Would you like a little retreat from the comfort of your armchair? Pope Francis has declared of the Synod taking place in Rome that ‘without prayer, there is no synod’. To that end he asked all the synod participants to take part in a three-day retreat in Rome prior to the synod assembly commencing. The person he chose to lead the retreat was Fr Timothy Radcliffe, a former Master of the Dominican Order and renowned spiritual teacher. His six reflections have been made available on Vatican News and would provide an excellent way for ourselves to ponder the theme of being the synodal Church Pope Francis is inviting us to become. I hope that you can take some time over the coming weeks to ponder these reflections. Fr Colin (PLEASE NOTE: unfortunately our website periodically suffers from some disfunctionalities and we have found that the links below have not been working. If you have that problem simply cut and paste them into your own browser and you should be fine). CLICK HERE FOR First Meditation, "Hoping against hope" https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/retreat-day-1-radcliffe-first-meditation.html Second Meditation, "At home in God & God at home in us": https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/retreat-day-1-radcliffe-meditation-2.html Third Meditation, "Friendship": https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/synod-retreat-meditation-friendship.html Fourth Meditation, "Conversation on the way to Emmaus": https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/synod-retreat-meditation-conversation-on-the-way-to-emmaus.html Fifth Meditation, "Authority": https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/synod-retreat-meditation-authority.html Sixth Meditation, "The Spirit of Truth": https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/synod-retreat-meditation-the-spirit-of-truth-radcliffe.html