Coinciding with Anti-Poverty Week from 15 to 21 October, a Mass was held last week at Morley Parish on 18 October which saw students and staff from 48 schools, representatives from agencies, religious and parishioners attend. Photo: Natashya Fernandez.
The life of Caroline Chisholm and her work with the poor was last week the focus at a Mass which co-incided with Anti-Poverty Week.
The Mass, which took place at Infant Jesus Church Morley Parish on Wednesday 18 October, was celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton and attended by students and staff from 48 schools, as well as representatives from agencies, religious and parishioners with the aim of putting a greater focus on the issue of poverty and how we respond to it, individually and collectively.
The Mass was held to give thanks for the many fundraising efforts and activities that schools have undertaken to support the Archdiocese’s Catholic agencies, in particular LifeLink, the St Vincent De Paul Society, Catholic Mission and Caritas Australia.
Diocesan Director for Catholic Mission, Francis Leong, said the event was a wonderful Eucharistic occasion to come together as one body, one Church, to inspire and affirm the missionary hearts of our young people.
“And more importantly to allow them to inspire us through their creative and passionate efforts to alleviate poverty both locally and across the world,” Mr Leong said.
“What a wonderful way of preparing ourselves for the Year of Youth and reinforcing Pope Francis’ vision of a missionary Church that is of and for the Poor,” he said.
Those who attended the Mass were encouraged and invited to show their support for Anti-Poverty Week by bringing non-perishable items which were recognised during the offertory, as well as financial donations resulting from fundraising initiatives within their school communities.
A ‘Poverty Cross’ provided the opportunity for people attending the Mass to write their prayers for eradication of poverty and hopes for the future on strips of material and tie these to the Cross before Mass.
A ‘Poverty Cross’ provided the opportunity for people attending the Mass to write their prayers for eradication of poverty and hopes for the future on strips of material and tie these to the Cross before Mass. The Cross was displayed on the sanctuary during Mass and is a symbolic, enduring reminder of our collective commitment to the poor. Photo: Natashya Fernandez.
The Cross was displayed on the sanctuary during Mass and is a symbolic, enduring reminder of our collective commitment to the poor.
In his homily, Bishop Sproxton welcomed the agencies representing the Archdiocese and thanked them for their part in working with the poor and marginalised.
He reflected on Caroline Chisholm and the work she did for the poor during the early settlement years of the European Colonies.
“She herself was a woman of comfortable means, a woman who was quite well off and in a way she probably didn’t have to do the work she did while she was here, but she saw this need among the women who were coming to this colony in Sydney and she could see how they were very badly treated. So she set herself the task of responding to their needs and doing what she could to make them safe and protect them.”
In keeping her as the focal point of his reflection for the Mass, Bishop Sproxton added that she responded because of her faith to the need of others.
“Because her faith understood she was a sister to all those others as we see ourselves, because of our faith, because in baptism we have been brought into this community of faith, we become brothers and sisters to one another.
“We have a sense of responsibility to one another and that really is one of the outstanding things you can say about the Christian Church, about Christ himself – gathering people together into community, so that as brothers and sisters we could encourage one another in living the faith, in responding with faith to the needs of others,” the Bishop said.
Bishop Sproxton also added that poverty exists very much in the city of Perth and we might not think it does, but it is prevalent in the suburbs where we live.
“It is as real as we can imagine it to be in our country,” he said.
“People living, struggling to provide for their families, people who are without jobs, people who are desperately trying to support themselves and their families. And so it is something that we need to be really conscious off.”
A ‘Poverty Cross’ provided the opportunity for people attending the Mass to write their prayers for eradication of poverty and hopes for the future on strips of material and tie these to the Cross before Mass. The Cross was displayed on the sanctuary during Mass and is a symbolic, enduring reminder of our collective commitment to the poor. Photo: Natashya Fernandez.
In order to help these people, he added that firstly we need to know that there are people in society who live in poverty without judging them.
“Trying to understand why they are in this situation, understanding their need, that these needs are basic, they are not luxuries that we are talking about, the very basic needs that people have. That we, because of our faith feel a call to work together with others in order that their needs might be met.”
He called for everyone to be messengers of peace, building connections with people, particularly those who are suffering because of poverty.
“St Luke would say many times in his Gospel repeating the message of Jesus, that our lives are the message, we can say many beautiful and wonderful things about many situations in the world, but only when our lives line up with that message, will the message then have meaning,” Bishop Sproxton said.
While Bishop Sproxton encouraged everyone to look beyond themselves and their own needs and wants, he explained that looking to the needs of others can happen if we adhere to the words of Charles de Foucauld.
“Charles de Foucauld said that if we are called to meet Jesus, we must go and live among the poor, because it is there that Jesus is waiting to welcome us,” Bishop Sproxton said.
“It’s there that we will discover the real Jesus, if we get out of our comfort zone, from the things that we think will bring us security.
“So today lets continue in our reflection, maybe help students in our schools …to come to a deeper understanding of what poverty is, what can be done by us to help people rise out of the situation they are in and how we can encourage people in our very affluent society to have that generous spirit that will respond with the love of Christ,” he concluded.