A TRIBUTE TO POPE FRANCIS

As Vincentians, in our opening prayer at each meeting we attend, we call on our Lord to be with us and to help us: “Lord Jesus, make us responsive to the Christian calling to seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived, so that we may bring them Your Love”. Along came Pope Francis, a friend of Vincentians, who instituted the “World Day of the Poor” which is now celebrated by the Church on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time since 2017.

In addition, Pope Francis has left us a number of “his words” listed here on the poor on helping them…

1. . “There is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them”.
2. “At times, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own”.
3. “The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime, all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us”.
4. “I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of Saint John Chrysostom, one of the sages of antiquity: "Not to share one's wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs”.
5. “Each individual Christian and community are 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”.

These messages of Pope Francis surely strengthen us in our resolve, as Vincentians, to “go to the poor” as Christ himself had asked us, when He said, “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep”. Let us continue to pray for the Pope and to him as he encourages us when we reach out to the poor, the hungry and the homeless. May he rest in peace. Guido Kelly, President.

Simplicity – Humility – Gentleness – Selflessness - Zeal