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Will you join in this special day of 'Prayer and Action' called for by Pope Francis?

This February 7, Catholic Online will launch its first ever Day of Prayer and Action (Google+ Hangouts On Air), in solidarity with Pope Francis campaign to end world hunger by 2025. Participants from around the world will be invited to join these special activities on the first Friday of every month via Google Hangouts.

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Highlights

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
2/8/2014 (1 decade ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Prayer and action day, 2014, February 7, Catholic online, your Catholic voice foundation, Catholic team global, Google, hangout, Pope Francis

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Last December, Pope Francis called all the worlds Catholics to prayer and action to end world hunger. Two problems were noted around that time. First, some Catholics are good at prayer, but sometimes do not know how to put legs on their faith, to follow through with action. Second, those who take action - often take action that is so slight it does little to improve their own lives or the lives of those in need.

We noted the words of Vatican Almoner, Archbishop Konrad Krawjeski that charity has to cost you something so it can change you.

View the broadcast now on You Tube!

For the past two months, Catholic Online has responded to the call of Pope Francis by asking people to pray and act. Specifically, we have asked you to pray to end world hunger and to donate to feed the world's hungry. Four shipments of food have now been sent to the Philippines where it is still being used to feed people displaced by Typhoon Hiyan/Yolanda. We are very proud to say that the community of Catholic Online has come through. We have participated in the call of Pope Francis.

 Sadly, the work of providing for the poor is not something that will be accomplished in the course of the day, or even several years. It will take many years. In fact, it will take a new way of living; the way of fraternity and solidarity. Pope Francis has indicated that with the right prayer, and the right actions flowing from living faith, we can eradicate world hunger by 2025. He is absolutely correct. It is not a matter of a lack of food resources but rather a lack of human resources, committed to fraternity and solidarity. It will take more prayer, more work and more sacrifice.

 It does not help that the some of the world's elites have abandoned the worlds hungry and failed to see them as their neighbor. It is the parable of the Good Samaritan being written in our own age. We tragically live in a world where the bottom 80% of the world's population enjoys only 6% of the world's wealth and, worse yet, does not even see them or hear their cry. It is reminiscent of the story of the rich man named Abraham and the poor man named Lazarus in the Gospel of St. Luke (Lk 16: 19-31).

Notice, the Lord said nothing about the rich man's possessions in his rebuke of his failure to act. It was his wrongful use of possessions which he addressed. The Rich Man failed to recognize the need of others. He did not see Lazarus at the doorstep. He did not hear his cry.

St Augustine proclaimed in a homily on this Gospel passage: "Lazarus was received into heaven because of his humility and not because of his poverty. Wealth itself was not what kept the rich man from eternal bliss. His punishment was for selfishness and disloyalty."

Having goods is not sin. It is whether they have us. In this parable, goods had the man.  Do the goods of this earth have us? Do we recognize Lazarus at our own doors? If we do, are we acting?

 Despite our obligation in solidarity, an obligation revealed in the Natural Law, called for by conscience, and taught without question by the Christian scripture and tradition - for the strong to aid the weak - some of the worlds elites continue to strip approximately $2 trillion of wealth away from the Third World, while returning only about $130 billion in international aid.

What's worse, is that aid is often financed by the taxpayers themselves, and the super wealthy who evade their taxes through clever sue of the loopholes in the tax system, do not even participate.  Because some of the wealthy shirk their obligation, like those who filed past the waylaid man on the road, the role of the Good Samaritan now falls primarily to us. We truly are our brother and sisters keepers. We are joined, one to another, by bonds of solidarity and fraternity. Those bonds call us to act - and to live - differently.

Fortunately, we really do have the power to end world hunger, just as the Lord multiplied the loaves and fishes, by answering the question he asked the disciples "What do you have?" and then giving. We believe that the Lord still multiplies loaves and fish and uses His people to feed the multitudes. If we choose to actually live like God's people and do what He says.

It has already been observed by Pope Francis, that the world produces plenty of food, but distributes it scandalously. We can change this. Catholic Online working through Catholic Team Global and sponsored by Your Catholic Voice Foundation, has a part of the plan to help to eradicate hunger at its source.

While we have hinted at these plans before, the time has now come for us to share them with the world. You will want to know what exciting plans we have to be a force for good in the world. There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. The Catholic Church is present in every nation on earth, and in many places provides the only social services available to that in need. We have the people. We also have the living faith and are guided by the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church. It is this Social Doctrine that gives us the understanding of both the source of economic poverty and the solutions to its painful ravages.

Finally, Catholic Online is a master of the technological realm. We now have at our disposal the technology needed to make us serve as the nexus between technology, people, and faith and become part of the force for good that Pope Francis needs to accomplish his mission of eradicating world hunger  by 2025.

View the broadcast now on You Tube!

 We will be unveiling these plans over the next few months. Our first phase, which has been to collect food donations for the hungry and distribute them, has proved successful. We now know that we can accomplish anything, with living faith and action. We are ready to take the next step, and we'd like you to come with us.

 On February 7, we invite you to join us for the first ever Catholic Online day of prayer and action. There will be a live Google Hangout. We will also be posting to twitter and Facebook throughout the day. We will post the precise time and the link you will need shortly. With your participation, there is no end to what we can accomplish.

It is time for you to awaken to your own power to participate in this mission. Join us, and become part of the solution.  Prayer and Action.

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