Middle School

Yr 10 Reflection 

by Cara Egry: Year 10 Blue Mass

We gather here today to rejoice in each other's presence and to come together in our class community. Due to this week being anti-poverty week, let us pray on behalf of the others who share hearts, souls, dreams and aspirations just like ourselves but find themselves in situations related to poverty. 

More than 13.4% of Australians live below the poverty line and that includes 761,000 children or 1 in 6. 

Poverty is about a lack of money – both income for now and savings or wealth. But it can also be about not having a lot of other things - affordable housing, access to good education or health services.  Households with children are being hit harder than others and single parent households are the worst of all. This is only predicted to get worse, and because of this I ask we all open our hearts to these people and pray for others to do the same.

Poverty is not only about those who are experiencing it, but also about those surrounding them who do their part to make a difference. This can be helping a family member or friend experiencing poverty by buying them groceries once a fortnight, supporting charities or your local parish who assist people under the poverty line, volunteering your time, whether regularly or as a one off at places like the incredible St. Mary’s House of Welcome which sits only several blocks away from where we are currently gathered or just spreading information by word of mouth.

Something that stands as a wall between those experiencing poverty and those who are not is a stigma, which needs to be broken for us all to live in a happy and inclusive society. We all need to understand that poverty is not just experienced by the stereotype of people who are on substances, but instead a wide variety of people from all different backgrounds. 

We must pray that the stigma gets broken, that we as society can open our hearts in the way Jesus would have wanted to those experiencing poverty.