Operation Rice Bowl and Stewardship share the same basic goal - faithful living, not simply generous giving. Operation Rice Bowl is a way for people to practice Lent, to help their practices of prayer, fasting, almsgiving complement and strengthen each other through learning. Using the ORB materials, we learn about our human family living around the world, their struggles with poverty, and their successes through community development. As we pray for their needs in gratitude for their inspiration, we pray in solidarity with them as one human family. This prayer opens us to act with them in solidarity and to act for them through giving. It invites us into an ongoing relationship and inspires us to keep the connection beyond the ORB program. Compassion for the poor may open a door in us, but in solidarity, we can step through that door and put ourselves in another shoes.
Stewardship is a commitment to sharing, rooted in my relationship with God and aware of the needs of my faith community. So too, the solidarity inspired by Operation Rice Bowl is a commitment rooted in my relationship with God and aware of all the needs of the whole human family, especially the poorest of the poor.
These Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving also deepen the connection between the Sunday liturgy and our lives all week long. The simple meal we eat at home extends the Eucharist to our table and extends our table to the world beyond our culture. As we learn about the life of Jesus the Nazareth in the Gospels, we learn about the life of Jesus "in disguise" in the poor all over the world. Ans as the readings of Lent lead us through the unfolding story of Jesus Christ giving himself to the world, we give ourselves to the world through our donations to feed and support people in poverty, both locally and globally. Operation Rice Bowl begins in the kitchen and at the table, continues in our local parish, feeds into our local diocese, and from the through the global Church to people around the world, thereby binding together the church at every level.
By Joe Hastings - Catholic Relief Services West
For more information about the 2011 Operation Rice Bowl click here.
