Pope: 7 October prayer and fasting for peace

The invitation to the faithful from all over the world during the Opening Mass for the second session of the Synod, held this morning in St. Peter's Square. Sunday 6 the Rosary at St Mary Major to invoke from Mary the gift of peace. Last night in St Peter's the penitential celebration: ‘Let us not ask: “where are you Lord?” but: “what responsibility do we have in not stopping evil?”’.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The prayer of the Rosary on Sunday 6 October with the members of the Synod Assembly in the basilica of St Mary Major in Rome ‘to invoke from Mary Most Holy the gift of peace’. And on Monday 7 October - accepting the invitation already launched in recent days by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa - a day of fasting and prayer for peace in the world.

These are the two gestures, which in the face of the new dramatic news coming from the Middle East, Pope Francis announced, suggesting them to the entire Church this morning during the opening celebration of the Second Session of the Synod, which brings together 368 bishops and representatives of the People of God from all over the world, to continue the reflection begun three years ago on the theme ‘For a synodal Church: communion, participation, mission’.

‘Let us resume this ecclesial journey with a gaze turned to the world,’ said the pontiff in announcing the two gestures at the end of the homily of the Mass, concelebrated on the parvis of the Vatican basilica, ’because the Christian community is always at the service of humanity, to announce the joy of the Gospel to all. There is a need for this, especially in this dramatic hour of our history, while the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations’.

In his homily, the Pontiff - taking his cue from the Guardian Angels whose liturgical feast is being celebrated today - invited the Assembly to ask the Lord ‘to live the days ahead in the sign of listening, mutual custody and humility’. ‘Let us be careful not to turn our contributions into points to be defended or agendas to be imposed,’ he explained, ’but let us offer them as gifts to be shared, ready even to sacrifice what is particular, if this can serve to bring something new to life together according to God's plan. Otherwise we will end up locking ourselves in dialogues between the deaf, where each one tries to ‘pull water to his own mill’ without listening to the others, and above all without listening to the voice of the Lord’.

‘Let us remember,’ he added, ’that in the desert one does not joke: if one does not pay attention to the guide, presuming to be sufficient for oneself, one can die of hunger and thirst, dragging others with him. Let us therefore listen to the voice of God and his angel, if we really want to proceed safely on our journey beyond limits and difficulties'.

True listening, however, also calls for the ability to guard each other: the pope cited, in this regard, the image of wings, capable of ‘lifting others off the ground’ with strong and brilliant intuitions, but also of ‘stooping’ to offer others a welcoming refuge. ‘Everyone here,’ he commented, ’will feel free to express themselves all the more spontaneously and freely, the more they perceive around them the presence of friends who love them and who respect, appreciate and wish to listen to what they have to say. And this for us is not just a technique of ‘facilitating’ dialogue or a group communication dynamic: embracing, protecting and caring is in fact part of the very nature of the Church'.

Finally, humility: ‘The Synod, given its importance, in a certain sense asks us to be “big” - in mind, in heart, in outlook -, because the issues to be dealt with are “big” and delicate, and the scenarios within which they are placed are broad, universal. But precisely because of this, we cannot allow ourselves to take our eyes off the child, whom Jesus continues to place at the centre of our meetings and work tables, to remind us that the only way to be ‘equal’ to the task entrusted to us is to make ourselves small and to humbly welcome each other as such’.

Last night the start of the Synod was preceded by a penitential vigil in the Vatican basilica during which some cardinals read out requests for forgiveness on behalf of the Church written by Pope Francis. This gesture followed three testimonies of three victims of serious sins that affect the Christian community and society today: the abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy, voiced by Laurence, a man from Cape Town, now an opera singer, who suffered this abuse when he was eleven years old; the heartbreak suffered by migrant women, voiced by Sara and Solange, a Migrantes worker in Tuscany and a woman from the Ivory Coast who arrived in Italy a few months ago on a barge; the wounds of the violence of wars, recounted by Sr. Deema Fayyad, a Syrian from the monastic community of Deir Mar Musa founded by Jesuit Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio, who was kidnapped and disappeared into thin air himself eleven years ago precisely because of the war.

‘In the face of evil and innocent suffering,’ Francis commented, ’we ask: where are you Lord? But the question must be addressed to us, and we must ask ourselves about the responsibility we have when we fail to stop evil with good. We cannot pretend to resolve conflicts by fuelling violence that becomes more and more heinous, redeem ourselves by causing pain, save ourselves by the death of the other. How can we pursue a happiness paid for with the price of the unhappiness of our brothers and sisters?’ “This,” he added, ’is for everyone: lay people, consecrated men and women, for everyone! On the eve of the beginning of the Synod Assembly, confession is an opportunity to re-establish trust in the Church and in her, a trust shattered by our errors and sins, and to begin to heal the wounds that do not stop bleeding, breaking the chains of wickedness’.