Lent 2009 marks the 34th year that Catholics have been asked to fill cardboard containers with money donated to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Operation Rice Bowl. It was in 1975 that CRS' program was born in response to a drought in the Sahel region of Africa.
Today, CRS - an international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States - counts on millions of Catholics to use symbolic rice bowls as the focal point for their communal prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In fact, last year Catholics raised more than $7 million through Operation Rice Bowl.
As always, 75 percent of those funds were used to fund hunger and poverty projects in 40 countries. The remaining 25 percent stayed in United States dioceses to support food pantries and soup kitchens.
Vicki Compton, director of the Office for the Missions for the Springfield diocese, is happy that Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten message calls on Christians to fast and give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast.
"The Holy Father is right," says Compton. "We are not far removed from people in Africa or Asia or anyplace else in this world. They are our brothers and sisters. Our spending, our legislation have a direct impact on people around the world.
"There is enough food for everybody. Those of us who over-consume are in effect taking from those who don't have enough. And the way we respond to that reality is to open our eyes and our hearts."
Every individual needs to pay close attention to the poor and the downtrodden, no matter where those people live, Compton says. Filling rice bowls - which will be distributed in parishes - is a good way to become more aware of our actions.
"(We have) to carve through the layers of comfort and wealth and false security that separate us from the poor, and become aware of what is happening in our communities and in our world," Compton says.
"Our faith prepares us to respond, to consume less and share more, to simplify our lives and separate wants from needs, to slow down and prioritize, to invest in relationships instead of things, to let our faith inform our decisions, and to speak out for justice and peace."