Rosary Mom: Charity

"I’m participating in the Keeping LOVE in LENT Blog Link-Up 2013, hosted by Erika of Raising Little Saints, Tina of Truly Rich Mom and Monica of Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices, prayer and good deeds, and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a GRUMBLE. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of link-up entries.”

KEEPING LOVE IN LENT!

I was excited when I heard about this Link Up for a couple of reasons.

This Cross I Embrace: Keep LOVE in Lent

I could be inspired by what others are doing within their families to focus on the ultimate sacrificial gift of love. God sacrificing His only Son for us... for me. Truly a humbling moment that I want to imprint on my son's heart.
I could learn what other churches are doing to instill Love during Lent in their congregations.
Lastly, I could gather ideas for how to teach my first graders in a meaningful way that they will remember when they're outside of church, to Keep Love in Lent!

Now what I would like to share is what I am doing to Keep Love in Lent. I'd like to say that I thought and prayed about what I'm doing but to be honest, my parish priest asked me to be part of a core group of members in a newly formed ministry. Once I said yes, it took on a life of it's own. I'm part of my church's Peace and Justice Ministry and our first goal is to encourage our fellow parishioners to participate in Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl Campaign.

We've been participating in this program for years, but this year, we'd like it to impact our parishioners as individuals and also collectively, as a church.

We want it to be less of a perfunctory act and more of a meaningful act.

We want to show how fortunate we are as Americans and how less fortunate some Americans are and especially the third world countries.

The CRS website is asking for participants to register their rice bowls and they offer a calendar of ideas of how to connect the poor with Peace and Justice.

I am also working on compiling a list of Charitable Works within our surrounding area to either volunteer, pray or donate. Once I started looking, I learned of other denominations who have weekly dinners for the poor, the many opportunities to pray at an abortion clinic, to volunteer and rock babies at a home for mommy's and their babies, to donate your shoes to Soles4Souls, volunteer at Feed My Starving Children, and bring baby items to a women's center...etc. There are many charitable activities to get involved in!

It's tougher to find Social Justice issues to get involved in. The overall idea is to remove root causes to improve structures in affordable housing, improving the education system, legal protection for the unborn, participating in a living wage campaign, promoting peace of advocating for international assistance.

What activities have you found in your community to focus on Peace and Justice

within our borders and beyond?

I would especially love to hear about what you're doing for Social Justice.

Source

"The conscience is called by this social teaching to recognize and fulfill the obligations for justice and charity in society." Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. Luke 13:48