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Walter Jordan spoke with a counselor March 4 at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in St. Louis. Jordan has pancreatic cancer. "I cry a lot," he said. "No so much for the disease, but for my grandkids. I've got grandkids up in Kansas -- some I haven't seen." The Society helps people facing economic, emotional or spiritual crises.

They grow spiritually while offering help and hope to those in need

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Severely malnourished Sadiki Basilaki, 9, receives a mug of milk at a Catholic mission feeding center in Rutshuru, 50 miles north of Goma, in eastern Congo in November. Aid workers began feeding tens of thousands of people who had gone hungry during fighting in rebel-held areas of eastern Congo. Catholics reach out to those in need through a variety of programs.

Shortly after Franciscan Father Michael Grawe arrived as a missionary in Brazil, he was reminded of a story of St. Francis of Assisi who taught others that "the poor are our Masters."

Father Grawe, who has since spent 41 years in missionary work in Brazil, did not know the Portuguese language when he arrived. Walking to another town, he took the wrong way after coming to a fork in the road. A little boy realized he would be lost so he tugged on him and pointed in the opposite direction, shouting "jipe," which means jeep. The priest was humbled to have been led by a young boy.

Odalias Mendez, 7, washes up at a spigot of a new running water system in San Jose del Llano, Honduras. The system, was funded in part through a Catholic Relief Services program. Families in the ranching community used to either pay for home delivery of dirty water or filled buckets at a nearby river.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says almsgiving implies a material service rendered to the poor for Christ's sake.

Lent is a time for self-sacrifice and to be more aware of the poverty in the world. A lesson about compassion, it also helps people develop spiritually.

Now in it's 35th year, Operation Rice Bowl allows Catholics in the United States to focus on almsgiving, self-sacrifice and people living in poverty all over the world, Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services recently told Catholic News Service.

Churches in the St. Louis Archdiocese that are sites for celebration of the traditional Latin Mass and their regular Mass times include:
Assumption Parish, 603 Miller St., New Haven: 7:30 a.m. Wednesday
Little Flower Parish, 1264 Arch Terrace, Richmond Heights: 9:15 a.m. Sunday
Oratory of St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury, 530 S. Mason Road, Creve Coeur: 7:30 a.m. Monday-Saturday, 7:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday

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