| JPIC Corner November 2009 |
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| Wednesday, 14 October 2009 00:00 |
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Coordinator’s Note
Brother Warren Perrotto, MSC JPIC Coordinator Missionaries of the Sacred Heart In all circumstances, give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:18)  The dawn of the Thanksgiving Holiday is once again upon us. It is a time to reflect on our sense of gratitude to God for all the good and wonderful things and experiences God freely bestows on us through His loving and compassionate Heart. But the spirit of thanksgiving must not come about only at this time of the year. God summons us to live a life of gratitude in our daily living. Indeed, “Every event and need can be an offering of thanksgiving.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2638)In the story of the “Ten Lepers,” we see that only one, a Samaritan returned to Christ, “glorifying God in a loud voice and fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” (Luke 17:16) Perhaps the other nine lepers gave thanks later, but the tenth gives us an example to be thankful and grateful to God at the very moment we are aware of His grace and generosity. The more we have the same gift of gratitude as the tenth leper, the more we are able to appreciate and recognize God working in our lives and the lives of others.
This Thanksgiving, my prayers and hope is that you all have a grace-full and happy Thanksgiving, and that the gift of gratitude will remain with you always. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer. (I Timothy 4:4)
Br. Warren Perrotto, MSC JPIC Coordinator |
JPIC Corner November 2009
Did You Know?
Almost half of children in the US depend on food stamps at some point before they are 20.
1 in 8 Americans experience food insecurity.
In a year, as many as 3 million people in the United States experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children.
About one-third of the adult homeless population in the US has served their country in the Armed Services.
131,000 Veterans are homeless on any given night.
42% of people who are homeless in the United States do not have any shelter at all.
Worldwide, a child dies every six seconds because of hunger and related causes.
About one-sixth of the world’s population does not have adequate housing. An estimated one billion people (and rising) live in slums in the cities of the world.