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Stages, criteria and tools for preparation
Gathering the Church in order to reread together what has taken place and to share the wonders worked by the Lord is a practice rooted in the experience of the return from mission narrated in the Gospel: after having been sent out two by two, “The seventy-two returned rejoicing” (Lk 10,17), recounting what the Lord had accomplished through them.
Later, the apostolic Church took up this same practice, as we read in the Acts: “When we reached Jerusalem the brothers welcomed us warmly. The next day, Paul accompanied us on a visit to James, and all the presbyters were present. He greeted them, then proceeded to tell them in detail what God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry” (Acts 21,17–19; cf. also Acts 14,27 and Acts 15,4.12).
The synodal journey of the coming years draws inspiration from these accounts, as an opportunity to gather the People of God, to contemplate together the work that God continues to accomplish among us, to share its fruits, and to give thanks. The Churches thus gathered will be able to experience the exchange of gifts, taking up another fundamental spiritual dynamic attested in the New Testament (cf. Rom 15,26-27), proposed anew by the Council (cf. LG 13 and 23; AG 38; PO 6, 7 and 10), and strongly reaffirmed by the Final Document (FD) of the 2021-2024 Synod (cf. especially nos. 120-123). ...