Inside St. Peter’s Square at 19:00 Roman hours, Pope Francis presided over a prayer service in preparation for the 14^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the “Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World.” The vigil in anticipation of tomorrow’s opening liturgy was celebrated in the company of thousands of pilgrims from all the dioceses of Italy, including many families and young couples, representatives of ecclesial movements and associations, and religious women and men.

As Centro Televisivo Vaticano cameras panned the crowds gathered inside the square, it became apparent that a sea of young married couples and families had turned out to pray for the pope. In fact, Cardinal Napier, the Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, tweeted that “Families are lighting up the Synod.” Their light illuminated the square, warmed the hearts of the synodal fathers, and continues to spread throughout Rome tonight.

Takeaway one: The JP2 Generation has arrived. Those young married couples, many of them toting small children, came into the Church during the great pontificate of the ‘Pope of the Family.’ They were educated in the theological schoolroom of Pope Benedict XVI. And, now, they are prepared to set out into the deep on a missionary journey of faith at the side of Pope Francis. With him, they are already traveling to the peripheries of the Church and the world, seeking to shine Christ’s Gospel light in dark places.

These young women and men do not speak with the powerful voices of international NGOs. Such cacophonous voices seek to advance an ‘ideological colonization’ that imposes the “globalization of the technocratic paradigm” (Laudato Si’, n. 106), which consists in “a uniformity to which the egotism of the powerful, the conformism of the weak, or the ideology of the utopian” would subject them. Rather, the women and men in St. Peter’s square tonight speak with a quieter, humbler voice. That voice is of God.

In the shadow of the Vatican basilica of St. Peter, Pope Francis remarked tonight that God’s faithful voice does not bellow with “the great wind which shatters rocks, nor in the earthquake nor even in the fire.” Instead, “God’s grace does not shout out; it is a whisper which reaches all those who are ready to hear its still, small voice. It urges them to go forth, to return to the world, to be witnesses to God’s love for mankind, so that the world may believe.”

Takeaway two: During the weeks of the Synod, do not let the cantankerous voices of powerful agendas disturb the peace Christ wishes to reign in our souls. Instead, attend to those still, small voices anchored in the heart of the Church that urge us to become missionary disciples, journeying to the peripheries in need of the Gospel of the Family.

To be able to recognize those voices, we must overcome the spirit of political rancor and ideological division that feeds off of ‘reductionist schemes and polarizations.’ The fruit of that spirit is the failure of fraternal communion and the absence of the culture of encounter. Such a spirit mitigates against social friendship, planting the seeds of restless scheming and paranoia in our hearts.

Our attitude along the synodal pathway must be distinctively Christian. As Pope Francis taught us in his Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, we must never tire of making “Progress in building a people in peace, justice, and fraternity” (EG, n. 221). To do this, we must prefer the time of dialogue over the space of ‘declarationist nominalism’ (EG, n. 222-225), safeguarding ecclesial unity from the conflict of divisive attitudes and opinions (EG, n. 226-230). We must adhere to the reality of the Church’s life and doctrine, eschewing ideas that would drive us to manipulate Christ’s Gospel (EG, n. 231-233); and, we must strive to move forward, making progress, as we advance the principles of collegiality and synodality that build up the whole Church, privileging no part of it over another (EG, n. 234-237).

Takeaway three: As we accompany our bishops along the way marked out by the Synod of the Family, we must water the seeds of social friendship and fraternal communion, always seeking to advance the culture of encounter. This requires that we abandon the spirit of self-preservation that closes us up and seals us off from others, heeding instead God’s Holy Spirit in filial obedience.

As evening came upon the city of Rome, which presides over the universal Church in charity, the choirs of the Italian Episcopal Conference intoned the ‘Veni, Sancte Spiritus’ in Latin. This Holy Spirit will guide the Church along her synodal path; and, to this person-gift of the Trinity, the Church must never be far off. For, as Pope Francis said, quoting Patriarch Athenagoras, “without the Holy Spirit, God is far off, Christ remains in the past, the Church becomes a mere organization, authority becomes domination, mission becomes propaganda, worship becomes mystique, [and] Christian life the morality of slaves.”

As we await tomorrow’s opening liturgy and then the first day of synodal activity on Monday, let us pray over these words of Pope Francis: “Let us pray that the Synod which opens tomorrow will show how the experience of marriage and family is rich and humanly fulfilling. May the Synod acknowledge, esteem, and proclaim all that is beautiful, good and holy about that experience. May it embrace situations of vulnerability and hardship, war, illness, grief, wounded relationships and brokenness, which create distress, resentment and separation. May it remind these families, and every family, that the Gospel is always ‘good news’ which enables us to start over. From the treasury of the Church’s living tradition may the Fathers draw words of comfort and hope for families called in our own day to build the future of the ecclesial community and the city of man.”

With Charles de Foucauld, let us draw near to the “spirituality which radiates from Nazareth” so that like him, “Through this apostolate of charity,” we may “become everything to everyone.” Together, under the sign of the Church’s communio, let us set out on a missionary adventure from the house of the Holy Family for the sake of the common good and the integral development of the human community.