Denver Catholic

3 DENVER CATHOLIC | SEPTEMBER 2022 303.468.9885 • TheCatholicFoundation.com Call us to learn more Deacon Steve Stemper Lisa Kukura Joshua Gideon Why The Catholic Foundation? We are your completely legally independent, trustworthy Catholic legacy partners. No agendas No fees Simply…a team of faithful Catholic experts wanting to help. You have planned for your future, have you considered the Church? group sessions at the Archdiocesan Discerment Event in Broomfield. How good it was to hear the contributions from the Spanish-speaking faithful from the various corners of the archdiocese. Giving them the chance to speak about their concerns was good both for them and for the rest of the Church. The same experience was true for younger and older parishioners, as well as Catholics who live the faith in rural settings. The communal discernment process was a fruit of the call to a synodal experience. By asking God to reveal his plans for us, we put aside our own ideas, preoccupations and anxieties. Many people entered the parish discernment ses- sions, and even the Archdiocesan Discernment Event, with their own ideas about what is wrong with the Church and how to fix it. This naturally leads to conflict and division, as people have different assessments about where the Church is at and where she should go. By first spending time in prayer, asking God to reveal where and how he wants us to go on mission, the division of personal agendas was healed. We gathered to listen to the Holy Spirit in prayer and to each other, so that we can follow God's plans for the Arch- diocese of Denver. There are no better plans than his, and this was seen in the conversions that happened. At the Archdiocesan Discernment Event, one gentleman told a member of the Synod Team all his opinions about what the Church is doing wrong and what needs to change. The member of the Synod Team suggested that he should go into the chapel and tell Jesus exactly what he had just said. After spending time in Adoration, the man left the chapel in tears and approached the Synod Team member. "I told Jesus exactly what I told you," he said, "then I waited for God to respond. The first words I heard were, 'Would [changing those perceived problems] even matter?'" Through time in honest prayer, he was convicted of his own pride and experi- enced a conversion that opened him to following the will of God instead of his own will or that of the world. Finally, a third fruit of the Synod Process is that some parishes have already started to act upon the guidance they received in prayer. One parish discerned the need to provide a stronger sense of community for parishioners and immediately created small groups, where a small number of individuals or families would get together to share faith and fellowship. They had almost 200 people sign up immedi- ately to participate in these groups. I am encouraged to hear how the Holy Spirit is at work in the Archdiocese of Denver. As we listen to the Holy Spirit, we are drawn into deeper intimacy with Jesus and the Father. Rather than coming with our agendas and those of the world, we seek God's. Like Jesus, we come to know that our very food is to do the will of the Father, not our own (Jn 4:34). As we continue to listen and act upon the Lord's call, may we take to heart David's words in the Psalms, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday" (Ps. 37:5-6).

• Cover