OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY Home is often our place of comfort and safety — something we take care of, where we sleep, eat, and spend time with our family. (CRS Lenten Rice Bowl 2020) Food, water and safe shelter are the basic necessities of any home. Lent provides a time to reflect on the essentials […]
Letter to the faithful: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Rice Bowl
Dear Friends in Christ, Peace be with you! The season of Lent calls us to draw closer to Jesus, the Son of God, who shared and redeemed our vulnerable humanity. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops invites us to participate in the Lenten journey of prayer, fasting and acts of mercy through Catholic Relief Services […]
Talk story: The power and reach of CRS’ Rice Bowl
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY The Lord is close to the broken hearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed.” (Psalm 34: 19-20) This verse from Psalm 34 frames the final weeks of Lent’s emphasis on God’s “closeness” to the suffering. This year, Catholic Relief Services is helping us focus our Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving on […]
Bishop Larry Silva: Lenten solidarity with the poor
WITNESS TO JESUS | CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES’ RICE BOWL Dear Friends in Christ, Peace be with you! God invites us to reach out beyond ourselves and encounter God in the experience of sharing with other vulnerable persons. This Lent, CRS Rice Bowl — Catholic Relief Services’ Lenten faith-in-action program — reminds us that the journey […]
Talk story: It’s Lent: Rice Bowl time
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “Lent is a favorable season for deepening our spiritual life through the means of sanctification offered us by the church: fasting, prayer and almsgiving … for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in his Word, in the sacraments and in our neighbor.” (Pope Francis) February began with tragic reports of two […]
Talk story: Carrying the cross of hunger
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “More people die on the cross of hunger than from any disease. Pope Francis calls on us to address this global tragedy.” (Stations of the Cross, CRS Rice Bowl 2018) Our 2018 Rice Bowl Lenten journey took us through the Stations of the Cross — following Jesus as he carried his […]
Talk story: Images of God in your midst
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “The compassion shown by the Good Samaritan is an image of the infinite mercy of God, who always sees our needs and draws near to us in love.” (Pope Francis, as quoted in the 2018 CRS Rice Bowl Calendar) Along with the Good Samaritan, what are some other images of God’s […]
Talk story: Connecting with the Good Samaritan
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “The story of the Good Samaritan is the story of today’s humanity. People’s paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centered around money and things, instead of people.” (Pope Francis, from his TED2017 (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk, delivered April 25 at the Vatican.) The Story of the Good Samaritan, […]
Talk story: Sharing the journey with neighbors in need
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “Jesus teaches us a different path. Do not classify others in order to see who is a neighbor and who is not. You can become neighbor to whomever you meet in need, and you will do so if you have compassion in your heart.” (Pope Francis, at the Meeting of Popular […]
Bishop Larry Silva: Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl
CRS RICE BOWL Dear Friends in Christ, Jesus called us to love our neighbor. But, like the scholar in the Scripture passage, we may also find ourselves asking, “Who is my neighbor?” This Lent, the U.S. Bishops’ Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Rice Bowl program will help us answer that question. CRS Rice Bowl is not […]