World Day of the Poor 2024: Message from Pope Francis

The Vatican today released Pope Francis’ message for the VIII World Day of the Poor, which will be celebrated on November 17 of this year on the theme “The prayer of the poor ascends to God.”

Below is the full message from the Holy Father:

Dear brothers and sisters,

1. The prayer of the poor rises to God (cf. And 21.5). In the year dedicated to prayer, with a view to the Ordinary Jubilee 2025, this expression of biblical wisdom is very appropriate to prepare us for the VIII World Day of the Poor, which will be celebrated next November 17. Christian hope also embraces the certainty that our prayer reaches the presence of God; but not just any prayer:the poor man’s prayer! Let us reflect on this Word and “read it” in the faces and stories of the poor that we encounter in our days, so that prayer is the way to enter into communion with them and share their suffering.

2. The book of Ecclesiasticus, to which we are referring, is not very well known, and deserves to be discovered for the wealth of themes it addresses, especially when it refers to man’s relationship with God and with the world. Its author, Ben Sirá, is a teacher, a scribe from Jerusalem, who probably wrote in the 2nd century BC. C. He is a wise man, rooted in the tradition of Israel, who teaches about various areas of human life: from work to family, from life in society to the education of young people; He pays attention to issues related to faith in God and observance of the Law. He faces the arduous problems of freedom, evil and divine justice, which are also very topical for us today. Ben Sirá, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wants to transmit to everyone the path to follow for a wise life worthy of being lived before God and before one’s brothers.

3. One of the topics to which this sacred author dedicates the most space is the sentence. She does it with great impetus, because he gives voice to his own personal experience. In fact, no writing on prayer could be effective and fruitful if it did not start from someone who is in the presence of God every day and listens to his Word. Ben Sirá declares that he has sought wisdom since his youth: “In my youth, before I walked the world, I openly sought wisdom in prayer” (And 51,13).

4. On his journey, he discovers one of the fundamental realities of revelation, that is, the fact that The poor have a privileged place in the heart of Godin such a way that, in the face of their suffering, God is “impatient” until he has done them justice,” until he has extirpated the multitude of the arrogant and broken the scepter of the unjust; until he has rewarded each man according to his actions, rewarding the works of men according to their intentions” (And 35,21-22). God knows the sufferings of his children because he is an attentive and caring Father towards everyone. As a Father, he cares for those who need him most: the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, the forgotten. But no one is excluded from His heart, since, before Him, we are all poor and needy. We are all beggars, because without God we would be nothing. We wouldn’t have life either if God hadn’t given it to us. And yet, how many times we live as if we were the owners of life or as if we had to conquer it! The worldly mentality requires becoming someone, having prestige despite everything and everyone, breaking social rules in order to gain wealth. What a sad illusion! Happiness is not acquired by trampling on the rights and dignity of others.

The violence caused by wars clearly shows how much arrogance moves those who consider themselves powerful in the eyes of men, while they are miserable in the eyes of God. ¡How many new poor people produce this bad policy made with weaponsHow many innocent victims! But we can’t go back. The disciples of the Lord know that each one of these “little ones” bears the face of the Son of God, and each one must receive our solidarity and the sign of Christian charity. “Each Christian and each community are called to be instruments of God. for the liberation and promotion of the poor, so that they can be fully integrated into society; this means that we are docile and attentive to listen to the cry of the poor and help them” (Ap. Exhort. the gospel of joy187).

5. In this year dedicated to prayer, we need make the prayer of the poor our own and pray with them. It is a challenge that we must embrace and a pastoral action that needs to be nourished. In fact,”the worst discrimination that the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual attention. The vast majority of the poor have a special openness to faith; they need God and we cannot stop offering them his friendship, his blessing, his Word, the celebration of the Sacraments and the proposal of a path of growth and maturation in faith. The preferential option for the poor must be translated primarily into privileged and priority religious attention” (ibid.200).

All this requires a humble heart, who has the courage to become a beggar. A heart willing to recognize itself as poor and needy. Indeed, there is a correspondence between poverty, humility and confidence. The true poor is the humble, as the holy bishop Augustine stated: “The poor has nothing to be proud of; the rich has something to fight against. Listen to me, then: be truly poor, be pious, be humble” (Sermon 14,3.4). The humble person has nothing to boast about and claims nothing, he knows that he cannot count on himself, but he firmly believes that he can appeal to the merciful love of God, before whom he stands like the prodigal son who returns home repentant to receive the embrace of the Lord. father (cf. Lc 15,11-24). The poor man, having nothing to rely on, receives strength from God and places all his trust in Him. In fact, humility generates confidence that God will never abandon us or leave us unanswered.

6. To the poor who live in our cities and are part of our communities I say: do not lose this certainty! God is attentive to each one of you and is at your side. She doesn’t forget them nor could she ever. We have all had the experience of a prayer that seems to go unanswered. Sometimes we ask to be freed from a misery that makes us suffer and humiliates us, and it may seem that God does not hear our call. But God’s silence is not a distraction from our sufferings; rather, it guards a word that asks to be heard with confidence, abandoning us to Him and to His will. It is again Sirachus who attests to this: “the divine sentence does not wait long in favor of the poor” (cf. And 21.5). From the word poverty, therefore, the song of the most genuine hope can spring. Let us remember that “when the interior life is closed to one’s own interests, there is no longer room for others, the poor no longer enter, the voice of God is no longer heard, the sweet joy of his love is no longer enjoyed, the enthusiasm to do good throbs. (…) That is not the life in the Spirit that springs from the heart of the resurrected Christ” (Ap. Exhort. the gospel of joy2).

7. The World Day of the Poor It is already a must-see event for every ecclesial community. It is a pastoral opportunity that should not be underestimated, because it encourages all believers to listen to the prayer of the poor, becoming aware of their presence and their need. It is a favorable occasion to carry out initiatives that specifically help the poor, and also to recognize and support so many volunteers who are passionately dedicated to those most in need. We must thank the Lord for the people who make themselves available to listen to and support the poorest. They are priests, consecrated persons, lay people who, with their testimony, give voice to God’s response to the prayers of those who turn to Him. The silence, therefore, is broken every time a brother in need is welcomed and embraced. The poor still have a lot to teach because, in a culture that has put wealth first and that often sacrifices the dignity of people on the altar of material goods, they row against the current, showing that what is essential in life is something else.

Prayer, therefore, finds confirmation of its own authenticity in the charity that becomes encounter and closeness. If prayer does not translate into concrete action, it is vain.In fact, faith without works “is dead” (St 2,26). However, charity without prayer risks becoming philanthropy that soon runs out“Without daily prayer lived with fidelity, our activity becomes empty, it loses its deep soul, it is reduced to simple activism” (BENEDICT XVI, Catechesis, April 25, 2012). We must avoid this temptation and always be alert with the strength and perseverance that come from the Holy Spirit, who is the giver of life.

8. In this context it is beautiful to remember the testimony that the Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman who gave her life for the poor. The saint continually repeated that Prayer was the place from which I drew strength and faith for his mission of service to the last. On October 26, 1985, when she spoke to the UN General Assembly, showing everyone the rosary that she always carried in her hand, she said: “I am just a poor nun who prays. By praying, Jesus puts his love in my heart and I I go out to deliver it to all the poor people I meet on my way. Pray too! Pray and you will realize the poor people next to you. Maybe there is someone waiting on the same floor of your houses. your love. Pray, and your eyes will be opened, and your hearts will be filled with love.

And how can we not remember here, in the city of Rome, Saint Benedict Joseph Labre (1747-1783), whose body rests and is venerated in the parish church of Saint Mary to the mountains. A pilgrim from France to Rome, rejected in many monasteries, he spent the last years of his poor life among the poor, spending hours and hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, with the rosary, reciting the breviary, reading the New Testament and the Imitation of Christ. Not having even a small room to stay in, he used to sleep in a corner of the ruins of the Colosseum, like “God’s wanderer,” making his existence an incessant prayer that ascended to Him.

9. On the way to the Holy Year, I exhort each one to become pilgrim of hope, offering concrete signs for a better future. Let us not forget to take care of “the small details of love” (Exhort. ap. Rejoice and rejoice, 145): knowing how to stop, get closer, give a little attention, a smile, a caress, a word of comfort. These gestures are not improvised; They require, rather, a daily fidelity, almost always hidden and silent, but strengthened by prayer. In this time, when the song of hope seems to give way to the roar of weapons, the screams of so many wounded innocents and the silence of the countless victims of wars, let us turn to God asking for peace. We are poor in peace; Let us raise our hands to welcome it as a precious gift and, at the same time, let us commit to reestablishing it in our daily lives.

10. We are called in all circumstances to be friends of the poor, following in the footsteps of Jesus, who was the first to show solidarity with the last. May the Holy Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, sustain us on this path, who, appearing in Banneux, left us a message that we must not forget: “I am the Virgin of the poor.” To her, whom God has looked upon for her humble poverty, working wonders by virtue of her obedience, we entrust our prayer, convinced that it will ascend to heaven and will be heard.