A Prayer of Oscar Romero

 

Curated from Bread for the World

This poem was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw in November, 1979.
It draws inspiration from St Oscar Romero and now known as A Prayer of Oscar Romero.

A PRAYER OF OSCAR ROMERO

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

Amen.

The Wedding at Cana – From a Sermon by Faustus of Riez, bishop

 

Stone water jars. Image credit: Jerusalem Perspective

“To those who only see with the outward eye, all these events at Cana are strange and wonderful; to those who understand, they are also signs. For, if we look closely, the very water tells us of our rebirth in Baptism. One thing is turned into another from within, and in a hidden way a lesser creature is changed into a greater. All this points to a hidden reality of our second birth. There water was suddenly changed; later it will cause a change in all people.”

The water in the jars is not less than it was before, but now begins to be what it had not been; so too the law is not destroyed by Christ’s coming, but is made better than it was.

When the wine fails, new wine is served: The wine of the old covenant was good, but the wine of the new is better.”

From a Sermon by Faustus of Riez, bishop - from the Office of Readings for Saturday before the Baptism of the Lord. Selected by Deacon Steve

Spiritual Reflection for December Meeting

 

Selection by Deacon Steve

“Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Lk 21: 27 – 28)

As we journey in this season of Advent, a time of preparation for and anticipation of the coming of Christ in the Incarnation, which has taken place and is ongoing, we also remember that it is a time of preparation for the Second Coming, for as our Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent tells us, 

“Then they will see, “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Lk 21: 27 – 28)

Yet as Thomas Merton reminds us, 

“More important than the eschatological sign of renewed life, is the sign par excellence; “The Gospel is preached to the poor.” This means that the prophetic message, the fulfillment of the divine promises is now formally announced to the ‘anawim’, to those who hungered and thirsted for the Kingdom because they had no hope but the Lord…. This fulfillment has begun because now Christ has appeared in the midst of the poor as one of them, and has taken them to Himself so that they are, in a most special way, Christ. What happens to them, in a most special way, happens to Christ (Matt 25:37-45). The Last Days have come not merely because the poor have heard about Christ but because they “are” Christ. The poor themselves now become an eschatological sign of Christ, a sign by which other people are judged, for “if the wicked servant says in his heart: ‘My Lord delays in coming’ and begins to strike his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the Lord of that servant will come on the day he does not expect and in the hour which he does not know, and will cut him off (from Man in Christ) and give him his portion with the hypocrites.” (Matt 24:48-50)”

Thomas Merton, “Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts” p. 79

Spiritual Reflection – World Day of the Poor 2021

 

Selection by Deacon Steve

“The poor, always and everywhere, evangelize us, because they enable us to discover in new ways the true face of the Father.

“They have much to teach us. Besides participating in the sensus fidei, they know the suffering Christ through their own sufferings. It is necessary that we all let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to recognize the salvific power of their lives and to place them at the centre of the Church’s journey. We are called to discover Christ in them, to lend them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them…what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is…above all an attentiveness that considers the other in a certain sense as one with ourselves.

“The poor are not people outside our communities, but brothers and sisters whose sufferings we should share, in an effort to alleviate their difficulties and marginalization, restore their lost dignity and ensure their necessary inclusion….acts of charity presuppose a giver and a receiver, whereas mutual sharing generates fraternity…mutual sharing is enduring…strengthens solidarity and lays the necessary foundations for achieving justice. In short, believers when they want to see Jesus in person and touch him with their hands, know where to turn. The poor are a sacrament of Christ; they represent his person and point to him.”

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the Fifth World Day of the Poor, p. 2 & 3

An Easter Reflection by Deacon Steve

 

“Why was the Easter proclamation “good news”? What did it mean to those who first heard the message?” Does it still pack the same punch today as it did Easter morning? If not why not?

These are questions that we must always bring to our celebration of Easter, for so often it is merely another feast on the liturgical calendar with little practical impact on individual lives. Peter relates the original proclamation with a sense of joyful wonder. The story is about this incredible God-filled man named Jesus… [and how] what could have been a crushing and tragic end was transformed by the hand of God who raised Jesus from the dead. And now Jesus stands astride all human history as its life-giving power and final judge.”

“…humankind is discovering in Jesus that God is impartial. Rather than being the property of any person or group, God offers grace and mercy to all. We need fear nothing-not even death itself. God was showing humanity not a way to escape the miseries and struggles of the human condition, but how to pass through them transformed.”

- Lewis, SJ, Scott, “ God’s Word on Sunday Year B” Catholic Register Books, Toronto, 2011, p51

Each time we are present to the people who request our services we bring our Lord’s grace and mercy to the people and they experience hope. In turn our Lord’s abundant grace and mercy transform’s us.

May you and your families and loved ones be transformed by the grace and mercy of our Lord as you celebrate the Easter mysteries together or apart! May Christ‘s Easter hope, peace and joy fill your hearts.

God bless

Steve

Saint Francis and the Gift of Alms

 

Image credit: https://aleteia.org/

The following reflection is taken from the Franciscan Spirit Blog: Lent with St. Francis.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” —Matthew 7:11

With passages such as we find in today’s Gospel, it’s not hard to see how Francis decided that relying on other people to provide for the brothers’ needs was a way of living out their total reliance on God.

Once when St. Francis visited Cardinal Hugolino, and the hour of dinner was at hand, he went out for alms, and returning, placed some of the scraps of black bread on the bishop’s table.…When the dinner was finished, the bishop arose and taking the man of God to an inner room, he raised his arms and embraced him. “My Brother,” he said, “why did you bring shame on me in the house that is yours and your brothers by going out for alms?”

To find out how Saint Francis responded to the bishop, read the rest of the reflection here: Lent with St. Francis: The Gift of Alms

We are warmed by the fire, not by the smoke

 

Conference spiritual reflection

We are warmed by fire, not by the smoke of the fire. We are carried over the sea by a ship not by the wake of a ship. So too, what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being, not in our outward reflection in our own acts. We must find our real selves not in the froth stirred up by the impact of our being upon beings around us, but in our own soul which is the principle of all our acts.

Merton, Thomas, “No Man is an Island” p 117, 1955, Harcourt Inc., New York

Conference Spiritual Reading 11 Jan 2021

 

Spiritual Reading for January 11, 2021 - selected by Deacon Steve

“And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. My dear, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”

“Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours”, Kathleen Deignan CND, ed., Sorin Books, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2007, p. 162

Introduction to the Liturgy of the Eucharist

 Wonderful explanation by Archbishop Durocher.

How does King Jesus want to be served?

 

Christ of the Breadlines - Fritz Eichenberg

Today's parable tells us that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, chose once and for all to be in solidarity and identify himself with the lowliest people. Maybe it's time to relegate the Sistine Chapel, awe-inspiring icons, and portraits of the royal redeemer to museums. If we want to respect Jesus' self-portrait, we would do better to contemplate Fritz Eichenberg's "The Christ of the Breadlines," a black and white etching of a slightly stooped, racially indistinct Christ, distinguishable from the destitute women and men with whom he waits by nothing more than how his presence radiates out to them. This etching illustrates Christ's choice to identify with the vulnerable. Whereas humanity tends to envision the divine as the utmost expression of magnificent "things that matter," Jesus tells us to seek God's self-revelation at the lowest end of the scales of power and prestige.

- Sr. Mary M. McGlone, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet

An extract from The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: The king of solidarity published in the National Catholic Reporter

2020 - Fourth World Day of the Poor

 

SSVP and the World Day of the Poor

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the World Day of the Poor

The WORLD DAY OF THE POOR will be held on 15 November 2020 on the theme “Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (Sir 7, 32), drawn from the message written by his Holiness Pope Francis (link to the message is provided below). The World Day of the Poor, established by the Vatican in 2016, is celebrated on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Pope Francis published his message and called on people to “stretch forth their hand to the poor”, and warned against “cynicism” and “indifference” of those whose hands are outstretched to accumulate money by the sale of weapons and drugs. “In these months, when the whole world was prey to a virus that brought pain and death, despair and bewilderment, how many outstretched hands have we seen!” said Pope Francis, drawing attention to the actions of solidarity throughout the world to help those most affected by dire poverty.

Pope Francis laments the frenetic pace of life that leads people, who turn a blind eye on poverty, into a “whirlwind of indifference”, but praises the “generosity that supports the weak […], a condition for full human life”. Pope Francis also acknowledged that the Church certainly has no comprehensive solutions to “the silent cry of so many poor”; it’s possible, though, to do much more for the poorest.

Even in times of pandemic, we, as members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, can celebrate the WORLD DAY OF THE POOR in a creative and efficient way. One suggestion would be to get closer to lay ecclesial movements in each parish, with fund-raising campaigns for Conferences (food and hygiene kits, which are essential in these times). 

Another idea would be to offer a greater visibility of the SSVP on the parishes’ and dioceses’ media, while liaising with companies, the government and the mass media, and showcasing the social work of Conferences and Special Works. At the end of the Mass, on 15 November, it would be worthwhile for the Conference President to disseminate the Vincentian mission, vision and values, prompting new members to join the Conferences.

“In any case, the most important thing is to be witnesses of Christ’s love for the most needy, living out the Gospel message, in community, serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice and empathy. Simply with our good deeds, we can do a lot for the poor”, stressed our fellow member Renato Lima, the 16th President General.

As we ponder on 2020’s WORLD DAY OF THE POOR, amidst this health crisis, it must be acknowledged that global extreme poverty is on the rise, with people becoming unemployed and mental health cases increasing significantly. The pandemic has also been a hard blow for the world economy and countries’ wealth, having a devastating impact on families, particularly on young people. The education world has also been turned upside down, with millions of children missing out on school.

Faced with this hostile context, the WORLD DAY OF THE POOR is a great challenge for all of us, as members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Let us pray that the Good Lord will protect us and help us overcome these difficult times. “Sharing with the poor means mutual enrichment. If there are unhealthy social structures that prevent them from dreaming of the future, we must work together to heal them, to change them.” (Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, 2013, no 195).

Our founders taught us that we need to reassess our actions by better reallocating our resources, avoiding hoarding, relaxing our internal rules and mobilizing our human and material heritage, to serve the poorest with joy and no complaints, and love them without judgment, bringing the “Gospel of Hope” to everyone.

Click here to read his Holiness Pope Francis’ full message.

All Saints and All Souls Day

 

- by Deacon Steve

As we celebrated All Saints Day yesterday and today as we celebrate and remember All Souls Day, I pray that we will all be able to take time out of our busy days and say a prayer for our family members and loved ones who have gone before us, remembering that they too are praying for us. 

Let us also remember those Vincentians who have gone before us, those who laid the groundwork for our Society and so faithfully continued the Mission of Christ to the people who suffer poverty and marginalization in our society. We remember St. Vincent de Paul, Blessed Frederic Ozanam and Blessed Sister Rosalie Rendu, who guided Bl. Frederic and his confreres on how to minister to the poor.

Of course we remember all those who served in our own St. John Chrysostom and St. Elizabeth Seton Conference and helped to create a vibrant conference serving the Newmarket and surrounding area and inspiring us as they lived out their commitment.

Be assured of my prayers for all of you, your families and the souls of your faithful departed.
Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. 

Deacon Steve Pitre is Spiritual Advisor to our Coneference

Love and Faith Go Together

 Love and faith go together.
- a relection by Deacon Steve Pitre

"Our work to be fruitful and to be all for God, and to be beautiful, has to be built on faith - faith in Christ who has said, “I was hungry, I was naked, I was sick, and I was homeless and you did that to Me.” On these words of His all our work is based…Faith to be true has to be a giving love. Love and faith go together. They complete each other."
- Saint Teresa of Calcutta

This passage (Matt 25) was the basis for St. Teresa of Calcutta’s conviction that Jesus is present in the poor: with absolute faith in His words, she regarded her apostolate as a service done to Jesus Himself. Her faith in His presence in the “least of His brethren” was so real that every encounter with the poor meant a mystical encounter with Jesus Himself: “We are contemplatives in action right in the heart of the world, seeing and loving and serving Jesus twenty-four hours in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.”

“Where There is Love, There is God” Mother Theresa, ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C. p. 141-142

Deacon Steve Pitre is Spiritual Advisor to the Newmarket Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish

Image credit: rlcfchurch.org

by Deacon Steve Pitre

“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish”

As we listen to the apostle’s response to Jesus statement, “…you give them something to eat,” do we hear ourselves saying the same thing from time to time? We may not say it like they did but I know I have said to myself, “I only have so many hours in the day and most of that is spent working, commuting and then with family.”

Three Essential Elements of Vincentian Life

Among the essential elements to our work and life as Vincentians there are, at least, three. The most obvious of these, in the public eye, is our ministry to the poor and vulnerable. This is the one that gets measured and reported on. It is also very easy for us to see the spiritual value attached to this ministry as when we read St. Matthew's gospel, chapter 25, about the judgement between the sheep and the goats when Jesus returns in glory as King. However, there are two other essential elements which we neglect at great risk to our very mission and ministry. I compare them to gasoline and oil in a motor car.

The first of the other two elements, which I compare to gasoline for a car, is our personal spiritual life - our connection with God our Father, with Christ our Lord, and with the Holy Spirit. This is the source of our power to minister to the poor. Without a spiritual life of regular prayer, Scripture and the sacraments our tank gets empty. You can only run on fumes for a very short while before you sputter and stop. Frederic Ozanam's spiritual life included daily reading and meditating on the Bible and regularly going to mass and communion. (His wife gives us this testimony: Despite his grave illness he never put aside his time of prayer. I have never seen him go to bed at night or rise in the morning without making the sign of the cross. In the morning he reads the Bible in Greek and meditates for half an hour. During the last days of his life he attended Mass on a daily basis and found support and consolation in doing this.)

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul - who are we?

New Corporate video of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, from the International General Council. The video is focused on the people who make up the society, their faith and their commitment to others.

Third World Day of the Poor - Questions for reflection and discussion 

The numbers in parentheses refer to the Pope's Message which can be linked to here, a summary of which follows below the questions.

1. The Pope says (#9) that the poor "save" us. In what way do the poor save us? Which gospel passage do you think the pope is referring to? How does this affect how you view the poor?
2. When Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom, whom did he place at the centre (#5)? What task did he entrust to us? Do you feel up to the task? What are some possible next steps you can take? Do you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus?
3. What does the pope mean by "social imbalances" (#1) and "bondage" (#2)? What social imbalance and bondage have you personally witnessed whether in yourself or others?
4. Who, or what groups of people, in your community and parish boundaries might be feeling like strangers or outcasts (#6)? How welcome do you think they would feel if they walked into our church for Sunday mass?
5. What do you think the pope means by "stifling individualism" or "small circles of spiritual intimacy with no influence on social life" (#6)? What should make this impossible for disciples of Jesus?
6. On this World Day of the Poor, what else can we offer beyond material assistance (#7)? What is an indispensable start for having a true concern for the poor?
7. Who makes God's love visible for the poor (#8)? What do the poor need even more than a hot meal or sandwich?
8. We talk about "the poor", but what is the danger in always using this term (#9)? Who or what are "the poor"?
9. What can we offer the poor (#10)? Why? Can we do it alone?

Here is a summary with extracts from the Pope's Message announcing the Third World Day of the Poor.

Pray before "the fixed tabernacle and mobile tabernacles"

"We will be helped by staying before the tabernacle and before the many living tabernacles who are the poor. The Eucharist and the poor, the fixed tabernacle and the mobile tabernacles: It is there that we remain in love and absorb the mentality of bread broken," that is of Jesus, who gives himself in the Eucharist.

Pope Francis spoke these words on May 23 when he opened the general assembly of Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based federation of national Catholic charities with some 450 delegates from around the world.

"... Jesus asks us to remain in him, not in our ideas; to leave behind a desire to control and run things. He asks us to trust one another and give ourselves to the other."

"... Seek in others the presence of God, who does not dwell in the greatness of the things we do, but in the smallness of the poor we encounter. If we do not look directly at them, we end up always looking at ourselves and making them instruments of our self-affirmation."

Read the full report on this event: True charity means focusing on Jesus and the poor, pope says, by Cindy Wooden in the National Catholic Reporter.

Ontario’s cuts to legal aid will hurt the poorest

On Good Friday this year, as on every Good Friday, I read about the trial of Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate and how, in a travesty of justice the Roman Governor caved to the demands of the ruling religious elite in Jerusalem and sentenced Christ to execution with two rebel bandits. This year on good Friday I also read in the Toronto Star how legal aid, already meagre, will be further cut to Ontario's poorest and most vulnerable.

Syrian Refugee Children (globalnews.ca)

For Christians who believe that the risen Christ hides in plain sight in the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, Good Friday is a very fitting occasion to publicise this cut in services resulting in further travesty against those without the means to represent themselves in court, refugee claimants and, often, the victims of such horrific crimes as child abuse, murder, manslaughter and sexual assault against minors because the perpetrators are not being tried soon enough and are simply being set free by the courts.

Read the full opinion piece here: Ontario’s cuts to legal aid will hurt the poorest.
https://spon.ca/ontarios-cuts-to-legal-aid-will-hurt-the-poorest/2019/04/20/

​Volunteers or Servants in Ministry?

​

by Timothy Schmaltz

A couple of weeks ago I attended an evening for those in liturgical ministry in St. Elizabeth Seton Parish. Fr. Roy gave a presentation where, among the many things he shared, he stressed that we need to see ourselves and each other as ministers serving the Body of Christ. We do this because we have been called by the Lord who has given us the necessary gifts and talents needed to perform this work of service. St. Paul has a lot to say about this in 1 Corinthians 12 and also in Romans 12. To us, our gifts and talents may not seem like much more than a few loaves and fishes, but the Lord can and will multiply them as needed.

A corollary to understanding ourselves as servants who have been called to ministry by God is that we need to cease considering ourselves as volunteers. This is true, regardless of the ministry, whether social, educational, liturgical or care and compassion.