Apostles for today
Prayer an Reflection
May 2024
THE JOY OF GIVING AND SHARING WITH OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS
The value of solidarity in the life of the Union
Responding to the call of Jesus to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick and those who are in prison (Mt. 25:36-40), and inspired by the apostolic zeal of St. Vincent Pallotti, our founder, the members of the Pallottine Communities in Nagpur, India, felt the urgent need to begin an innovative social apostolate, called “Pallotti Bread” with the motto “Together with the Hungry”. The members felt that the Local Community must have a social feeding venture in association with the staff and students of our educational institutions in Nagpur.
This new venture was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Nagpur, Most. Rev. Elias Gonsalves and Very. Rev. Fr. Varghese Pullan, the then Provincial of the Epiphany of the Lord Province, Nagpur. The members of the Local Community volunteered to be the core members and they swung into action, specifying the target groups as the homeless, poor, living on the pavements and slums of the Nagpur city. Our survey revealed that they were the migrant homeless and jobless poor people, struggling to make a living, living on the streets. The initial challenges made us to streamline our distribution chain by introducing smart ration cards for the beneficiaries with the assistance of modern technology. The rations containing rice, beans, wheat powder, edible oil, and cooking ingredients were made as kits and were distributed to the smart card holders. We used to distribute 500 ration kits in a month.
The members of the Communities are actively involved on every fourth Sunday to distribute these kits at different places. Each time we venture out to distribute these food items, we could experience the joy on their face, and we in turn, felt the “Joy of Giving”, as St. Mother Theresa always referred to.
We are able to carry out this innovative social apostolate only because of the generous contributions from our Pallottine educational institutions. We have motivated some of the staff members from our institutions to a certain extent to collaborate with us in these noble endeavors. As the poor widow in her poverty had contributed all that she had, her whole livelihood” (Mk. 12:44), these people too contribute from their little savings. We wish to invite our UAC members and other well-wishers to collaborate with us in the near future to share in the Joy of Giving. The onset of the pandemic and the subsequent lock-down (Covid-19) in India in March 2020 onward posed a new challenge to “Pallotti Bread” as we had to stop the distribution due to lock-down.
As the migrant laborers started to move from the metro cities on foot to their villages, the members of the Community served hot meals for them daily on the highways. Meantime, we realized that our scarce resources will not be enough to feed the poor on the streets, badly affected by the lock-down and the pandemic. “Pallotti Bread” tied up with the Sneha Charitable Trust, run by the St. Camillus Fathers (MI) and expanded the distribution programs for the poor affected by the pandemic in the city and nearby villages. With the assistance of the Sneha Charitable Trust, “Pallotti Bread” was able to distribute another 600 pulse kits, masks and sanitizers every month, for five to six months from June 2020.
Besides, we also focused on the frontline workers and the police personnel in the major police stations of Nagpur City and the rural areas. We distributed health kits, containing masks, sanitizers and vitamin tablets for these frontline workers and for the needy people through them. Awareness programs on health, social distancing and Covid norms were conducted in the villages and slums involving College/School staff members, student volunteers, medical staff, police personnel and village leaders.
“Pallotti Bread” witnessed the caring hands of God as the Heart of Jesus Province of the Pallottine Society in Germany came forward with their contribution to assist us in our feeding program through the Mission Secretariat of the Epiphany of the Lord Province. This helped us again to expand our reach to help the needy with food kits, medicines, masks and sanitizers at different parts of our country.
We continue our journey of responding and alleviating the hunger of the homeless of our brothers and sisters, inspired by the charism and enthusiasm of our founder St. Vincent Pallotti, who always had the hunger to do more and more (sempre più – always more) for the poor and the needy.
The Word of God says, Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowd, and He told his disciples, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” (Mt. 15:32). Jesus, moved with compassion, fed those four thousand people and satisfied their hunger with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. It is true, even today, that when we share our little things with our brothers and sisters we will be able to satisfy their hunger to a great extent. Like Jesus our Master, let us be compassionate and sensitive to the needs of our brothers and sisters around us. May St. Vincent inspire us to do more and more for the poor and fill our hearts with the “Joy of Giving”.
Bro. George Chemplamparambil SAC
Mission Secretary, Epiphany of the Lord Province, Nagpur
Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti, 204 00186 Roma, ITALIA
Tel: (+39) 06.6876827 E-mail: uacgensec@gmail.com
Sito: www.vincenzopallotti.org
