6 December.  St Nicholas.  On the last day of school, at their assembly, young Nick had been given a task to speak about St Nicholas, the original Santa Claus, who had been a bishop in the early days of the church.  He said, “The story is told that he was particularly generous, especially with the poor, giving them food and clothing.   How this all became commercialised into giving expensive presents to one another is not clear to me, and my gran told me in her home country they do celebrate this day every year. Our class decided to collect food and clothes for the homeless people who live in the veldt near our school.  The principal arranged for us to meet with some of them and they told us a lot about their life and how they were separated from their families because of poverty.  We felt pleased to help a little.  And I told my folks I really don’t want an expensive present this year.”    

Reflect, share, Scripture: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ”Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” I answered, “Here I am, send me.” Isaiah 6:1-8.   Pope Francis:“ The prayer of the poor rises up to God. As a father, he takes care of those who are most in need: the poor, the marginalised, the suffering and the forgotten. No one is excluded from His heart, for in His eyes, we are all poor and needy. God sees and cares for each one of us, whereas those who seek wealth, to the detriment of the most needy, are poor in His eyes. Message for World Day of the Poor. JUBILEE: We must not close our eyes to the dramatic situations that we now encounter all around us, not only in certain parts of the world. Each day we meet people who are poor or impoverished; they may even be our next-door neighbours. Often they are homeless or lack sufficient food for the day. They suffer from exclusion and indifference on the part of many. It is scandalous that in a world possessed of immense resources, destined largely to producing weapons, the poor continue to be “the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. SNC 15. Act and pray:   This Christmas season what can we do as individuals and as a family to help the poor in some way, whether we are well-off or not?