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Witnesses
Our Lady of Loretto
South Bend, IN
March 8, 2024

We organized a unique procession and prayer service to honor St. Phoebe on her feast day, September 3, 2023 at Our Lady of Loretto, hosted by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in South Bend, IN. During the opening procession, there were five stops at which we read sections of the synodal document Instrumentum Laboris, and then responded in prayer and song, singing together, “Receive her in the Lord.” As we processed, two Holy Cross sisters literally opened the doors of the church for us, to receive our procession and our prayers into the inner sanctuary. The service began with a litany of deacon saints, including St. Phoebe, followed by prayers shared by members of the community in both English and Spanish. 20 community members were involved throughout the procession with 9 different voices speaking and leading us in prayer.

Together, increasing our devotion to St. Phoebe, we created something that was empowering, mystical, connective and embodied. We experienced what it can feel like to walk and pray together on a synodal journey. We are powerful together! There is such a thirst for this conversation and for this type of embodied prayer and communal witness.

This celebration and our witness feels so tied to the General Assembly of the Synod. We are crying out to St. Phoebe and begging for her intercession on this journey. We are so filled with the Spirit, excited to meet again next year, and to continue praying and witnessing to our shared devotion to St. Phoebe. St. Phoebe, pray for us!

      

 

 

   

Witness
“I know that women are being called by the Holy Spirit and women are living diakonia in creative, ordinary ways today. Now, as a mother of a toddler girl, I want to discern with the Church on how to make way for her to discern her own future calling, should the Spirit call her.”
Ana López
Spiritual Director and Theology Teacher, Los Angeles, CA
Witness
“If women were able to serve as deacons, it would magnify the grace and love of God and make it more widely available.”
Judith Oberhauser
Retired Chaplain, St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN
Witness
“I was not raised Catholic but converted in my adult life. As a child, Mother Mary would appear to me often…I believe Mary appearing to me as a child who knew nothing about the Catholic Church was more than her wanting me to find Christ through the Church. I believe she came to me because I was meant to do more for the Church.”
Christina Kovar
Adult Faith Formation Leader, Chicago, IL

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