#dilexi te

[victusinveritas]

From James Martin:

Dear friends: I've been thinking about this quote while reading some of the reactions to Pope Leo XIV's apostolic exhortation "Dilexi te." It's from Servant of God Dom Hélder Câmara, who served as Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, in Brazil.

[verba-leo-pp-xiv]

"God shows a preference for the poor: the Lord’s words of hope and liberation are addressed first of all to them. Therefore, even in their poverty or weakness, no one should feel abandoned. And if the Church wants to be Christ's Church, it must be a Church in which the poor have a privileged place." – Papa Leone XIV [from 'Dilexi Te' apostolic exhortation] (© Vatican Media, 19.10.25]

[disgruntledexplainer]

[apenitentialprayer]

Icon of Dorothy Day with Homeless Christ, by Kelly Latimore

Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor. The same Jesus who tells us, “The poor you will always have with you” (Mt 26:11), also promises the disciples: “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). We likewise think of his saying: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). This is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.

Pope Leo XIV (Dilexi te, §5)

[apenitentialprayer]

From the first centuries, the Fathers of the Church recognized in the poor a privileged way to reach God, a special way to meet him. Charity shown to those in need was not only seen as a moral virtue, but a concrete expression of faith in the incarnate Word. The community of the faithful, sustained by the strength of the Holy Spirit, was rooted in being close to the poor […] This demonstrates that the nascent Church did not separate belief from social action: faith without witness through concrete actions was considered dead, as Saint James taught us (cf. 2:17).

Pope Leo XIV (Dilexi te, §39a, 40d)

[apenitentialprayer]

Okay, this has been percolating for a few months now, and it's still not a fully fleshed out idea, but inspired by the publication of Dilexi te (though I am only about halfway through it), and challenged by Pope Leo XIV's assertion that "the Church is fully the Bride of the Lord when She is also the sister of the poor," and compelled by Saint Camillus de Lellis's exhortation that we should "ask the Lord for a motherly affection for our neighbor,"..... .... I am going to propose what I am currently calling the Consorority of Louis IX (but men can join too). What I am imagining is a spiritual association modeled along the lines of the Dominican confraternities, an association of lay and religious with a focus on service to and friendship with the poor in a specifically Franciscan mode. Such an organization, should it actually be formed and approved, would entail that its members pray for each other and for the people that they serve; that the members of the consorority be open to being evangelized by God in the people they serve, and that those whom the consorority serve come to greater knowledge of the God who loves them and bears their sufferings and sorrows. I think that it may be a good idea to search through the Franciscan tradition to find a short prayer oriented towards that purpose that can be memorized and recited daily by the association's members (the Memorare is one possibility). The main duty of members of the consorority would be providing a meal for a member of their geographic community; supplying money equivalent to a meal or straight up giving the meal would fulfill the obligation, but keeping in mind that this is an opportunity to encounter "the sacramental presence of the Lord" in the Other, ideally this would involve sitting down and eating with the person, in order that this be a real encounter with a person and not just an obligation to be ticked off as fulfilled. Like the original Confraternity of the Rosary, membership of the consorority could be "tiered" in the intensity of the duty; one could promise to do this monthly, weekly, or (though this is certainly outside my own means) daily. And, like the Dominican confraternities, failure to meet this duty would not incur penalty of sin. This duty is inspired by the titular saint of the proposed consorority, who as a devotional practice used to serve the poor at table and ate from their leftovers. In keeping with the Franciscan charism, it may be good to court the Poor Clares to see if they would be willing to take up recording membership and electing a Promoter-General for the consorority from among their own members. This is just an idea, but something that may be worth pursuing.

[verba-leo-pp-xiv]

"The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty." – Papa Leone XIV [from 'Dilexi Te' apostolic exhortation] (© SOPA Images, 15.10.25]

[apenitentialprayer]

God is merciful love, and his plan of love, which unfolds and is fulfilled in history, is above all his descent and coming among us to free us from slavery, fear, sin, and the power of death. Addressing their human condition with a merciful gaze and a heart full of love, he turned to his creatures and thus took care of their poverty. Precisely in order to share the limitations and fragility of our human nature, he himself became poor and was born in the flesh like us. We came to know him in the smallness of a child laid in a manger and in the extreme humiliation of the cross, where he shared our radical poverty, which is death. It is easy to understand, then, why we can also speak theologically of a preferential option on the part of God for the poor […] This “preference” never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups, which would be impossible for God. It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.

Pope Leo XIV (Dilexi te, §16)

Christ Healing a Blind Beggar, by Frans Francken II and Joos de Momper the Younger, circa 1620, oil on canvas