Solidarity is one of the key Catholic social teaching themes - a sense of being with people who are in need. Solidarity includes the idea that we are all a part of one another. A bit of us is in each person who is homeless and a bit of each person who is homeless is in each of us. There are many ways we can live out our solidarity with those who are homeless.
A Story
Tell the story of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. www.catholicworker.org provides good basic information. This summary on the movement can be found there, for instance:The Catholic Worker Movement described in 120 words www.catholicworker.org/aimsandmeanstext.cfm?Number=6
You might use a clip of the movie on the life of Dorothy Day entitled, Entertaining Angels.
There are lifestyles that contemporary people choose to put them more in touch with the needs of the poor. You might discuss what the young people think of these lifestyles. Who else can you think of that lives a life of solidarity?
You might invite someone from a local Catholic Worker community to speak to your group about Dorothy Day, the contemporary life of a Catholic Worker, and their personal experience of solidarity. Find a community here http://www.catholicworker.org/communities/index.cfm
Scripture
Read together from the Prologue of John's Gospel, John 1: 14. Explain that the original translation of "the Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us" is actually that "the Word was made flesh and set up his tent among us." God, in Jesus, set up his tent to live with us and by us - in solidarity. God DID become one of us. God emptied himself.
- Where do we see God among us, as one of us today?
- How do we, as Catholic Christians today set up our tents and become one with those around us?
Read together Philippians 2: 5-7. God emptied himself to be with us, and this reading tells us we are to have the same attitude as Jesus, if we are Christians.
- How are we called to respond?
Action
Invite your young people to design some kind of response to what they have learned. Use the concrete information in the What, How, What Else section to guide you. Suggest that they include two major components in their plan:
Direct Relationship - Something that brings them into relationship with members of the community who are homeless - serve food at a soup kitchen, volunteer to plan a holiday party at a homeless shelter, organize and/or deliver food from the food pantry. (You can work with those who run these programs to help you design a program of direct ministry.)
Advocacy - Something that addresses the root causes of homelessness. See page 3 at http://www.endhomelessness.org/pub/factsheets/Ushigh.pdf for ideas on how to design a letter writing campaign. Click the "Take Action" button at http://www.icirr.org/ to find information to address in your letters.
