Tradition is an invitation to personal change in order to join the communal journey towards God and humanity. To be a new Adam. This is conversion.
Adapted from :
Spirituality and Liturgical Resources for the Synod:
The Ignatian Spirituality by Sr. Jolanta Kafka, RMI, General Superior and President of UISG,
Rev. Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, General Superior and President USG
Pope Francis and the Spirit that changes hearts
The Spirit that helps us to recognise such diversity changes hearts." Jesus told his disciples: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses'. " (Acts 1:8). Those disciples, at first fearful, huddled behind closed doors even after the Master's resurrection, are transformed by the Spirit and, as Jesus says, "you will be My witnesses for you have been with Me fromthe beginning" (Jn 15:27). No longer hesitant, they are courageous and starting from Jerusalem, they go forth to the ends of the earth. They become bold because the Spirit changed their hearts.
Pope Francis accentuates that the Spirit does not only change hearts; He changes situations. Like the wind that blows everywhere, He penetrates to the most unimaginable situations. In the Acts of the Apostles - a book we need to pick up and read, whose main character is the Holy Spirit - we are caught up in an amazing series of events. When the disciples least expect it, the Holy Spirit sends them out to the pagans. He opens up new paths, as in the episode of the deacon Philip. The Spirit drives Philip to a desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza... (How heartrending that name sounds to us today! May the Spirit change hearts and situations and bring peace to the Holy Land!) Along the way, Philip preached to an Ethiopian court official and baptised him. Then the Spirit brings him to Azotus, and then on to Caesarea, in constantly new situations, to spread the newness of God. Then too, there is Paul, "compelled by the Spirit" (Acts 20:22), who travels far and wide, bringing the Gospel to peoples he had never seen. Where the Spirit is, something is always happening; where He blows, things are never calm.
Even in the diversity of charisms, the Spirit will bring His power of change, a unique power that is, so to say, both centripetal and centrifugal. It is centripetal, that is, it seeks the centre, because it works deep within our hearts. It brings unity amid division, peace amid affliction, strength amid temptations. Paul reminds us of this, when he writes that the fruits of the Spirit are joy, peace, faithfulness and self-control (cf. Gal 5:22). The Spirit grants intimacy with God, the inner strength to keep going. Yet, at the same time, He is a centrifugal force, that is, one pushing outward. The One who centres us is also the One who drives us to the peripheries, to every human periphery. The One who reveals God also opens our hearts to our brothers and sisters. He sends us, He makes us witnesses, and so He pours out on us - again in the words of Paul - love, kindness, generosity and gentleness. Only in the Consoler Spirit do we speak words of life and truly encourage others. Those who live by the Spirit live in this constant spiritual tension: they find themselves pulled both towards God and towards the world."
Adapted from :
Homily of Pope Francis,
Holy Mass on The SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST, Vatican Basilica,
Sunday, 20 May 2018
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