Pope Francis has made it clear that he is committed to ensuring that the forthcoming Synod will be one in which all the members of ‘the faithful’ are actively involved – and that the process used will be a model for what is involved in community discernment. Since it is Francis himself who is primarily responsible this new emphasis on synodality and discernment in the Church, this is a good time to explore what the pope sees as the nature and purpose of discernment. In this article I shall focus mainly on the distinctive features of the kind of discernment that Francis sees as appropriate for Church gatherings.