November 9th   Bryan heard Marcia’s story with sadness. Marcia’s life since coming to the country had been very difficult. She hadn’t realised that the job she was enticed to come to did not exist and she was caught in a trap. Trafficked, being forced to prostitute herself was a nightmare.  The sisters who were able to rescue her and help her heal her self-image suggested that she could participate in the women’s retreat they offered every year. Listening, praying and resting had brought her a deep sense of peace.  “It is God’s mercy that has done this for me.”  

Scripture: God our saviour saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, Titus 3:1-7  Pope Francis: Trafficking in persons and other contemporary forms of enslavement are a worldwide problem that needs to be taken seriously by humanity as a whole. Today, as in the past, slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person that allows him or her to be treated as an object. Human persons created in the image and likeness of God are deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced to being the property of others. FT 24. Jesus expects us to stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead to enter into the reality of other people’s lives and to know the power of tenderness. AL 308