Disagreements in the church are nothing new. Today’s first reading gives us a brief account of one of the first challenges the post-resurrection church faced as it grew beyond Jesus’s immediate circle of disciples. Jesus didn’t leave instructions on how to deal with changing circumstances. What he did leave us with was the Holy Spirit and one another.
Our baptism into Christ grafts us into a community bound together in love by the Holy Spirit. Rather than being a constraint, this Christian bond gives us freedom to imagine new possibilities and creatively approach challenges. With our love for one another that marks us as Christian and immersed into the paschal mystery that gives us hope, we can listen together to the movement of the Spirit.
Our baptism into Christ grafts us into a community bound together in love by the Holy Spirit. Rather than being a constraint, this Christian bond gives us freedom to imagine new possibilities and creatively approach challenges. Click To TweetAs the Synod on Synodality handbook instructs, discernment “is based on the conviction that God is at work in the world and we are called to listen to what the Spirit suggests to us.” Furthermore, in any challenge, “we must avoid the risk of giving greater importance to ideas than to the reality of the life of faith that people live in a concrete way.”
As liturgical ministers, how do we listen together to the Spirit when divisions surface? How do we discern what is truly essential in the way we celebrate the liturgy and what is an unnecessary burden?
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