Caritas Social Action Network's message for the World Day of the Poor.
Sunday 17 November 2024 is the eighth World Day of the Poor, with the theme from the Book of Sirach, “The prayer of the poor rises up to God” (Sir 21:5). Pope Francis, in his message that this year is dedicated to prayer in anticipation of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025.
Christian hope, the theme of the Jubilee Year, is grounded in the certainty that our prayer reaches God’s presence; “not just any prayer but the prayer of the poor.”
Pope Francis, as he has done so often in his pontificate, challenges the mentality of the world, “which demands that we become somebody, that we make a name for ourselves at any cost, breaking social norms in order to accumulate wealth.” The Gospel gives us a different account of happiness, “which cannot be acquired by trampling on the rights and dignity of others.” We are all called to be “truly poor”, to be humble and virtuous, to live simply, to know our need for God and the certainty that God loves us, all of us, which is why we are called to help people out of circumstances of poverty, which
are an affront to human dignity.
In Evangelii Gaudium, the Holy Father taught that, “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor
and to come to their aid” (EG, 187).
We understand better the needs of those who experience poverty and what we can do to help – how we can do justice – by seeing what is going on as fully as possibly as fully as possible, by listening to those who experience poverty, and praying, asking God to open our eyes, move our hearts and steady our hands for action. Pope Francis quotes Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s address to the United Nations in 1985, when she showed everyone the rosary she always held in her hand and said, “I am only a poor sister who prays. By praying, Jesus puts his love in my heart, and I go to give it to all the poor I meet along the way. Pray too! Pray, and you will notice the poor who are beside you…Pray and your eyes will open, and your heart will fill with love.”
The resources we have gathered here are offered to the Catholic community as a way of deepening our encounter with those who are poor, of examining our own conscience about our lifestyles and how our faith is expressed in loving action. In his message in 2017, the Pope asked Catholic communities in the week preceding the World Day of the Poor to engage in acts of encounter and concrete expressions of charity. The focus is not fundraising, but encounter, accompaniment and change. The See-Judge-Act exercise (or we might now call it See-Pray-Act) is designed primarily for group use in a parish or a school to discern what actions might be taken. Do we know our community, who do we ‘see’ there, who do we not see, who do we hear and listen to who do we ignore, what is the Holy Spirit prompting us to do?
The novena is offered as a way to help us to prayerfully encounter in scripture God’s constant care for those who are in various forms of poverty and to prompt in us a desire for more just relations in the community. The readings are not from the readings of the day (apart from Sunday 10 November). This is a separate devotional exercise. It can be prayed individually or in school or parish groups.
You will find more details of the diocesan Caritas agencies and independent charities that are members of Caritas Social Action Network on our website at www.csan.org.uk. These charities are engaged in different ways in tackling the causes of poverty, promoting justice and restoring dignity. You will find much inspiration from them as you continue to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)
Pope Francis reminds us to be friends with the poor.
This novena is offered as a way to help us to prayerfully encounter in scripture God’s constant care for those who are in various forms of poverty and to prompt in us a desire for more just relations in the community.
