HUNGER & WANT

A LENTEN JOURNEY | WEEK 3 | March 7, 2021

Welcome to our third week of the Laudato Si’ Circle Lenten Journey! Each week we will share a new theme that will encourage us to grow deeper in our love, knowledge, and concern for creation. Follow our mediation and reflection prompt, research and reading resources, and suggested action steps.

Meditation: This week our theme is hunger and want. Spend at least fifteen to twenty minutes reflecting on this. Use our readings and quotations as inspiration. We’ve provided some initial questions to help you explore this week's theme on a personal level, but feel free to follow your thoughts wherever they take you. It's not too late to start a journal to help you record and process those thoughts. If you’re so inspired, start a conversation about your meditation with a family member or friend.

Research/Reading: Spend some time this week learning about food justice issues in our local community and around the world. We'll be looking at local organizations that support the welfare and dignity of each person in our community that is hungry and in need.

Action: Follow our steps that you can take individually or as a family that will help you grow deeper this Lent spiritually while having a positive impact on those in need.

Meditation:

Read Matthew 25:31-40 ... Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.

Consider these quotations from Mother Theresa:

“At the end of life, we will not be judged by how many diplomas or how much money we have. We will be judged by, ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.’”
“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
“When a poor person dies of hunger it is not because God did not take care of him or her, it is because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.”

Take a moment to reflect on these questions.

How can I give food to the hungry?
Do I personally know people who do not have enough to eat or go to bed hungry?
Have I ever had to go without food or worried if I would have enough to eat?
Do I take having food for granted?
Do I waste food? How much do I throw away?

Research/Reading:

The following are a few, local not-for-profit organizations that Holy Cross supports that focus on hunger and want in our community: Visit Matthew 25 Farm at matthew25farm.com – read about their mission to support food pantries with locally grown agriculture. Visit the Emmaus Ministry at emmausministry.org and learn about how they bring unconditional love and hope to those in need. Visit the Samaritan Center at samcenter.org and learn about their mission to ensure support and opportunity to the hungry in Syracuse.

Hunger and food insecurity are global problems that affect people locally as well as millions of people around the world. Here are links to a couple short videos:

Open Videos

In a speech to the Food and Agriculture Organization, an agency of the United Nations (FAO), Pope Francis reflects on the “tragedy of hunger.”

A (very brief) introduction to food justice:

Action:

During Lent, sponsor a crop at Matthew 25 by donating money to buy the seeds and, if possible, plant and maintain the crop & harvest when ready.
Get outside: Volunteer as a family at Brady Farm or Matthew 25 Farm. Go to their website or call them for more information and sign-up.
Help at a soup kitchen: Volunteer at the Samaritan Center or Emmaus Ministry.
Operation Rice Bowl: Use your CRS Rice Bowl and Lenten Calendar to guide your prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Visit crsricebowl.org to watch videos of the people you support through CRS. Donate to CRS through the Second Collection next week.
Make a gesture of solidarity: do without something this Lent and donate the money to an organization that feeds the hungry families.

Laudato Si’ Lenten Journey

Laudato Si’Circle Lenten Journey

Week Three