THE
P RTAL
November 2015
Page 6
Spirituality Matters
Praying for the
Synod - Part 2
Following the example of Cardinal Nichols,
Antonia Lynn prays the Magnificat
B
y the time you read these words the Synod will have ended and the delegates gone home, but the
dust will be far from settled; it is now up to us - the Church - faithfully to bring about what the Spirit of
God has asked of us through the Synod. We must keep praying.
Cardinal Nichols said that his prayer for the
Synod was the Magnificat, because it reminds
us that God does great things, again and again.
Could we offer the Magnificat as our prayer too,
each time we say or sing it at Evening Prayer?
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour
For those who were once Anglicans the words
‘Synod’ and ‘rejoicing’ may not seem to go easily
together but, as Pope Francis has reminded us,
a Synod in the Catholic Church is not a party
political debate: the Holy Father speaks instead
of a ‘dynamic of listening’, powered by the Holy
Spirit at work within the Body of Christ.
This is indeed something to rejoice in, although
(as the Holy Spirit tends to do) it may disturb
and challenge us. Mary sang her joy and praise
before she knew of the sword which would pierce her
heart; but her song is still true and has resounded
down the centuries. Cynicism and suspicion have no
voice within it.
with our precious rules
and customs, sometimes
send the poor empty away?
Have we voiced our
opinions loudly, confident
that we know God’s mind
and deciding what we
felt the outcome should
be before the Synod even
began this year, rather
than waiting for the voice
of the Spirit? He hath
scattered the proud in
the imagination of their
hearts.
Many
of
our
conversations about the
Synod will have been couched in the language of ‘them’
and ‘us’: how ‘we’ should treat ‘them’. Let’s be careful
not to use that language in our prayer. We are the
hungry and humble. To imagine ourselves as anything
else is to place ourselves among those who will see the
To pray with such joy will probably require a spirit harlots and tax collectors enter the kingdom of heaven
of contrition and a desire for conversion. He hath put before them.
down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted
the humble and meek. The Magnificat is a song of He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant...
subversion: God’s mercy turns upside down the world’s
Much has been said in the current discussions about
notions of merit and blame. Remember the rich young the Church standing as a countersign to the values of
man in the Gospel who thought he could buy his way the world, but let us not forget the words of Pope St
into the Kingdom through his meticulous keeping of John Paul II: ‘The present-day mentality, more perhaps
the Commandments.
than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God
of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to
He hath filled the hungry with good things;
remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.’
and the rich he hath sent empty away
So we must pray that we too will remember his mercy:
The rich may feel confident that they have earned remember that we have received it undeservedly and
enough to pay for the right to a seat at the banquet; this, must show it unconditionally.
however, is not God’s way. ‘Tis mercy all’, as Charles
Wesley wrote. But do we, in our groups and churches,
We shall need his help.
contents page