Since being ordained a priest I have been inspired to grow
in serving the poor. I owe a debt
of gratitude to you Sisters and our campus ministers here at CSS. Simply being in your presence has been
a witness of the call to love our neighbor. I have also been amazed by the witness of Pope Francis is in
his dedication to serving God and the poor.
Part
of the inspiration I have experienced has led me to learn more about great
witnesses in loving the poor. In
particular I have been reading up on Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and Pope
Francis and I have found they have a lot in common. The most obvious is their whole-hearted service to the
poorest and loneliest in society.
They are the first to see Jesus in the face of the poor. They also brought many people around
them from various walks of life, including religion. Even an atheist would recognize the contributions these
three individuals made. They had
deep lives of prayer and were united to Mother Church.
Yet
the greatest feature Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and Pope Francis have in common
is their devotion to the Eucharist.
Did you know that in each house Dorothy Day founded in the Catholic
Worker movement there was a chapel and daily Mass? In one farming commune two hours were reserved in the
morning for Mass!
The Missionaries of Charity have a devotion to Adoration
that grew slowly. They began with
a holy hour once a week. At one
point a sister asked Mother, “Can we have adoration every day?” Her answer—“No” because there wasn’t
enough time in the day! But she
went on to say they prayed and she prayed, and they added it to their daily
calendar. And not only did they
find enough time in the day to get all the work done, but also grew in love in
their community and for the people they served.
Pope Francis is well known for visiting the slums,
sneaking out of his apartment to visit soup kitchens and living a humble life
in union with the poor. What our
media misses though, is that he begins and ends every day before Jesus in the
Eucharist and spends a few hours each day with Jesus. He recently reminded the world that without adoration of the
Eucharist, meditation on the Scriptures and personal prayer, our service to
others becomes stagnant.
James reminds us what our faith is all about: “Religion that is pure and undefiled
before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in
their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by
the world.” Thank
God for witnesses to show us how to live our religion to the full.
And we especially thank God for the gift of the
Eucharist, which we will receive again today. May it help us to live out religion in full—to serve God and
neighbor well.
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