Bishop Mulvey closes the Diocesan Phase of the Synod

“And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.”  

Bishop Michael Mulvey closed the Diocesan Phase of the Synod at Mass on Ascension Sunday, May 29. During his homily, the bishop thanked all who participated in the synodal listening sessions throughout the diocese.

According to the bishop, over 1000 people participated in the encounter sessions led by different people throughout the diocese. “Just by listening to each other, three things emerged,” he said. “The need for deeper community life in the Church. We are the body of Christ. We are the community of his people. And people are longing for a deeper sense of community in their parishes and throughout the Church; secondly was a deeper sense of prayer, to listen to God first; and to listen to what God wants us connected to and more time for Scripture. More time for praying with the Scripture and learning how to do that.”

“These are the challenges for us as leaders of the Church," he said. "To assist people with prayer, knowing the Word of God, and community. And those are the very things that Jesus gave us as commandments: to hear his word, lift our hearts in prayer, and be a family of God’s people, the body of Christ.”

Father Peter Marsalek from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, commissioned Merci McCoy to paint a special painting commemorating the closing of the encounter sessions for the Synod on Synodality in the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

McCoy named her painting “John 17:11.”

“All glory and honor belong to God!! It was truly an honor to be a paintbrush in the studio of the Holy Spirit,” McCoy said in her Facebook post.

To see the entire report of the Diocesan phase of the Synod, click here.


Do you recognize the people in this photo of Merci McCoy's painting?