The Plenary Council, which opens this weekend, is “a time of inner conversion, prayer and formation as we listen deeply to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and to each other”, says Archbishop Christopher Prowse. Source: Catholic Voice.
In his pastoral letter, titled Proposing the Gospel with an Australian face for our time, the Canberra-Goulburn archbishop said the language of “walking together” – or synodality – has the Church in Australia following in the footsteps of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus.
The Church is “journeying but with a sense of anticipation of more to be discovered”, he wrote.
“We know that this walking together does not simply refer to our feet. It also refers to our hearts. Here Jesus speaks and fills our hearts with fire.
“From this journey, we pray, that all sorts of hopeful ways will emerge for proposing the Gospel with an Australian face for our time.”
Archbishop Prowse says the Plenary Council’s working document, titled Continuing the Journey, uses “a wonderful allusion to Uluru and our missionary task. It described Christ – the Rock at the Centre. Jesus must be at the very centre of the Plenary Council,” he wrote.
The first general assembly of the Plenary Council opens with Mass celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, the president of the Council. The Mass will be livestreamed at 2pm AEDT on Sunday, October 3. Members will consider the Council’s agenda over the six subsequent days, gathering online.
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Hopes at the dawn of the Plenary Council First Assembly (Catholic Voice)
