Spiritual wisdom from the youngest woman at the Vatican Synod, Julia Osęka

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Christianity, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Host James Martin, S.J., talks with Julia Osęka, one of the youngest delegates at the Vatican Synod on Synodality which sought to increase participation in the Catholic Church. They reflect upon: How Julia’s childhood faith that ‘checked all the boxes’ matured into a relational faith between herself, God and other people Both the inspiration and challenges Julia felt as a young delegate at the Synod on Synodality in October of 2023 and 2024. Julia’s way of incorporating Ignatian principles of consolation and desolation, along with The Examen (St. Ignatius’ review of the day), into her prayer life. Link to Fr. Jim’s spiritual advice article on this episode: Coming Soon Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: [email protected] Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the spiritual life. I'm Father Jim Martin. On this podcast, we reflect on how people
0:09.6	experience God in their prayer and in their daily lives. And I'm joined by my excellent producer,
0:16.1	Maggie Van Dorn. Maggie, good to be with you. Good to be with you, Jim. And we have quite the guest ahead of us.
0:22.5	We do.
0:22.9	I'm really excited.
0:23.7	We're speaking with Julia O'Senka.
0:26.1	Yeah, Julia O'Senka made history as the youngest woman present as a voting member at the
0:32.5	Synod on Synodality in 2023 and 2024.
0:36.2	So this was a worldwide gathering of Catholics at the Vatican.
0:40.3	It was called by Pope Francis, and it was designed to bring bishops and lay people together to listen and discern where the Holy Spirit is working.
0:49.3	It also marked the first time a synod included delegates who were not bishops.
1:00.7	At the time, Julia was a junior in college studying theology and physics at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
1:03.0	Julia had been leading students in local listening sessions, and it was out of this coalition
1:08.7	that she was selected by the archdiocese of Philadelphia
1:11.6	to attend the synod in Rome as a voting delegate.
1:15.6	And that is where you came in, right, Jim?
1:18.6	Yeah, I mean, it was obvious when you walked in that she was among the youngest people in the room.
1:23.6	As we say in this conversation, there was another fellow named Wyatt from Wyoming, another
1:28.5	young priest from the United States, Father Yvonne, but she's remarkable. She's just remarkable.
1:35.5	And then I found out, oh my gosh, you go to St. Joseph's University. I'm from Philadelphia,
1:39.6	so that was a big bonding thing. And our listeners will notice she has a bit of an accent. She's from Poland
1:45.4	and speaks flawless English. So that was also a source of kind of wonder and fascination.
	...

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