Soup kitchen for the poor
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Lent
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Post Lenten Campaign update
May 9, 2024
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A Church without charity does not exist.
Every year, the Catholic Church launches a Lenten campaign to remind the lay faithful to live a Christ-centered life. This year, with prayer and discernment, “Together We Rebuild Our Church, Community and Common Home” was proposed as the Lenten Campaign theme. Why rebuild? It is because we feel that as a Church, we need to enlarge the space of our tent by paying more attention to the desolate area in the society. Our Church needs to be rebuilt in terms of faith and deeds and we must allow ourselves to become Jesus’s instrument to bring His love to the unloved, His hope to the hopeless, and His peace to the world.
Earlier in January, we began the Lenten formation for Caritas representatives as well as the Love Squad (Love squad consists of confirmation class students and youth leaders), by introducing Lent to the young ones by using real life stories to create awareness on the various social problems that lead to poverty in the society.
Challenges in the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is currently facing several common challenges, including the following:
- The lack of listening – many Catholics do not spend enough time listening to the Lord and fail to listen effectively to the poor;
- The lack of awareness of poverty – lay people are not sufficiently aware of the issues faced by those at the grassroots level;
- The lack of young volunteers – there is a shortage of young people willing to volunteer and serve the poor, as many current volunteers are aging;
- The lack of capacity building – there is a need for collaboration among ministries within the Catholic Church and with NGOs, other faith-based organizations, and local governments to provide training and to plan social services for the betterment of the needy.
The idea: Living in solidarity with the poor
Faith without deeds is dead (James 2:26), As Catholics, our encounter with Jesus isn’t only in the Eucharist, but we encounter Him in the faces of the poor as He once told us in Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
This year, we focus on the need of putting our faith into action by going out from the church building to meet the poor and marginalized in the peripheries, like how our Master did – He went out to meet the poor and offered them His service. The poor are Jesus in disguise, an opportunity God gives us to encounter His Son in the poor and offer ourselves to love Him.
Lent gives us a time to reflect and rebuild our relationship with Jesus. Through fasting, praying and almsgiving, we learn to be faithful to Him. Our faithful Lenten practices will reap a harvest of joy during the Easter season. We shall start by spending at least half an hour with God in silent and completely surrender to Him, like Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to Him attentively – exercise the left side of your lung to pray and allow Him to activate the right side of your lung to love.
Lenten campaign in the parishes
This year we witnessed many good works carried out by the Lenten team in respective parishes. For example the youths collaborated with other ministries to visit the elderly, sick and lonely, and church members after they learned about the effects of climate change are determined to put a stop to it. May all the good works give glory to our Lord. Remember it is not so much about how many activities we organize in the parish, but how much love we put into the doing. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).
Upcoming events
From May onwards, Caritas Penang will work together with Caritas Malaysia, other dioceses and ministries, and the NGOs to introduce Caritas’s spirituality, Catholic social teaching, deanery-level joint activities, and volunteer training to equip our volunteers so that we may go out together to serve where is needed. Stay tuned for we will unpack the stories of the poor more in depth throughout the whole year and if you are interested to be a Caritas volunteer to serve the poor and marginalized, do talk to us or approach the Caritas representative in your parish.
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The Catholic church’s mission is to carry out and continue the work of Jesus Christ on earth. Therefore, we seek to work with communities, non-governmental organisations, and local authorities to promote an inclusive and sustainable development for all.
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Caritas is the charitable arm of the Roman Catholic Church. It is to spearhead the church’s social mission, to respond to humanitarian crisis, promote integral human development and advocate on the causes of poverty and violence.
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Caritas Penang comes under the jurisdiction of The Titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Penang.
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