Honoring Pope's request to celebrate

John Freund, CM
March 17, 2013

Catholic blogger F offer 5 Easy Ways to Love the Poor in Honor of His Pontificate

She writes… “As someone who’d strongly considered cashing in her frequent flyer miles to be at the Vatican for his installation, his words have challenged me personally. I think the perfect way to celebrate this moment, this man, and our Church is to look around ourselves this week and to align ourselves more fully to his mission of loving and serving the poor. I’ve been brainstorming a few ways the average Catholic family can embrace this spirit of generosity this week. Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Make a donation in honor of Pope Francis to Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States.
  2. Celebrate on Tuesday, the day of Pope Francis’ installation mass, by attending daily Mass and celebrating the Feast of St. Joseph at a parish in your community that serves underprivileged families. Fast during lunch or dinner and make a donation to that parish in Pope Francis’ name.
  3. Together with your children, clean out your family closets and make a donation of gently used clothing to the Catholic Charities organization in your hometown. Along with the clothing, take a few bags of non-perishable grocery staples.
  4. Find a Catholic school in your community and make a small donation to its scholarship fund for needy students.
  5. Look the face of poverty in your community squarely in the eye and pray about how you might be a part of finding a lasting solution to the plight of the poor. Don’t just intend to do it… actually do something. (Note: this is me, talking to myself)

FamVin offers it own suggestions in an earlier post Vincentian Almsgiving a list within the  Vincentian Family


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