Walk Together in this Life

No One has to Walk Alone

This was one of the preeminent questions on many minds immediately following Cardinal Robert Prevost’s election as Pope Leo XIV. What kind of pope did we have?

I also had questions. Mine focused more on pastoral style, specifically, would he continue the synodal process started by Pope Francis? I reasoned that if he would, we were in good hands on just about any other measure. Conjecture about his political leanings, his liturgical preferences and his views on many subjects – important and unimportant alike – were plentiful.

In our worship, Ascension just took place, and we’ll soon celebrate Pentecost. This “in between” period caught my attention as an awkward time. The Apostles experienced that, too; Jesus told them to remain in the city until the Holy Spirit came upon them and then they would be ready to go out into the world. Despite teachings directly from Jesus, I’m sure they had a lot of questions. What is this “Holy Spirit?” What are we really meant to do when we go out baptizing? What will we eat, where will we stay and should we have written more of this down?

Both Jesus and Pope Leo give similar answers (and we might certainly be in trouble if they didn’t!). “We’re in this together.” All of us – Apostles then and people of God now – are to be attentive of the nudging of the Holy Spirit and walk together in this life. No one has to walk alone.

Listening, synodality, community are central themes. Learning from one another and discerning with one another, we move forward on a path toward unity.

That’s a path we in the Providence Community have been working toward for a while now: The path of “I” to “We” to “One.” (Let’s be careful not to conflate “unity” with “uniformity” since those are really quite different concepts.)

As we find out more about this coming of the Holy Spirit and find out more about the new pope, these themes will begin to come into focus. However, I believe we must start much smaller and closer to home.

What do I know about me in relations to these ideas? Personally, I can tell you that “community” is something a born hermit like me struggles with – not because I don’t like people but because participating in community is more like learning a foreign language for me.

How do I get started? How do I engage with the community where I’m called?

This week, let’s examine our own questions. How do we approach this idea of walking together? What do we need to know (about ourselves, our pope, our faith, our world) to carry out the mission of love, mercy and justice?