The phrase "Ephphatha," meaning "be open," signifies the need for believers to be receptive to God's message and to serve others. Christians are encouraged to embody openness.

In his weekly audience, Pope Francis explained that as we bear witness to the Resurrected Christ, we are summoned to emulate the creativity and simplicity that characterize the Spirit’s actions.

In a speech to the COP28 meeting of world leaders in Dubai read by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis decried the ‘inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation.’

We can easily be discouraged during these difficult times in our world. Yet, Saint Paul reminds us that in God’s plan, we are compelled to express the joy of the Gospel in our daily lives.

“We cannot say that we are privileged compared to others—no,” Pope Francis said at today’s general audience. “The calling is for a service. And God chooses one in order to love everyone, to reach everyone.”

The conversations of the synod are for the sake of building up an ethos, the conversatio of communion and confidence in the accessibility of Christ as He manifests himself in the church.