Monthly Prayer: February

Reflection by Father David Stewart SJ 

The past two or more years have taught almost all of us, here in Scotland, what it is like to live with less than we’ve been used to and less than we would like. Now, as we emerge from the necessary restrictions and precautions of the worst of the pandemic, some parts of our society are getting hit again, this time by a financial pandemic. This also threatens human existence but in another way. At the height of the lockdowns, many had to rely on others to obtain even their normal food supplies; now many can’t afford the basics of food, power and, in the winter months, heat. 

It's all very well to draw attention to such privation in the Majority World, as if doing so would make us here feel any better. But remembering that our sisters and brothers in places such as DR Congo, who share in our common humanity and who often depend on SCIAF, know that suffering too should lead us, not to pity, or even shame, but to solidarity. This is a basic building-block of our Catholic Social Teaching.  

When we pray for any other person, we are opening our hearts to them; the more we do, the more our solidarity will grow. We will begin to put that great body of Social Teaching into action. Ask, in your prayer, that the Lord will open your hearts to these people in South Kivu Province, sisters and brothers of us, blessed in the eyes of God.