St. Paul in the house of Prisca and Aquila,
17th century, unknown artist
Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp
In September 2022 we were individuals scattered across the world without knowledge of each other.
During a Root & Branch Zoom session promoting small Christian communities one of our members put her email address in the chat and invited anyone who was interested to contact her. Half a dozen of us did so and our community dedicated to Prisca & Aquila was born. It is now at its maximum number of a baker's dozen.
We reflected upon and shared our ideas about the format of meetings, including how often we might meet and what would be the foundation for our spiritual journey together. The consensus was that we would meet weekly and Tuesday evening seemed to suit most people. Most of us felt that ordinary parish life was lacking but we did not want to spend meetings lamenting over that which probably was not going to change any time soon. Someone suggested that the Lectionary Readings for the coming Sunday might prove productive and enhance the celebration of Word and Eucharist for those of us in parishes. We tried several formats, including Lectio Divina and celebration of the Liturgy of the Word. We decided upon a simple format with reading, silent refection and then sharing how the Word spoke to each of us.
by Aritha via Pixabay
As the weeks went by we learned more about each other. We discovered that we were not all Catholics, some of us were involved in our parishes while others were alienated. We discovered that we all had talents, skills and expertise. Some of us studied theology, others had IT skills, while one of us was a classical scholar, others were liturgists, catechists or musicians, another had knowledge of other faiths. Our life experience was very varied and rich.
by Mike Sweeney via Pixabay
We found that there were occasions when we needed to explore more closely what was happening in the Church and in the world. We have followed the Synod on Synodality and are using the Spirit Unbounded videos for reflection and discussion.
We discovered the prayerful nature of music and the dynamic it can bring to our reflections. Everyone's choice differs so the range is always rich and engaging.
At the outset it was decided to link all our email addresses in an online group so it was easy to communicate with everybody. This has become very active and full of discussion and sharing of articles by spiritual leaders and guides. It keeps us linked to companions who are not able to join a meeting due to illness or world time zone.