Pope Francis' Lenten Invitation

For Lent this year, Pope Francis encourages us all to engage in a new practice. He invites us to “compare our daily life with that of a migrant or foreigner” in order to learn how to sympathize with their experiences, to foster compassion and embrace hope in God’s promise. The Pope is encouraging a spiritual exercise this Lent to discover what God is asking of us.
 
You are invited to take a moment each day throughout Lent to reflect on your spiritual journey by identifying with the life of a migrant.
This first week of Lent, we invite you to reflect daily on one of your ancestors or relatives who may have migrated to the USA.  Each day of this week, you could reflect upon a different family ancestor or relative. Take a moment to reflect upon some of the following questions this week:
 
What was my ancestor’s immigration experience? Why did they migrate? What challenges did they face in migrating? What might have been the role of faith in their immigration journey? How might their relationship with God been a part of their immigration experience? How did their migration impact others?  How does your daily life today compare with this migrant ancestor?   
 
What might you learn from their immigration experiences and their spiritual trust in God to make this journey?  What is God is asking of us today on our Lenten journey? 
This week, we invite you to reflect each day on one of the Saints who were a migrant.  For example, St. Josephine Bakhita (the Sudanese Catholic religious sister who was kidnapped and enslaved as a young girl), St. Toribio Romo (a popular patron saint of Mexican Migrants), Mother Cabrini (who founded many hospitals, schools, and orphanages that served immigrants and refugees across the U.S.A.), John the Baptist Scalabrini (who is often called the apostle to the immigrants), St. Frances of Rome (a 15th century patron of immigrants and refugees who dedicated her life to helping the poor and sick), St. Anthony of Padua (a 12th century patron of travelers and immigrants who is known for his love of the poor) or other Saints whom you might be familiar with.   
 
After selecting a Saint, google and read a bit about the Saint’s life story, and then take a few moments to reflect upon some of the following questions this week:
 
What was the Saint’s immigration experience? Why did they migrate? What challenges did they face in migrating? What might have been the role of faith in their immigration journey? How might their relationship with God been a part of their immigration experience? How did their migration impact others?  How does your daily life today compare with this migrant’s lived experience?   
 
What might you learn from their immigration experiences and their spiritual trust in God to make this journey?  What is God is asking of us today on our Lenten journey? 

This week, we invite you to reflect each day on the experiences of Refugees.  In the words of Pope Francis, “Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions.”  (Pope Francis’ Speech to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 24, 2015). 

A refugee is a particular type of migrant who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. Can you think of refugees who has had to flee their home country in recent years because of wars or natural disasters? For example, think about the 6.8 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide as of January 2025. In addition, think about the 2.6 million refugees from Afghanistan. The United Nations HCR estimates there are nearly 44 million refugees in the world today. Maybe your faith community has supported a refugee in their resettlement process here in the U.S.A.?    

Think about a story of a different refugee each day this week, and try to imagine their experience. Take a few moments to reflect upon some of the following questions:
 
  • What is a refugee experience that you have seen in the news, read about, or heard about from someone in your community? Why did they migrate? What challenges did they face in migrating? What might have been the role of faith in their journey? How did their migration impact others?
  • How does your daily life today compare with this refugee’s lived experience? What might you learn from their experiences and spiritual trust in God? 
  • What is God is asking of us on our Lenten journey? 
 
Pope Francis encourages us to consider, “the presence of migrants and refugees – and of vulnerable people in general – is an invitation to recover some of those essential dimensions of our Christian existence and our humanity that risk being overlooked in a prosperous society. That is why it is not just about migrants. When we show concern for them, we also show concern for ourselves, for everyone; in taking care of them, we all grow; in listening to them, we also give voice to a part of ourselves that we may keep hidden because it is not well regarded nowadays.”  (Pope Francis’ World Day of Migrants and Refugee Message, 2019.)

This week, we invite you to reflect each day on the experiences of those individuals seeking asylum.

An asylee is a particular type of migrant who flees their home country in order to seek protection from persecution or has a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. In 2022 alone, almost 2.9 million asylum applications were registered in 162 countries, the highest number of individual asylum applications on record. These numbers have continued to grow in recent years. The United Nations HCR estimates that of the 122.6 million people worldwide who are forcibly displaced each year, there are an estimated 8 million asylum-seekers in the world today.
 
Can you think of an asylee who has had to flee their home country in recent years due to persecution? For example, the Sisters of St. Joseph for many years and still today through the important work of an ACCOLA ministry called Sarah’s…An Oasis for Women, offer safe housing, dignity, and resources to support a diverse community of asylee women healing from trauma. You can learn about one woman’s story from a short video on the Sarah’s webpage.
 
Pope Francis clearly affirms that “the situation of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees requires that they be guaranteed personal safety and access to basic services.  For the sake of the fundamental dignity of every human person, we must strive to find alternative solutions to detention for those who enter a country without authorisation.” (Pope Francis’ World Day of Migrants and Refugee Message, 2018.)
 
This week of Lent, you are encouraged to research and think about different asylee’s story each day throughout the week. Then try to imagine their experience. Take a few moments to reflect upon some of the following questions this week:
 
What is an asylee’s experience that you have seen in the news, read about, or someone you have met in your community? Why did they migrate?  What was the circumstances which caused them to flee their country?  What challenges did they face in migrating? What might have been the role of faith in their immigration journey? How might their relationship with God been a part of their immigration experience? How did their migration impact others? How does your daily life today compare with this asylee’s lived experience?
 
What might you learn from their immigration experiences and their spiritual trust in God to make this journey?  What is God is asking of us today on our Lenten journey?
This week we invite you to reflect on the experiences of those individuals under special Temporary Protected Status commonly known as TPS. An individual is granted an approved immigration status based on whether the individual comes from a TPS country. Therefore a migrant with “TPS” is a particular type of migrant from a country which the U.S. Government recognizes and designates as meeting specific “conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately. USCIS may grant TPS to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of countries), who are already in the United States. Eligible individuals without nationality who last resided in the designated country may also be granted TPS.” Some of the reasons a country may be considered for TPS is temporary conditions in the country such as:
  • Ongoing armed conflict (such as civil war)
  • An environmental disaster (such as earthquake or hurricane), or an epidemic
  • Other extraordinary and temporary conditions.

Can you think of a TPS individual living in the United States? What country have they come from and why? What countries currently do our U.S. Government provide this temporary protect status protections for? Ukraine, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia… Unfortunately, the TPS status of many of these countries has been thrown into question due to recent executive orders terminating without warning the Temporary Protect Status for many countries’ migrants. This week you are encouraged to take a few moments to reflect upon some of the following questions:
  • What is an immigrant with TPS’ experience that you have seen in the news, read about, or someone you have met in your community?
  • What was the circumstance, war or natural disaster, which caused them to flee their country?
  • What challenges did they face in migrating?
  • What challenges might they be facing here in the U.S. as their TPS is in threatened with being terminated and having to return home abruptly?
  • How might their relationship with God been a part of their immigration experience?
  • What might God be asking of us on our Lenten journey?
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