Together with all believers and people of good will, by virtue of our Fourth Vow of service to the poor, we welcome as a special grace this new Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo on love for the poor, as a gift from the Sister of Charity.
A Church for the poor in the horizon of Revelation
Dilexi te highlights the importance of being ‘a Church for the poor’ and emphasises that ‘we are not in the horizon of charity, but of Revelation’ (DT 5). In this sense, the document presents “numerous pages of the Old Testament in which God is presented as friend and liberator of the poor: “In God’s heart there is a preferential place for the poor […]. The whole journey of our redemption is marked by the poor” (DT 17).
The preferential option for the poor generates an extraordinary renewal in the Church and in society
‘The ancient story of the Good Samaritan (DT 9) was the paradigm of the spirituality of the Council. I am convinced that the preferential option for the poor generates an extraordinary renewal both in the Church and in society, when we are able to free ourselves from self-referentiality and listen to their cry.‘
The poor are “ours”
The Holy Father emphasises that ’Christians cannot consider the poor only as a social problem: they are a “family matter”. They are “ours”. Our relationship with them cannot be reduced to an activity or an office of the Church‘ (DT 104) and recalls the teaching on work of St John Paul II to reflect on ’the active role of the poor in the renewal of the Church and society, leaving behind the paternalism of merely assisting their immediate needs” (DT 87).
The poor teachers of the Gospel
Dilexi te explains that “the poorest are not only the object of our compassion, but teachers of the Gospel. It is not a question of ‘bringing them” God, but of encountering him among them‘ (DT 79) because ‘if it is true that the poor are supported by those who have economic means, the reverse can also be said with certainty. This is a surprising experience attested to by Christian tradition and which becomes a real turning point in our personal lives when we realise that it is precisely the poor who evangelise us” (DT 109).
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/it/apost_exhortations/documents/20251004-dilexi-te.html
Dilexi te is a grace and a strong appeal that this bicentenary year should not be a remembrance of an event in the past, the ascension to heaven of our Foundress, Mother Thouret, but that it should see us all committed, in prayer and hard work, alongside the poor, ‘sacraments of Christ’.
A grace and a strong appeal that this bicentenary year may not be a mere remembrance of an event in the past, the ascension to heaven of our Foundress, Mother Thouret, but that it may see us all committed, in prayer and hard work, alongside the poor, ‘sacrament of Christ’.
