What You Need

June 21, 2007

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. 2 Corinthians 11:9

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:8

Piety

Let us pray: Father, you know what the world needs and you could provide it with a snap of your fingers. Yet you seek action on our parts. Help us to turn our minds, our lips, and our hearts to You. We ask St. Aloysius Gonzaga to intercede on behalf of our petitions on this his feast day. May we put our hands to work building your Kingdom on earth brick by brick. Help our efforts to grow and multiply. As you give us this day our daily bread, help us to provide nourishment to those most in need of assistance. We ask you to bless the members of the Jesuit community like Fr. Joe McCloskey and Fr. Eric Zimmer and Fr. Ed Bodnar who serve the Cursillo community and the Church. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/062107.shtml

Today is the feast day for St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit priest who served in a hospital in Rome during an outbreak of the plague in 1591. While caring for patients, he, too, was stricken with the disease and died three months later. Jesuits have been serving the needs of Catholics through schools, hospitals, and parishes throughout their history.

In today’s first reading, once again we hear St. Paul rely upon the support he gets from the people of Macedonia while he is serving the needs of the missionary church in Corinth. Piety in action. In the Gospel, we hear Jesus teaching us once again to pray in a manner that recognizes that God will provide to us what we need (food, forgiveness, etc.) as much as we provide that to others. Piety in action.

Considering the life of piety in action that is characterized by the faith and good works of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, his name continues to inspire the work of the Church throughout the world. Take, for example, the work done at a Jesuit high school named in his honor. Not the one in Washington, D.C., but a school half a globe away in Kenya described in this article: http://www.sagnairobi.org/assets/tablet_article.pdf

Kenya’s AIDS crisis has left a generation of children not only without parents, but also without the basics needed to raise themselves from poverty: food, shelter and education. In the most deprived part of Nairobi, a new school, set up by a Jesuit priest together with a local Aids charity, is a lifeline. The school is nicknamed School of Dreams.

The greatest gift that St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School offers its students is hope. “I was helpless before because I had no place to learn so that I could be someone in the future,” says one student. Now she plans to become a botanical biologist and means to succeed despite the challenges ahead. This school is bringing a little bit of the Kingdom to earth in ministering to the children who are so poor.

Action

Schools like St. Aloysius need all the help it can get. There are plans to build a permanent school close to Kibera that will take 420 students. The $1 million project should start in April and will, it is hoped, be ready by January 2008. A significant sum of money still needs to be raised. Anyone interested in contributing to the new school should write to St Aloysius School Fund, Christian Life Community, PO Box 21399 Adam Arcade, 00505 Nairobi, Kenya. Email: charlton@clckenya.org.