Walking to Emmaus

The art of accompaniment

Lorene Hanley Duquine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of RENEW International.

Scripture passages are taken from the Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved..

NIHIL OBSTAT

Rev. Roberto Ortiz, S.T.D. (Cand)

Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R. Archbishop of Newark

Cover and interior design by Linda L. Eberly

ISBN: 978-1-62063-220-8

RENEW International 1232 George Street Plainfield, NJ 07062-1717

RENEW International is a 501 (3) non-profit organization.

Printed and bound in 2024 in the United States of America

Introduction

“There is a wise African saying – because they have that tribal mysticism – which says: ‘If you want to arrive quickly, go alone; if you want to arrive safely, go with others,’ go in company, go with your people. This is important. In the spiritual life it is better to be accompanied by someone who knows about us and helps us. And this is spiritual accompaniment.”

Pope Francis, General Audience, January 4, 2023

Welcome to Walking to Emmaus: The Art of Accompaniment (working title). In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis called on everyone in the Church – priests, religious and lay people – to reach out and accompany one another through the ups and downs of our spiritual journey. Throughout his papacy, in speeches, general audiences, catechesis, encyclicals and papal documents, Pope Francis reinforced the need for spiritual accompaniment for people of all ages and in all walks of life.

The word “accompaniment” comes from the Latin “cum pane,” which means “with bread.” Our model for accompaniment is the Risen Lord, who appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, walked beside them, listened to their concerns, shared insights, and accepted their invitation to break bread with them. The disciples’ encounter with Jesus changed their lives. With hearts on fire, and filled with faith, hope and love, they returned to Jerusalem to share their experience of the Risen Christ with others.

This is the promise and the power of spiritual accompaniment. Pope Francis asks us to accompany others and to allow ourselves to be accompanied throughout our life experiences – the good times, the challenging times, the painful times, the questioning times, the hopeful times – because spiritual accompaniment during these life experiences can lead us toward an encounter with Jesus and result in our growth in holiness. Our involvement in accompanying relationships will not just change our lives and the lives of the people we accompany, it will impact our parishes, our workplaces, and our communities. Like the proverbial pebble dropped into a pond, accompanying relationships move outward in expanding circles touching the lives of many others.

In 2019, the Catholic Apostolate Center, a ministry of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottine Fathers and Brothers) published The Art of Accompaniment: Theological, Spiritual and Practical Elements of Building a more Relational Church, which is an important resource for parishes, campus ministries,

faith communities, and lay people who want to understand theologically, spiritually, and practically the essence of spiritual accompaniment.

In 2023, the Catholic Apostolate Center recognized that while a book provides an invaluable intellectual foundation, some people find it easier to grasp a new concept in a small discussion group where they have the opportunity to gain knowledge, explore questions, listen to the Holy Spirit, share faith, and discover practical ways to put the concept into action.

As a result, the Catholic Apostolate Center entered into discussions with RENEW International, a non-for-profit ministry with over four decades of experience in developing parish-based and diocesan-wide small group resources that help people hear the Word of God, make connections between faith and life though sharing insights, and learn how to live their faith in their homes, parishes, workplace, and community.

RENEW International agreed to develop a six-session small-group faithsharing resource based on The Art of Accompaniment: Theological, Spiritual and Practical Elements of Building a more Relational Church, that would help people understand the concept of accompaniment – including the what, the why, and the how – so that they are prepared to answer the call of Pope Francis to accompany others.

Today, you are embarking on this exciting faith-sharing journey with the people in your small group. In the first session you will explore how God is calling each of you into relationships of accompaniment. In the second session you will look at the accompanying techniques used by Jesus on the road to Emmaus. In the third session you will see how accompaniment plays an important role as people go through spiritual transformations. In the fourth session, you will learn how discernment helps you listen to the Holy Spirit as you accompany others. In the fifth session you will experience the power of prayer in accompaniment. And in the final session, you will experience the power of love which serves as a foundation for all accompanying relationships.

Thank you for joining this new adventure. May your experience of accompaniment in the next six sessions set your heart on fire and fill you with faith, hope, and love.

Lorene Hanley Duquin

Session 1:

Called to Accompany Others

“The calling always implies a mission to which we are destined; that is why we are asked to prepare ourselves seriously, knowing that it is God himself who sends us, it is God himself who supports us with his grace” (Pope Francis, General Audience, June 30, 2021).

“Accompaniment is not for the few ordained or specially commissioned lay ministers; it is a call put forth to all the baptized by the Spirit of God” (The Art of Accompaniment: Theological, Spiritual, and Practical Elements of Building a More Relational Church, p. 8).

Focus for this Session

God calls each of us in our own unique way. The Lord’s call is not a one-time event. The Holy Spirit is constantly calling us to reach outside of ourselves in ways that will be beneficial for other people. We are called to accompany others and allow others to accompany us on a path that leads us closer to God.

Introductions

Allow a few minutes for participants to introduce themselves and briefly share how they became interested in joining this small group.

Opening Prayer

Leader: As we gather for our first session, let us spend a few moments in silence allowing ourselves to be aware of God’s presence in our midst… Pause for a few moments and then pray:

Leader: Lord of all creation, we believe that you are with us at all times and in all places. Thank you for bringing us together today. Keep us focused on your divine presence as we begin our exploration of accompaniment.

Reader 1: Allow us to grow in our understanding of what it means to accompany others.

Reader 2: Open our eyes so that we can see the need for accompaniment in our world today.

Reader 3: Help us to recall the times in our own lives when we have been accompanied.

Reader 3: Instill in us a deep desire to accompany others and walk with them on a path that leads closer to you.

Reader 4: Remove any obstacles in our minds or our hearts that would keep us from answering your call to accompany others.

Reader 5: Increase our faith, fortify our hope, and deepen our love for you and for all people.

Leader: We ask all of this through Christ, Our Lord, who lives and reigns forever. All: Amen.

Breaking Open Our Story

Because I think of Saint Teresa of Calcutta as a spiritual superstar, I assumed that her call from God was something extraordinary, the likes of which could never happen to me. When I looked more closely at her story, I was shocked to find that there was really nothing extraordinary about Mother Teresa at the time God called her. People described her as an ordinary Loretto nun, humble and kind with a great sense of humor. She was happy living in the Loretto convent, serving first as a teacher, and then as principal at St. Mary’s School in a Calcutta suburb where many of the students came from middle-class Indian families.

In 1946, while enroute to her annual retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas, Mother Teresa received the call from God to work in the slums of Calcutta. Her spiritual director later explained that her initial call was not a vision, but rather an inner communication that came as a form of inspiration. This call continued throughout her retreat. Letters to her spiritual director from that time show that she was afraid of the hardships and rejection she would likely endure in the streets of Calcutta, and she asked the Lord to find someone else to go. In the end, Mother Teresa surrendered to God’s will. “It was the most difficult thing I have ever done,” she later said.

During the next two years, Mother Teresa obtained the necessary permissions and medical training. Then, clothed in a blue and white sari, she moved into the slums of Calcutta to accompany “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” As promised, the Lord provided everything that she needed. It was not long before some of her former students accompanied Mother Teresa into the slums, becoming the first postulants of the Missionaries of Charity.

Whether we realize it or not, God is constantly calling each one of us into relationships of accompaniment. The call to accompaniment “is extended by the Holy Spirit who is at work in institutions and churches, but also within individuals” (The Art of Accompaniment, p. 9).

The Holy Spirit speaks to us during the readings, the homily, and the music at

Mass. We receive inspiration through scripture, music, art, literature, nature and in quiet moments of prayer. Ideas and images arise in our hearts and minds during dreams and in the events of our daily lives. Sometimes a message is transmitted through comments, advice, or insights offered by someone else. A chance meeting or a sudden thought about someone might be the Holy Spirit’s way of asking us to spend more time with this person. A voice deep inside may prompt us to help someone experiencing an injustice. The sudden awareness of people suffering from pain, loneliness, grief, hopelessness, or fear may lead us to reach out to them.

Sometimes we don’t realize that God is calling us because we are distracted and don’t recognize that we are being nudged in a new direction. Or we may understand what God is asking but choose to ignore it. We may not want to move out of our comfort zone; we may not want to upset our plans for the future. We may feel unsure about whether we can do what God is asking. We may feel afraid of how other people will react. Like Mother Teresa, we may recognize the level of sacrifice involved, and we may fear pain or hardship.

It is important to remember that God never forces us to do anything. If we say no to whatever God is asking of us, he will pursue us with other opportunities to say yes – just as he continued to call Mother Teresa during each day of her retreat. God knows all our strengths and weaknesses. He is constantly asking us to move outside of ourselves toward what will be life-giving for us and for other people.

Pope Francis assures us: “Brothers and sisters, God believes in us! He trusts us and accompanies us with patience. He does not get discouraged, but always instills hope in us. God is Father and looks after you as a father. As the best of fathers, He does not look at the achievements you have not yet reached, but the fruits that you can yet bear. He does not keep track of your shortcomings but encourages your potential. He does not dwell on your past, but confidently bets on your future” (Pope Francis at Angelus, March 20, 2022).

Invitation to Share

Take a few minutes of silence to reflect on one of the following questions. Then share your reflections.

1. Think back on your life and share a time when you believed that you were being called by God. How did you recognize that God was calling you? How did you feel about what God was asking? How did you respond?

2. Was there a time in your life when you were in need and God called another person to help you? What did that person do? Why did you believe that person had been sent by God?

3. Describe a time in your life when you tried to run away from what God was asking. In what ways did God continue to pursue you? How did you respond?

Breaking Open God’s Story

The Word of God

Exodus 3:4-14

Moses and the Burning Bush

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’ But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.”

Moment of Silent Reflection

What word, phrase or image from the scripture passage touched your heart or spoke to your life?

Reflection

Today’s scripture passage presents a powerful scene: an angel, a burning bush, the Lord God calling out to Moses and telling him to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Acutely aware of his past failures, Moses turns his head because he is afraid to look at God.

Moses was born to Hebrew parents in Egypt. When the pharaoh decreed that all newborn Hebrew boys should be put to death, Moses’ mother devised a plan that resulted in the pharaoh’s daughter finding Moses and raising him as her own child. Moses was destined to live a privileged life in Egypt. But one day, he impulsively murdered an Egyptian overseer who was abusing a Hebrew slave. Fearing the pharaoh’s wrath, Moses fled to a rural area, where he married, and spent the next forty years tending flocks of sheep that belonged to his father-in-law.

God never mentions Moses’ failures. God’s concern is the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt, and he asks Moses to lead them out of bondage. Like Mother Teresa, Moses questions his ability to do what God was asking, but God assures Moses (and God assures us today) that those who surrender to the will of God will receive everything they need. As the Book of Exodus continues, we see that God accompanies Moses every step of the way. God also sends Moses’ brother, Aaron, and their sister, Miriam, along with many others to accompany him.

When we look back through salvation history, we see that, throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly accompanies his people with signs and wonders. In the New Testament, God becomes one of us, and Jesus invites his disciples to accompany him as he reveals the Kingdom of God to people he meets along the way. “After Jesus’ Ascension, the apostles continued proclaiming the Gospel by teaching, preaching and healing in teams of two…Through these partnerships, the disciples invite others into relationship with God” (The Art of Accompaniment, p. 4-5).

St. Paul accompanied the early Christian communities with visits and letters of instruction, correction, and encouragement. We also find examples of accompaniment in the lives of saints such as Ambrose and Augustine, Francis and Clare, Francis Xavier and Peter Favre, Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal, Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. “Since the Church’s birth, the charism of spiritual friendship has been present in her ministry, elevating human relationships to become means of inspiration, encouragement, and holiness” (The Art of Accompaniment, p. 6).

Looking back on our own lives, we see how the Lord accompanied us through good times and bad times. As he did for Moses and Mother Teresa, the Lord sent people to walk with us on our spiritual journey – our parents, our godparents, the catechists who taught us about God, extended family members and friends who supported us, teachers who encouraged us, spiritual directors who helped us to grow in faith, medical professionals who healed us, and sometimes, complete strangers who offered much-needed support when we were going through difficult times.

We can also look back on times when the Lord asked us to accompany others. We may not have even realized that the Lord was calling us to reach out to someone else. But we found ourselves in situations where we had to listen, share our experiences, offer consolation, pray, and help the other person recognize the healing presence of the Lord in their lives.

Our experiences of accompanying others as well as our experiences of being accompanied are the foundation of what Pope Francis calls “the art of accompaniment.” In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis recognizes that we live in “a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity and at the same time obsessed with the details of other people’s lives, shamelessly given over to morbid curiosity.” He sees a need for everyone in the Church – priests, religious, and laity – “to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other” and accompany them on a path toward holiness.

“The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates, and encourages growth in the Christian life. Although it sounds obvious, spiritual accompaniment must lead others ever closer to God, in whom we attain true freedom” (Evangelii Gaudium, 169).

We see in the stories of Mother Teresa and Moses that the Lord’s call was not intended for the benefit of Mother Teresa or Moses as individuals. Instead, the Lord asked Mother Teresa to accompany sick and dying people, while Moses was asked to lead the enslaved Israelites out of bondage.

Pope Francis tells us that the Lord is calling us to accompany others – each in our own particular way –according to our abilities and the circumstances of our lives. He calls it a path to holiness, and he assures us: “This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through small gestures. Here is an example: a woman goes shopping, she meets a neighbor, and they begin to speak, and the gossip starts. But she says in her heart: ‘No, I will not speak badly of anyone.’ This is a step

SESSION 1 : Called to Accompany Others

forward in holiness. Later, at home, one of her children wants to talk to her about his hopes and dreams, and even though she is tired, she sits down and listens with patience and love. That is another sacrifice that brings holiness. Later she experiences some anxiety, but recalling the love of the Virgin Mary, she takes her rosary and prays with faith. Yet another path of holiness. Later still, she goes out onto the street, encounters a poor person, and stops to say a kind word to him. One more step” (Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsulate, 16).

In the next five sessions, with the help of the Catholic Apostolate Center and its book, The Art of Accompaniment: Theological, Spiritual, and Practical Elements of Building a More Relational Church, we will explore in more depth what it means to accompany and to be accompanied. But for today, our focus will be on your own experiences of accompaniment, the ways you have accompanied others, the people who have accompanied you, and how the Holy Spirit is calling you into a deeper relationship with other people.

Invitation

to Share

Take a few minutes of silence to reflect on one of the following questions. Then share your reflections.

1. Moses receives assurance that God will accompany him if he agrees to do what God asks. Describe the times in your life when you felt as if God was accompanying you and providing whatever support you needed.

2. Who are the people that have accompanied you throughout your life, and what did they do? Whom have you accompanied, and how? How did that experience change you or help you to grow?

3. In what ways is God asking you to expand your efforts to accompany others in your family, your parish, your workplace, your community? Who are the people in today’s world that might benefit from accompaniment?

Invitation

to Act

1. Start a spiritual journal. Begin by writing down the times in your life when you felt as if you were being called by God to take a particular action. Make a list of the people who have accompanied you spiritually and the people you have accompanied.

2. Read the Book of Exodus. Jot down any insights that come to you. Share your insights on Exodus with a family member, friend, or someone in your group.

3. Research the lives of saints who accompanied each other on the path toward holiness. How did they help each other? Share your findings with members of the group.

4. Reach out to a person in your life who is struggling physically, emotionally, or spiritually, and ask how you can help, knowing that sometimes listening may be enough.

5. Find out what ministries already exist in your parish that are designed to accompany people in physical, emotional, or spiritual need. Ask what kind of help these ministries need.

6. Identify the needs of people in your parish or community that are not being met. In what way could you reach out on an individual basis to people in need of accompaniment?

What is Accompaniment?

The Catholic Apostolate Center tells us that the Holy Spirit calls the person accompanied and the person who accompanies into a relationship in which both can grow in holiness. It is a call extended to every baptized person. Here are some styles of accompaniment that can occur on a formal basis as part of a parish ministry or on an informal, one-on-one basis, for a short period of time or for the long term:

• The Mentor This style of accompaniment involves helping the other person to explore various aspects of faith, to recognize and strengthen his or her gifts, and to encourage growth in faith through tenderness and humility.

• The Witness This style of accompaniment involves passing on authentic Christian faith in words or in actions to another person by the way you live your life.

• The Spiritual Friend This style of accompaniment involves walking with another person on a spiritual journey, sharing experiences, and recognizing the presence of God in each other’s lives with warmth and tenderness.

• The Spiritual Mother and Father This style of accompaniment involves the sharing of wisdom by an older person who is well-seasoned in faith, with a younger person who is searching.

• The Compassionate Companion This style of accompaniment involves fostering conditions that allow the Lord to enter into the life of someone who needs spiritual, emotional, or physical healing.

Closing Prayer

Leader: As we conclude our first session in the art of accompaniment, let us give thanks to our gracious and loving God for all the people who have accompanied us on our journeys through life. Our response will be: Thank you, Lord, for sending these people.

Leader: For our parents and godparents who brought us to the waters of baptism where we were received into the Church and became participants in the life of Christ, we give thanks to the Lord.