Listening during our Lenten journey

Leela Ramdeen

Recently I was looking for a document at home and came across my Girl Guides Badge. Memories of my experiences as a Girl Guide at Holy Faith Convent, Couva, flooded back. It's only much later in life that I appreciated the contribution that our Guides Mistress made in building our character. She inspired and empowered us by providing a range of opportunities for us to learn, discover, and develop skills for life.

I remember how, during one of our trips, we were dropped off at the corner of the Eastern Main Road and St John Street, and had to walk up to Mt St Benedict Abbey, praying the Rosary and singing hymns. As a young, unfit girl, that hill seemed really steep! And in the heat, I thought: "This is real penance!"

I thought of this experience when I read Pope Francis' Lenten Message 2023, released on 17 February, entitled: Lenten Penance and the Synodal Journey. In October 2021, Pope Francis set in motion a 2-year Synodal journey, firstly in Rome, and then in each Diocese around the world, leading to a meeting of the 16th Synod of Bishops in Rome on the theme: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission. Archbishop Jason Gordon launched our Diocesan synod on October 17 2021.

The Faithful around the world continue to listen deeply, to discern the Will of God in this era in which we live. The views collected in each Diocese will be conveyed to the various regional Conferences of Bishops, and forwarded to Rome, and will inform the discussions at the 16th Synod of Bishops in Rome, which will be held in two sessions: the first from October 4 to 29, 2023, the second in October 2024.

The International Theological Commission's document: Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, March 2, 2018, makes it clear that "synodality must operate at the various levels of ecclesial life (parish, diocese, at the national level, in the universal Church, as well as in the various congregations and communities)." Pope Francis says that "The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium." And Santiago Madrigal, SJ reminds us that: "Synodality aspires to form a people, a fraternal and missionary community at the service of the common good of society and the care of our common home."

In his 2023 Lenten Message, Pope Francis encourages Catholics to listen to what Jesus wants to tell them through the Scriptures and through others. He "highlights the relationship between the Lenten journey and the synodal journey, which are both rooted in tradition and open to newness" (Vatican News).

The Holy Father uses the story of Jesus' Transfiguration. Remember "the command that God the Father addresses to the disciples on Mount Tabor as they contemplate Jesus transfigured. The voice from the cloud says: 'Listen to him.' The first proposal, then, is very clear: We need to listen to Jesus," he said. "Lent is a time of grace to the extent that we listen to him as he speaks to us....

"During this liturgical season," he continued, "the Lord takes us with him to a place apart. While our ordinary commitments compel us to remain in our usual places and our often repetitive and sometimes boring routines, during Lent we are invited to ascend 'a high mountain' in the company of Jesus and to live a particular experience of spiritual discipline - ascesis - as God's holy people."

The following words of his struck a chord with me: "In addition to the Scriptures, the Lord speaks to us through our brothers and sisters, especially in the faces and the stories of those who are in need...Lent leads to Easter: the 'retreat' is not an end in itself, but a means of preparing us to experience the Lord's passion and cross with faith, hope, and love, and thus to arrive at the resurrection."

He compares the journey of Lent and the Church's ongoing Synod on Synodality to a "strenuous mountain trek... The synodal process may often seem arduous and at times we may become discouraged. Yet what awaits us at the end is undoubtedly something wondrous and amazing, which will help us to understand better God's will and our mission in the service of his kingdom...We need to set out on the journey, an uphill path that, like a mountain trek, requires effort, sacrifice, and concentration."

May our Lenten penance be sustained by God's grace.

Leela Ramdeen is Consultant, Trinidad & Tobago Catholic Commission for Social Justice & Archdiocese's Ministry for Migrants and Refugees