Rising up to help the poor
The World Day of the Poor will be observed on Sunday coinciding with the 33rd Sunday of the Year.
This year’s theme is ‘The prayer of the poor rises up to God’, which Pope Francis says is based on a phrase from the Book of Sirach. The pope says the book is by the author, Ben Sira, who was a teacher and scribe from the 2nd Century BC who discovered that the poor are privileged in God’s heart.
The 2024 celebration will be the eighth since 2017 when Pope Francis called for the third Sunday in November to be set aside for the poor. It comes as Rome prepares to welcome pilgrims from around the world for the 2025 Jubilee year.
Speaking to the poor directly, Pope Francis says not to lose the certainty that “God is attentive to each of you and is close to you”. And as the book of Sirach states, “the Lord’s judgment will be in favour of the poor” and from poverty, therefore, “the song of the most genuine hope can spring up”.
The nature of mutual benefit is stated in the World Day of the Poor logo. There is an open door and two people on the roadside. Both are extending a hand. While one is seeking assistance, the other intends to help. The two arms express solidarity, inviting the other to exit the door and to meet.
“We need to make the prayer of the poor our own and pray together with them. This is a challenge we must embrace and a pastoral activity that needs to be nurtured,” says Pope Francis.
“Moreover, the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care.
“The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith.”
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