For the 6th World Day of the Poor, which will take place on Sunday, 13th November 2022, Pope Francis invites us “not to lose heart but to renew our initial motivation” of our relationship with the poor, each according to our means and our talents.
Programme
Saturday 12th November 2022
3:30 p.m.: Rosary at the Grotto led by Fr. Domergue who will be joined by the group Place and Word of the Poor.
Sunday 13th November
10 a.m.: Mass at the Grotto of Massabielle, presided over by Fr. Jean-François PENHOUET, “chapelain” of the Cité Saint Pierre in Lourdes.
12 noon: Angelus at the Grotto followed by a shared picnic in the Jean XXIII room at the Information Centre.
The celebrations will be animated (songs and music) throughout the day in collaboration with the Diakonia of beauty, as part of the Festival of Beauty, and will include the Saint Laurent group, the Place and Word of the Poor group and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
In the face of the poor, we put faith into practice
Just as Mary offered to Bernadette, we also aspire to follow an Easter path, to die to our old life, to discover true Life, true Happiness. We must, of course, listen, and we must also commit ourselves. Pope Francis reminds us of this in his message for the World Day of the Poor: “Where the poor are concerned, it is not talk that matters; what matters is rolling up our sleeves and putting our faith into practice through a direct involvement, one that cannot be delegated.” (7)
A pilgrim cannot return home and be the same as he was when he left. This implies that he lets himself little by little be stripped, decluttered, impoverished, so that he can open up to the riches of God’s gift. Bernadette was not giving her family a moral lesson when she made this appeal on their behalf, “As long as they don’t get rich!” She was opening up for them the horizon that she herself had contemplated at the Grotto, this other world, which only needs our ‘yes’ to cause our shells to break open and make us blossom in God’s sunlight.
Let's not dream but welcome the happiness of the promised Kingdom
Lourdes, from the outset, prompted this revolution of hearts. The “rich” carry the stretchers of the infirm, whom they call “our masters the sick”. But as we know, even in a charitable organisation, we were quick to claim our rights, our privileges. Let’s not dream but welcome the happiness of the promised Kingdom that is offered to us here and now in a fraternal encounter, an exchange of looks, the joy of an outstretched hand. Understand that, even if we live in misery, we have the right to this particular happiness. And that it can multiply and grow, if we enter into the grace of Mary’s apparition to Bernadette; this meeting inspires in us the unconditional respect of all persons in the light of the Spirit who wants to communicate his power of life. Let’s not dream, let this joy we have discovered penetrate us, transform us, so as to create these oases of mercy, which are the chapel requested by Mary, these small families or fraternities which will transform the world within us and around us.
Reach out your hand to the poor
Our society, where unrestrained consumption has been established as a supreme value, will certainly not find it easy to adopt this way of looking at the poor. But that makes no difference, we must advocate and give to each woman, each man, living in difficult circumstances, the awareness of their own human dignity. “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me…”
