Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has left several marks of restoration in the Catholic Church. Among them is the rediscovery of the ecclesial experience of synodality, which he believes should be the “modus vivendi et operandi” of the Church. This was even the theme of the 2023 Synod of Bishops and the Annual Meeting of Moderators of Associations of the Faithful, Ecclesial Movements, and New Communities, which took place on Thursday, the 13th.
Moysés Louro de Azevedo Filho, founder and general moderator of the Shalom Community, was accompanied by priests Father Saulo Dantas, Community Advisor, and Father Tiago Barroso, International Assistant.
In an interview with comshalom.org, Moysés mentioned three ways in which the Shalom Community can contribute to the Church’s journey towards synodality:
1. Contemplation: “Our charism is a charism of contemplation, so one of the important contributions we can make as a Community and as part of the Church is to emphasize, to highlight, that the whole synodal path is a path of listening. First of all, listening to God — His thoughts and His heart. For this reason, we must prioritize prayer, because prayer is able to break all our schemes. Prayer allows us to see what we can’t see from a natural point of view and opens us up to listening to God’s voice in others. So, the source of a synodal path is prayer.”
2. Unity: “The second key aspect is unity, after all, listening to our brothers and sisters is a path of unity. Within the community, we have an experience where the various dimensions of the Community have listening bodies. The Community’s service of authority is collegial. In its journey, the Community accompanies everyone. These are all sources of listening. These are all experiences of listening.”
3. Evangelization: “Synodality requires God’s grace to convert our hearts and minds. Together we walk, together we pray, and together we reflect. To what end? To act together in the heart of the world. The synod propels us towards mission and evangelization. And as a charism of evangelization, I believe this is also a contribution we can make. That is, by listening, praying, and being before God; by hearing His signs through the lips of our brothers and sisters, especially the young and the poor, who are the direct object of our evangelization. And from this, we can come out of ourselves towards the mission, come out of ourselves to freely give what we have freely received.”
Read more: “Ecclesial movements exist to serve the Church and evangelization”, the Pope to the Moderators
Photo: Vatican Media