12 February 2022

Praying with the Saints in Ordinary Time:
12 February 2022

Inside the Carmelite abbey church in Loughrea, Co Galway, rebuilt in 1897 by William Byrne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the countdown to Lent since Sunday last, which was the Fourth Sunday before Lent.

Later this morning, I have to put the finishing touches to tomorrow’s services and sermons in Castletown and Rathkeale. But before this busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday, 2 March 2022. During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.’

Mark 8: 1-10 (NRSVA):

1 those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, 2 ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way – and some of them have come from a great distance.’ 4 His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ 5 He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ 6 Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. 7 They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. 8 They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (12 February 2022) invites us to pray:

We pray for peace in Japan, across Asia and around the world.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Reaching the Holocaust
survivors who live in
isolation and poverty

Lena Goren (90), a Greek-born Holocaust survivor living in New York … she is receiving food from the Met Council

Patrick Comerford

Some of the most disturbing news in Ireland this week has included reports on the rising levels of food poverty and the insidious rise in racism.

This Friday evening, I am also disturbed by reports that thousands of New York-based Holocaust survivors are living below the federal poverty level, and many are living in isolation as a direct consequence of the global pandemic crisis. Many of these Holocaust survivors are over 80 years old and are without family, friends, or access to food.

It is estimated that about 80,000 Holocaust survivors are living in the US and a third of them live in poverty. About one-third of the food pantries in New York City closed because of the crisis. The homebound elderly are stuck at home and have no way to get food.

One major programme in New York that seeks to reach out to them and to meet their needs is run by Met Council, the Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty.

Met Council is a New York City-based non-profit Jewish charity and social services organisation that offers many services to help hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need.

One of New York’s highest-profile Jewish leaders, David Greenfield, has been the CEO of the Met Council since 2018. His initiatives include a digital food pantry initiative to serve more than 200,000 New Yorkers that rely on Met Council’s food distribution network, and a $35 million initiative to combat poverty in partnership with the UJA-Federation (United Jewish Appeal), the largest local philanthropy in the world.

In recent months, more than 1,000 Holocaust survivors in New York have benefited from a special Met Council programme that focuses on their specific needs, with a $1 million grocery delivery programme.

‘Right now, my lifesaver is what I get from the boxes, Lena Goren (91), a Greek-born Holocaust survivor who lives in Queens, told the New York Post. ‘The food coming here helps me a great deal.’

The programme served 3,076 New Yorkers one recent week, and a third of those who received food — 1,112 — are members of New York’s community of Holocaust survivors.

Lena Goren was born in Thessaloniki in Greece in 1930, the daughter of a rabbi. Her family moved to Larissa when her father became the Chief Rabbi of that city. The family hid from the Nazis in a fremote monastery after mayor of Larissa warned her father they were about to be deported.

Met Council is delivering food and groceries to Holocaust survivors in New York

Each weekly box of groceries sent out by Met Council includes a pound of fruit and a pound of vegetables, canned beans, tuna, rice, pasta, cereal, milk, granola bars and other items, according to David Greenfield. ‘It’s literally a matter of life and death,’ he said. ‘We can’t tell people who are sick and elderly to go leave their homes and wait on line for hours just so they can get some food.’

The Met Council spends about $165,000 a week on the programme, which David Greenfield says has been underwritten largely by a $500,000 donation from real estate mogul Jane Goldman. All told, the charity has raised $1.2 million to support the effort. Greenfield points out that the programme is open to homebound seniors of all faiths.

When Met Council realised that Holocaust survivors were going to be home alone without food during Passover, they reached out to Uber and created a first-of-its-kind pilot to deliver 500 Passover food packages directly to the door of Holocaust survivors. These efforts made national news on CBS and in the New York Post and AM New York.

A Met Council volunteer recently delivered food to a Holocaust Survivor who was in tears, telling the volunteer through a closed door to please stick around a bit. The survivor said she is her 90s and this is the most horrible thing to happen to her since the Holocaust.

She continued, ‘I’m living in a small apartment, been here for weeks with no one to talk to, and you are the first person I spoke to in weeks.’

It is estimated that about 80,000 Holocaust survivors are living in the US and a third of them live in poverty. About one-third of the food pantries in New York City closed because of the crisis. The homebound elderly are stuck at home and have no way to get food. Met Council is their only lifeline, and has made it a priority to get this food to them.

Holocaust survivors have already suffered more than any of us can imagine. This Friday evening, I have donated to Met Council. You can consider sponsoring either six meals for $18, twelve meals for $36, a box for $55, or two boxes for $110 by clicking HERE to make sure that Met Council can continue to deliver food to isolated, lonely and impoverished Holocaust survivors in New York.

Shabbat Shalom