Rome (Italy). On 17 November 2024, the 8th World Day of the Poor is celebrated, a moment of reflection and animation for all the Educating Communities.
In the Year of prayer, now at the threshold of the Ordinary Jubilee 2025, the theme chosen by the Pope for the VIII World Day of the Poor is, “Prayer from the lips of the poor is heard at once,” (Sir 21:5), from the ancient sacred author Ben Sira, a scribe from Jerusalem who wrote probably in the second century B.C. and who, “inspired by the Holy Spirit, intends to transmit to all the way to follow for a wise life and worthy of being lived before God and our brothers and sisters.”
In his Message, the Holy Father underlines how the poor occupy a special place in the heart of God, always attentive and caring towards all. Their prayers are answered, and God, in the face of their suffering, becomes ‘impatient’ until He obtains justice for them.
“God knows the sufferings of His children, because He is a caring and attentive Father to all. As a Father, He cares for those who need it most: the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, the forgotten… But no one is excluded from His heart, since before Him, we are all poor and needy. We are all beggars, because without God we would be nothing.”
The Pope observes that, “we need to make our own the prayer of the poor and pray together with them.” He invites us to accept it as a challenge and as a pastoral action which needs to be nourished since “the worst discrimination suffered by the poor is the lack of spiritual attention.” Therefore, he urges us to learn to pray for the poor and to do so together with them, with a humble heart and with the confidence “that God will never abandon us nor leave us without a response.”
Prayer must be accompanied by concrete acts of charity to prove its authenticity. In fact, prayer and action are mutually recalled, “if prayer is not translated into concrete action, it is vain; (…) however, charity without prayer risks becoming philanthropy that soon exhausts itself. World Day of the Poor is also a time to thank the Lord for the many people who make themselves available to listen to and to support the poorest among us. These concrete faces, with their example, give voice to the answer of God to the prayer of those who turn to him.” (n. 7).
In this context, it is beautiful to recall the testimony left to us by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman who gave her life for the poor. Saint Teresa continually repeated that it was from prayer that she drew the strength and faith for her mission of service to the least among us. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, who lived in Rome, poor among the poor, as a “wanderer of God”, making his existence an incessant prayer that ascended to Him.
This Day was strongly desired by Pope Francis at the end of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, so that the whole Christian community, through concrete actions, may become more and more a sign of the charity of Christ towards the last and the needy, and it is an opportunity to become aware of the presence of the poor in our own cities and communities, to understand their needs.
In his first message in 2017, Pope Francis immediately clarified the aims of this initiative. “This Day intends to stimulate believers in the first place so that they react to the culture of wasting and waste, making their own the culture of encounter. At the same time, the invitation is addressed to all, regardless of religious affiliation, so that they may be open to sharing with the poor in every form of solidarity, as a concrete sign of fraternity.
I desire that the Christian communities, in the week preceding the World Day of the Poor, will commit themselves to creating many moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete help.
On this Sunday, if there are poor people in our neighborhood who seek protection and help, let us come closer to them; it will be a propitious moment to meet the God we are looking for. According to the teaching of the Scriptures, let us welcome them as privileged guests at our table. They can be teachers who help us live the faith in a more coherent way;” and he added, “Let prayer always be the foundation of the many concrete initiatives that can be realized in this Day.”
On the website of the Dicastery for Evangelization -Section for the fundamental issues of evangelization in the world, can be found animation resources in different languages.
