Two lay participants who took part in the Franciscan Synod were struck by different elements of the process that spoke to them.
Conversations in the Spirit
By Stephen Copeland
Thomas Merton’s essay “Rain and the Rhinoceros” features this wonderful line: “It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks, I am going to listen.” I thought of this quote often throughout the week of the Franciscan Provincial Synod in Kansas City, Missouri—an experience that was grounded in the deep form of humble listening Merton was describing in his essay.
Central to the synod were “conversations in the spirit,” where lay and religious participants gathered at small tables throughout the day, encouraged to go around the table and share what stirred in their hearts. But what was emphasized most in these conversations was not the sharing but the listening. The temptation for most in dialogue is to formulate one’s own response while someone else is speaking, thus making the experience more about ourselves than the person speaking. These conversations in the spirit were about consciously confronting this internal temptation, further opening our ears of the heart to the person sharing. Each table had a moderator tasked with fostering the openness and curiosity that flow from a posture of listening.
Despite the necessary reforms the province faced, the goal of this deep form of listening was less about “finding a solution” or “solving a problem,” like a task to be checked off, but was more about opening the senses to the movement of the spirit. This is a hopeful model for reform within the Church but also a challenge to each of us in our own relationships and society. Could this form of listening lead to similar healing and reform in other spaces of our lives? Could our own spiritual evolution flow from our ability to listen with the ears of our hearts? I hope so.
The Importance of Prayer
By Darleen Pryds, PhD
The Provincial synod was grounded in communal prayer. We prayed in a ball-room-turned-chapel for morning and evening prayer, and we also celebrated mass there. But prayer was not limited to that space. Instead, each discussion session began again with prayer at our discussion tables. The amount of care and attention that went into these prayer experiences impressed me deeply. Jim Sabak, OFM was largely responsible for the Franciscan-infused content and flow. There were separate prayer books for both…an astonishing amount of work was involved in both the preparation and implementation of prayer. In true Franciscan humility, the names of those responsible are not included in the books. But I know one of the musicians present composed the anthem that began each sessions. [Jim Sabak could supply their names.] (See photo)
The importance of this grounding in prayer was not lost on me. This was not a “meeting,” driven by agendas and urgency, although we used the high-tech Mentimeter to “vote” and express our discernments. This was not a time-efficient process, although there was a schedule and we stayed on it, in large part thanks to Keith Warner, OFM. This was not a linear process, and yet we reached discernments and voted on priorities and action items that would be recommended to the Provincial Council.
Most of all I was impressed with the care-filled speech and deep listening at the discussion tables and in the foyer during breaks. The connections I felt were natural and immediate. As a strong introvert, I can’t say I experience this at conferences or meetings of 200 people. But everyone was “Franciscan” in one way or another. But more importantly at the tables (which we circulated around mixing up discussion partners), I noticed a breakdown of habitual reticence to speak truth. I noticed a deep listening with undivided attention and uncharacteristic pauses that allowed each person to consider their words and their thoughts/beliefs before sharing. I don’t always or even often feel heard or seen in groups. I felt both in the synod. When I said goodbye to Larry Hayes (Provincial) and Mark Soehner (Vicar), I thanked them for inviting me to participate. Respectively, they warmly thanked me for participating and offered a genuinely warm hug. In the end I felt authentic relationality and real collaboration.
Following the synod, a report was released highlighting the future goals of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Read the Franciscan Provincial Synod Report here.
