November 2024

We offer a teaching by Etienne Grieu, Doctor of Theology and member of the Pierre d’Angle Fraternité Quart Monde. He invites us to rethink our perception of the poorest. He reminds us that they are not just recipients of our charity, but people with whom we can build deep bonds of brotherhood. 
Looking at the Gospels, we see that Jesus was always surrounded by the most vulnerable. ‘Remove the poor from the Gospel, and there won’t be many left’, says Etienne Grieu. It is through them that God reveals his true face to us, a face of love and compassion. 
To love in truth, to respond to this call of love, there is only one path: the Covenant. Covenant means taking care of the most fragile, nurturing human relationships with care, listening and respect. 
This teaching encourages us to discover the richness that the poorest can bring us. They are not simply objects of our charity, but people with whom we can learn and grow. Do we believe that the poor can teach us?

Sharing questions

Prayer

End with the Lord’s Prayer.

We suggest that you begin with a time of prayer together or in small sharing groups, as suits you best.

You can listen to the words of Isaiah, after a time of praise.

With the text in front of you :

begin by listening to the text read aloud,

then meditate personally, ‘letting yourself be touched’,

repeat aloud the word(s) or verse(s) that touch me, listening to each other.

“For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of form, to give us pleasure;

Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men’s faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him.

But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God’s punishment had come.” isaias 53 2-4