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Doing what the saints did.
At first I thought this article would be about the recyclers of Cateura, Paraguay. In 2013 the late Bob Simon did a report for 60 Minutes on this community or village, built on a garbage dump. That story here.
This story is about another garbage dump just outside Las Pinas city, Philippines. From Mystic Post blog:
Fr. Ricky Alcantara Sosm, of The Sacred Order of Saint Michael the Archangel in the PHILIPPINES has asked us to please pray for the children under his care. This Sunday Fr. Ricky Alcantara Sosm will bless and dedicate a new chapel inside a garbage dumpsite.
For a number of years Fr. Ricky organized a program to feed the families and children who began to settle inside the dump site located in Las Pinas city. Today there are 180 familes and over 300 children. - Amazing Priest
I bet Fr. Ricky doesn't spend a lot of time online.
This is what the saints did - they went to the people most in need, who did not have the sacraments or beautiful churches. St. Vincent De Paul ministered to galley slaves, as did Peter Claver. The Missionaries of Charity live among the poorest of the poor in whatever country they are in - simple, bare essentials are all they possess - dependent upon Divine Providence, no fundraising, no other business than ministering to the poor and being united to Christ in the Eucharist in the midst of the marginalized and rejected.
Oh men, how long will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? - Psalm 4
Cardinal Bergoglio, Mass on a simple table in Buenos Aires slum.
It is strange how many Catholics, so afraid of the devil and the Antichrist and worried about their money and property and income, seem to think priests and popes and bishops who go out to the peripheries to minister and care for the untouchables are communists and heretics and dedicated to destroying the Church and the liturgy and sacraments. I don't get it. Pope Francis calls priests to go out among the people most in need of mercy - yet he is condemned for that.
Blessed Pope Paul VI visiting the
slums of Tondo, Manila.
"I bet Fr. Ricky doesn't spend a lot of time online"
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! He is living heaven on earth working among God's little ones. If oyu can find a donation site for his ministry to help him out and those 300 children, please share it as I would like to send them a little something.
I will be praying for him and those entrusted to him.
* you
ReplyDelete"It is strange how many Catholics, so afraid of the devil and the Antichrist and worried about their money and property and income, seem to think priests and popes and bishops who go out to the peripheries to minister and care for the untouchables are communists and heretics and dedicated to destroying the Church and the liturgy and sacraments. I don't get it. Pope Francis calls priests to go out among the people most in need of mercy - yet he is condemned for that."
I remember reading somewhere that these same folks seem convinced that since the poor folks who are ministered to, are illiterate, then the Gospel is "watered down" to meet their needs and therefore those who "water it down" are heretics.
Sad ...
The poor "are illiterate, then the Gospel is "watered down" to meet their needs and therefore those who "water it down" are heretics."
ReplyDeleteOf course - I too have heard and read that - but not exactly expressed in that way. It puts a whole new perspective on things - I don't know why it never occurred to me before.
Did you ever read the quote from Imelda Marcos that one should never dress down for the poor? 'They won't respect you for it - they want their First Lady to look like a million dollars.'
Just thinking out loud here. It is just so telling.
You right, Terry. I am burned out on all the naysayers and how much they "know." I wanna be little, poor, faithful and in love with Jesus.
DeletePray for me, since if I can become what I hope for, I will want for nothing else.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI've recently started going to a church where the Latin Mass is said exclusively. The pastor is quite a preacher. He would never be accused of watering anything down. But here's the interesting thing . . . Two weeks ago, a new friend from the church said to me, "I believe Father has a special charism. He knows how to handle Filipinos."
And now do you imagine that he is a missionary priest from a foreign land? Not at all! He is a Filipino, too. And so my friend's comment has made me wonder whether other Filipino priests, particularly those who might fairly be said to be watering things down for the poor, simply don't have the charism of knowing how to handle their own compatriots . . . nor the understanding that they should be praying for it.
I mean, when Imelda Marcos knows how to deal with the poor better than you do . . .