“We have to follow Jesus and he reminds us of our Christian duty to give a voice to those who are unheard and to help those who are most vulnerable … We can all be missionaries and help our world’s sick, hungry, thirsty and all needy people.” (St. Patrick School student’s Rice Bowl Reflection)
This quote is from one of 2,125 reflections, letters and prayers written as email messages by more than 300 students in Catholic middle schools in Hawaii who took part in the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl App Challenge this past Lent. More than a dozen diocesan staff members received and read these emails, tallying them, and offering words of encouragement to the students who wrote from the heart to the people around the world featured in the Rice Bowl “stories of hope.” Many staff readers agreed that these middle school emails inspired their own Lenten journey by “better understanding what it means to be another.” (Rice Bowl Easter Day prayer/reflection)
This year, Rice Bowl involved an extraordinary collaboration connecting Catholic schools, parish religious education programs, youth and young adult ministries, faith formation and other diocesan departments. Through this “Talk Story” column, we shared Rice Bowl stories in retreats on college campuses and community gardens. These stories evoked the words of Pope Francis in “Laudato Si’” and the Jubilee Year of Mercy prayer which call us to encounter Christ in the vulnerable and to care for one another as “one single human family” with “a common home.”
One recent story involved parishioners from Sacred Heart Parish in Hawi who, on Palm Sunday, began a 10-week series of aina-based youth gatherings at Ho‘ea Farms. During these 10 weeks, youth will join in celebration, reflection and joyful sacrifice on the aina. This supplement to parish religious education is offering activities on food, justice and spirituality using Rice Bowl resources. The youth are making raised-bed gardens, planting seeds and harvesting vegetables, knowing the food they are producing is for “our neighbors and all in need in our communities.”
These connections have gone far beyond collecting the Rice Bowls during Holy Week. Rice Bowl funds helped the Hilo Chuukese community on April 9 host an Islander Festival to buy a van for reaching out to the island’s homebound. In addition to serving up delicious Micronesian food and music, the festival had HOPE Services Hawaii and other service agencies providing rental assistance for persons at-risk or homeless. The University of Hawaii Pharmacy Department offered free health screenings, Project Vision did free vision testing and the Hawaii Health Connector signed up people for health insurance.
We encourage you to send us examples of how you and your parish are continuing Rice Bowl caring connections by encountering Christ, our Risen Lord, through acts of mercy with the vulnerable so we can share these stories of hope throughout this Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
