Thought for the Day – 17 November – The Third World Day for the Poor and The Memorial of St Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231)
“The poor acquire genuine hope, not from seeing us gratified by giving them a few moments of our time but from recognising in our sacrifice, an act of gratuitous love, that seeks no reward.
I encourage you to seek, in every poor person whom you encounter, his or her true needs, not to stop at their most obvious material needs but to discover their inner goodness, paying heed to their background and their way of expressing themselves and in this way to initiate a true fraternal dialogue.
For once, let us set statistics aside – the poor are not statistics to cite when boasting of our works and projects. The poor are persons to be encountered, they are lonely, young and old, to be invited to our homes to share a meal; men women and children who look for a friendly word. The poor save us because they enable us to encounter the face of Jesus Christ.” … Pope Francis Third World Day of Poor Message (Excerpt)
“Elizabeth was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castles should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities and finally she sold her luxurious possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor.”
From a letter by Fr Conrad of Marburg,
spiritual director of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
AnaStpaul 
Gee, I would that I had a castle to give away, But, I have my heart to give and I will continur to seek the poorest and them services they need. We don’t have Barios in the mountains but we have the poor and uneducated.
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So many – sigh but we start with just one.
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