As the traditional “Simbang Gabi” begins, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said that Christmas season is a reminder of God’s synodality — His journeying with us.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, CBCP president, said that synodality is an invitation to walk together and to journey united in Jesus as his disciples did.

“Christmas is really about God who has been journeying with us so that we learn to journey with one another,” Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, CBCP President, said.

He hinted that most parishes all over the country will be adopting synodality as the main running theme for the Simbang Gabi, or nine days of dawn Masses to prepare for Christmas Day.

According to him, synodality “has to do with promoting communion within the Church as well as greater participation towards mission, and our dream is missioning Church.

“And we hope that through these nine novena Masses, our priests will be able to impart the message, the Good News of synodality, of communion, participation and mission,” David added.

CBCP Vice President Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of Pasig, for his part, acknowledged that the message of synodality remains “a challenge for all of us”.

But the bishop stressed an important virtue so that listening, dialoguing, and walking together could be attained.

“And that is humility,” Vergara said.