Week One- Day 1

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Read,  reflect and meditate on Matthew 25: 31-46. 

Who is hungry? Who is thirsty? 

• A person you see begging or "panhandling." 
• A friend struggling with an eating disorder.
• Someone in your life without sufficient means or resources.

Write down their name in your journal, pray for them, and plan to act.

• Take this person an actual glass of water.
• Take food, offer to make a meal.
• Practice radical hospitality- invite to your home to share a meal.
• Offer your presence and support.

Keep it simple!

• Allow the compassion felt by initial engagement to “move” you, change mindsets, produce ongoing action, further spark your creativity, and motivate you to resistance initiatives:

• Demonstrate ways that you are “with” this person and “against” whatever forces are causing isolation, poverty, or oppression in their lives.
• Engage your creativity toward continuity of relational and practical support.

Consider emotional, invitational, and spiritual impact of your intervention/interactions this week. 

• Read a suggested article or listen to a podcast found in the resource section provided.
• Make another contact with person(s) you initiated with. 
• Find out if there's something you can do to alleviate their suffering. 

• Continuation of relational solidarity. 
• Be a “good neighbor” to person/people with whom you’ve connected.
• Remain in contact and conversation, connecting to what causes them pain, relate to it with your own experience.
• Connect again in some relational, supportive way.

Rest is a holy gift. Make space for it: Active, designated rest as a resolve toward worship and restorative wholeness. 

Spiritual disciplines:

Prayer, fasting, meditation, visualization, mindfulness.

Tap into resources provided for how to begin.

• Throughout the day, meditate on Jesus' love and compassion while doing everyday things: eating, cooking, mowing, cleaning, exercising, etc.
• Cultivate a prayerful consciousness concerning the poor, developing an awareness of everything being spiritual- Find beauty within the mundane and the routine.
• Allow God’s presence to meet you in your intercession, your soul-repair, sorrow, and concern for the poor.