On Dec. 10, Join Pope Francis in Prayers and Actions to End Hunger

If you've attended a sports event live, perhaps you have participated in a type of cheer known as the wave. By all accounts, the wave originated  a baseball playoff game between the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees on Oct. 15, 1981. While this form of cheering is not necessarily popular with all sports fans, it accomplishes one thing: it forces you a person to get off one's seat and join "a movement."

Another much larger wave is planned outside the sports realm on Tuesday, December 10, which happens to be the UN's Human Rights Day. This is when countries around the world observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  One particular section of the document will get special attention this year.

Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

The Global Prayer to End Hunger
On Tuesday, December 10, Pope Francis will launch a world-wide movement to respond to the needs of the poor and vulnerable in our midst by praying and acting to end hunger. At noon local time, a “Global Wave of Prayer” called One Human Family, Food for All, will begin in Tonga and will progress around the world until it reaches American Samoa some 24 hours and more than 164 countries later!

Caritas Internationalis (the parent organization of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities in the U.S.) is a main sponsor of this global event. See special invitiation from Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and president of Caritas Internationalis. from  A special prayer has been created for the occasion in the languages of all the people who will participate in this global wave to end hunger.  Here is the prayer in English.

Local Actions
People of all faiths may participate by including special prayers during church services throughout that week. On Monday, Dec. 2, special resources will be available to help support the wave of prayer.  What you can do now is make a commitment to take part by signing this pledge.  Even though the campaign is sponsored by Caritas Internationalis, a Roman Catholic organization, people of all faiths are encourage to participate. This message is universal, and very much in the spirit that Pope Francis has conveyed during his papacy.  No matter our path in life, whether a vowed religious, a lay person, a Buddhist monk, a United Methodist minister...we can all participate in our own way in making this a better world. 

Stay tuned in coming days for other local opportunities to participate.