Expand your rosary with the “synodal mysteries”

My Catholic vocabulary expanded on March 7, 2020 when Pope Francis announced the Synod on Synodality. I knew what a synod was because the church had been holding them since its earliest days, but synodality was a novel concept.

Some clarity came several months later when the Vatican released the handbook designed to guide the church on its synodal journey. Dioceses were directed to organize local listening sessions around the interconnected theme of communion, participation, and mission. Catholics and non-Catholics were invited to boldly express their views related to some guiding questions without fear of reprisal for unconventional opinions.

These findings would be gathered, synthesized, and discussed by diverse groups nationally, regionally and globally. An implementation phase would involve enacting specific conclusions. More importantly, the process was designed to initiate a new style of decision making throughout the church.

I wondered how this would function considering we were still in a pandemic, but the idea of the entire Catholic Church sharing in a worldwide conversation captivated me. It was as if Francis had further opened the widow Pope John XXIII had unlocked when calling Vatican II.

Before getting too excited, I pumped the brakes and hoped synodality would be more than baptized focus groups. The church could hire a marketing firm if it only wanted to rebrand itself. I also trusted synodality would mean something other than a Catholic legislature that would either rubberstamp episcopal decisions or sidestep bishops altogether.

The guidelines impressed me when they explained listening must “happen in a spiritual setting” with participants praying with one another. I joined in local listening sessions and began recognizing synodality as something akin to a global retreat. I felt a connection to Catholics around the world when stories of their sharing and discernment were reported on. The people of God were attending to the will of the Holy Spirit together. This was something new.

While the process moved through its stages, I searched for a way to pray for the synod that echoed its theme of communion, participation, and mission. So, I turned to the rosary. This beloved Catholic prayer belongs to the entire church, invites everyone to recite it, and is directed toward evangelization.

Tradition holds the Blessed Virgin Mary gave the rosary to St. Dominic in the 13th century to use during his preaching missions. In the 16th century, Pope Pius V—who was a Dominican—standardized the rosary around 15 meditations, or mysteries, on the life of Christ. He arranged them into three sets of five called the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. Pope John Paul II added a fourth known as the luminous mysteries.

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Theologically, a mystery is a hidden truth whose revelation exceeds ordinary reason, and a mystery’s logic can be known only by participating in it. Each of the rosary’s mysteries reveals Jesus in ways that can be understood only by regularly praying them.

When reciting the rosary during the synodal process, I wondered if scripture contained any mysteries resembling what I had been learning about synodality. The church’s original synod as described in Acts 15 seemed like a reasonable starting point. Five parallels became readily apparent, and they readily confirmed the church can address serious problems and new situations through a spiritual practice. I began praying them as the synodal mysteries of the rosary.

That first synod did not confer authority into the hands of a single decision maker or bicker until gaining a majority vote. Instead, it welcomed mutual sharing with an attitude of what Pope Leo XIV today calls “evangelical frankness.” Conflicting perspectives were synthesized into a previously unknown expression of the faith by discerning God’s will together through “conversations in the Spirit.”

This discovery inspired me to read the entire Acts of the Apostles searching for other mysteries. The book concentrates on the apostolic ministries of saints Peter and Paul, but it contains several foundational events in the church’s early history, including the descent of the Spirit, appointing the first deacons and St. Stephen’s martyrdom.

I paid special notice to occasions when disciples made decisions, encountered conflict, or proceeded in unexpected directions. Seven sets of five mysteries emerged, and I dubbed them the attentional, Pentecostal, ecclesial, evangelization, reconciliation, missional, and pilgrimage mysteries. Praying them has informed my understanding of synodality and shaped a fuller appreciation for the entire body of Christ.

Just as the traditional mysteries bear certain fruits, I have found these ones to have specific results. Thirty-five are too many to explore here, so let me highlight two.

Monday’s Pentecostal mysteries contrast the synod’s themes against today’s tendency toward isolation, commodification, and data manipulation. Three thousand people were baptized and received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and this created more than a voluntary religious organization, social institution, or cultural association. They were incorporated into a communion based on apostolic teaching and the Eucharist.

Their mystical union with Christ operated on an economy of gift, not market forces. Each person held their abilities in common and served one another as needs arose. Their gifts were not for sale. In synodality, all people are invited to share from their unique experiences.

The Pentecostal mysteries have shown me synodality as deliberative, inclusive, and spiritual. With synodality, people who rarely, if ever, have the ability to participate in church decision making. The faithful discern the will of the Spirit together, instead of clergy members alone making seemingly random decisions. The Spirit speaks and is heard in “the native language of each.”

Saturday’s mysteries in Acts 27–28 compare synodality to St. Paul’s unconventional pilgrimage to Rome. Like the apostle and his traveling companions, the church is summoned to embark on a pilgrimage to geographical and existential peripheries.

Millions are already on the move. Mass migration and mobility are commonplace. Economic instability, war, and the climate crisis upend local communities, forcing migrants and refugees to relocate. Young people often live without a sense of rootedness and feel more home in digital environments, while older people wander emotionally in a world they no longer recognize.

The pilgrimage mysteries insist we must not remain unmoved by contemporary challenges because the synodal church is fundamentally communal and sacramental. We set sail aboard one boat, head toward the same destination and face the same issues together. When navigating in storms and through unfavorable winds, our responses begin by taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it, and eating.

In these early days of Pope Leo XIV, the church is emphasizing the nexus of synodality, pilgrimage, and mission. “The synodal form of the church is at the service of its mission, and any change in the life of the church is intended to make it more capable of proclaiming the Kingdom of God.”

Any pilgrimage can be frightening. As the church’s privileged position and relevance in Europe and western nations wanes, the faith flourishes in Africa, Asia, and South America. Many people feel unnerved by the emergence of fresh liturgical expressions and ecclesial forms. They fear pilgrimage and long for a return to familiar territory. The pilgrimage mysteries have assured me that a synodal church always reaches new places and encounters people who demonstrate “unusual kindness.”

Uniting the church’s most familiar prayer with its newest practice has clarified synodality for me. Thirty-five is a rather large number of mysteries, and praying them all each week might be much for you. It often is for me too. That is why they have augmented, not replaced, my love for the traditional ones.

By praying with the life of the early church, these mysteries of the rosary have enriched my appreciation for synodality and my desire to participate in the church’s communion and mission. I invite you to try a set of five, especially if you are wrestling to understand synodality. If you find them helpful, add more. I believe you and I can encounter Jesus in these mysteries as together we imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.

Synodal Mysteries of the Rosary

Each Mystery (Acts of the Apostles). Fruit of the Mystery

Sunday: Attentional

1. Reading the Gospel (Acts 1:1–5). Listening to the scriptures
2. Waiting on the Spirit (Acts 1:6–11). Patience
3. Praying in the Cenacle (Acts 1:12–14). Inclusion
4. Peter Stands to Speak (Acts 1:15–22). Reciprocity
5. Selection of St. Matthias (Acts 1:23–26). Discernment

Monday: Pentecostal

1. Descent of the Spirit (Acts 2:1–4). Boldness of speech
2. Multitude in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5–13). Diversity
3. St. Peter’s Sermon, (Acts 2:14–40). Encounter
4. Baptism of the 3,000 (Acts 2:41–42). Generosity
5. Growth of the Church (Acts 2:43–47). Joy

Tuesday: Ecclesial

1. Healing at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1–10). Giving what one has
2. Prayer after Persecution (Acts 4:23–31). Prayer
3. Care for the Needy (Acts 4:32–37). Generosity
4. Selection of Deacons (Acts 6:1–7). Collaboration
5. Burial of Stephen (Acts 8:1–2). Compassion

Wednesday: Evangelization

1. Philip and the Ethiopian Treasurer (Acts 8:26–40). Dialogue
2. Raising of Dorcas (Acts 9:36–43). Charity
3. Mission to Cornelius (Acts 11:1–18). Transformation of conflict
4. The Church in Antioch (Acts 11:19–26). Unity
5. Deliverance of St. Peter (Acts 12:11–17). Listening to unexpected voices

Thursday: Reconciliation

1. Controversy Concerning Circumcision (Acts 15:1–6). Discernment
2. Synod of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7–21). Communion
3. The Jerusalem Decree (Acts 15:22–29). Sensus Fidei
4. Reception of the Decree (Acts 15:30–35). Joy
5. The Disagreement between Paul and Barabas (Acts 15:36–40). Evangelical frankness

Friday: Missional

1. Mission to Derbe and Lystra (Acts 16:1–5). Inculturation
2. Conversion of Lydia (Acts 16:9–15). Hospitality
3. St. Paul’s Speech in Athens (Acts 17:16–32). Proclamation
4. St. Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19:1–7). Conversion
5. Raising of Eutychus (20:7–12). Devotion to the Eucharist

Saturday: Pilgrimage

1. Arrival in Troas (Acts 21:1–6). Fruit: Setting sail
2. Prophecy of Agabus (Acts 21:7–14). Fruit: Trust
3. Sailing Toward Italy (Acts 27:6–9). Fruit: Perseverance
4. Shipwreck at Sea (Acts 27:9–44). Fruit: Listening in the Spirit
5. Arrival on Malta (Acts 28:1–10). Fruit: Assuming the best in others

Image: Unsplash/Dolina Modlitwy