THE LECTIO DIVINA OF THE POOR

by Vincent Ojwang | Mar 26, 2025 | JPIC Grassroots News

On the last Tuesday of every month the Missionary Sisters of St. Anthony Mary Claret organise an itinerant lectio divina with our homeless brothers and sisters. The meeting takes place from eight o’clock in the evening “in the house of Paul”.  After the closing of the shops near St. Peter’s Square, while some tourists are still passing by, Paul places his suitcase on the ground and covers it with a sheet. It is the altar around which he gathers a small group of friends – destitute people, volunteers from a neighbouring parish, some priests, religious, lay people – to listen and meditate on the Word of God.

This is an initiative of the community where Sister Elaine Lombardi MC lives, who after several years of accompanying this reality, believes that the “homeless” need not only food and blankets, they need something more. As Pope Francis points out in Evangelii Gaudium, in one of the most challenging numbers of this apostolic exhortation: “I want to express with sorrow that the worst discrimination suffered by the poor is the lack of spiritual care. The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we cannot fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his Word, the celebration of the Sacraments and the proposal of a path of growth and maturing in the faith. The preferential option for the poor must be translated primarily into a privileged and priority religious attention” (EG 200)

This “lectio divina in the street” is a small sign that seeks to respond to Pope Francis’ concern to offer spiritual care to the poor. Each encounter is a unique experience of communion and hope. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the Eternal City that is slowly fading away, the small assembly gathers around the Word, seeking in it consolation and strength. Reflections emerge from the concrete reality of those who participate. Some share their experiences of daily struggle, others express their gratitude for having found in this space a moment of peace. The Word of God illuminates the shadows of the street and reminds everyone of their dignity and value. There is no hurry, no distance: in this “Paul’s house”, all are brothers and sisters.

In addition to prayer and reflection, the meeting becomes an opportunity to provide concrete help. Volunteers hand out coffee or hot tea, sandwiches and some blankets for the cold night. However, as Sister Elaine insists, the most important thing is the time shared, the attentive listening and the recognition of each person in their history and suffering. To show the warmth of a community that welcomes and accompanies. “The Gospel calls us to look at the poor with the eyes of Jesus,” says a young volunteer. “Sometimes we think that helping is just giving material things, but they teach us that the most valuable thing is to feel loved, listened to and understood.”

As the evening progresses and the lectio divina comes to an end, some spontaneous petitions are made: for health, for work, for a chance to get ahead. Finally, an Our Father and a blessing mark the end of the meeting, but not the end of the fraternity. Many stay on to talk, share experiences and strengthen the bonds that this initiative has allowed us to weave. For those who participate, this itinerant lectio divina is a reminder that faith is lived in the encounter with others, especially with those whom the world tends to forget. It is a sign of the Kingdom of God that is present in the street, in the night, in the hearts of those who, even in the midst of adversity, continue to trust and hope.

In the context of this Jubilee year dedicated to the theme of hope, it is worth recalling the biblical meaning of the Jubilee as a “year of liberation”, as described by the prophet Isaiah (61:1-2). The passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 occupies a central place in Luke’s Gospel account of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth (Lk 4:14-30). In this inaugural scene, which has a programmatic and solemn value. Jesus proclaims a profoundly transforming message during a liturgy in the synagogue. After reading: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19), Jesus affirms: “Today this scripture which you have just heard has been fulfilled” (Lk 4:21).

The “year of grace” is a key theme in this text and refers back to the Old Testament Jubilee, a time of liberation, restitution and equity that marked the forgiveness of debts and freedom for slaves. However, Jesus redefines this concept as a time of universal grace, excluding any idea of divine vengeance. God’s grace, as Jesus presents it, does not discriminate or exclude; it is a gift offered to all, particularly the poorest and most marginalised

Luke underlines that Jesus’ message cannot be reduced to a merely spiritual interpretation. The “poor” he refers to are those excluded from the goods of this world, and the proclamation of the Good News implies a concrete transformation in their lives. For centuries, an excessive spiritualisation of poverty has led the Church away from its original mission: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God and its justice.

 Saint Anthony Mary Claret read the text of Isaiah and Luke in a vocational key:

The Lord made me understand that I would not only have to preach to sinners but that I would also have to preach to and catechize simple farmers and villagers. Hence He said to me, The poor and needy ask for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them (17). I will make rivers well up on barren heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; turn the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into a water spring (18).

And God our Lord made me to understand in a very special way those words: Spiritus Dominis super me et evangelizare pauperibus misit me Dominus et sanare contritos corde. (Quoting from memory Lk 4,18 / Cf. Is 61,1) (Aut 118).

Claret understood that his mission was not only to save sinners from hell, but concretely to reach out to the poorest and most uneducated. As we know, he too understood the vocation of his missionaries in the light of these words. Inspired by Isaiah and Luke, he understood that his mission and that of his missionaries was to go out to the most needy. Today we would say to go to the geographical and existential peripheries.

In this sense, the Lectio with the poor in St. Peter’s Square becomes a living testimony of a church going out, which commits itself in a concrete way to those who need it most. In “Paul’s house”, the Word is incarnated in the reality of the homeless, faith is lived through communion, recognition of human dignity and genuine solidarity. This experience reminds us that the Gospel message is not merely a proclamation, but an invitation to let the Good News be proclaimed in humility, through the poor themselves, who by their witness reveal the transforming and humanising face of the Gospel. Thus, in the midst of the cold and the night that grips the Eternal City, the commitment to accompany, liberate and give hope is reaffirmed, making tangible the spirit of the Jubilee and the promise of a year of grace for all. The poor evangelise us!

Edgardo Guzmán CMF