The Sixth World Day of the Poor of this year also asks us to make an examine of conscience, of our lifestyle as consecrated persons, personally and in community, as members of the great Arnoldus Family. For this reason, it is worthwhile going back to the roots and the writings of our Founder, together with the message that the Holy Father Francis addressed to the entire Church.

For Saint Arnold the Holy Spirit is the Father of the SVD and also the Father of the poor (Cf. Vol II. 248; Sandkamp, ​​Spirituality, 48-49). The Word became flesh by emptying itself. He abandoned His condition of heavenly glory. Our Founder was amazed at the austere life of the Incarnate Word. For him, the substance of our vow of poverty is based on this fact. He had invited all the members to have special compassion for the poor (Const. 1885 S/258). He also exhorted them to “love evangelical poverty because we have received the call to the consecration of the Word and the Holy Spirit and in reality, He is the Father of the poor. We will receive the rich treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven, and armed with these will be able to save many souls from the dangers of the world, and will lead them to perfection” (Const.1891/26-30).

Arnold knew that poverty is the path to sanctification, the adoptive mother of humility, and the root of perfection. He advised his spiritual sons and daughters to find poverty in a spirit of faith and charity. That is why the preparatory talks and retreats that Arnold organised for the celebrations of the Christmas festivals were also based on this christological and pneumatological fundamentation (Remembering AJ, 119).

Triune God indeed lives in our hearts, then it will have an impact on the whole world, since His all-merciful goodness and power embrace even the smallest and most unimportant beings in the entire Creation. Therefore, precisely the recognition of God’s indwelling in human hearts, in the heart of every person including the poorest and most excluded, makes Arnold Janssen’s spirituality and charism so highly significant for our times (Rehbein, Gripped by the Mystery, 62).

Once a month all those involved in helping the poor had to attend a conference, when possible, at which the Founder himself presided. Each individual was asked to report on his activities, his successes and failures, unusual experiences, new means and methods of aiding the poor, etc. The Founder repeatedly had reminded the theologians of the purpose of such charitable activity: to observe and understand misery and want; to find new ways of approaching completely strange people through the help they provided; to induce lay people to contribute to activities of this kind, etc (Remembering AJ, 139-140).

St. Arnold had an admiration to Sr. Klara Fey (1815-1894), Foundress of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus in Achen in 1844 for the support and education of poor, orphan, and destitute children, especially girls. The congregations of Sr. Klara Fey and Sr. Franziska Schervier (1819-1876) were to play an important role in establishing the ‘Servants of the Holy Spirit’ as Fr. Arnold took their Rules as a model for his Sisters. St. Vincent de Paul impacted also our Founder’s sensibility for the poor.

Fr. Arnold had favoured a heart-oriented formation that combined reflexio with devotio so that the candidate be capable of loving as well as be sensitive to the poor and the needy and endowed with simplicity that allows easy contact with people. The charitable activity was also to sensitise the seminarians to the needs of the poorest who are so often present in the missions. Fr. Arnold made it a point that in all our houses the poor should be cared for (Remembering AJ, 187).

In this spirit, Fr. Arnold demanded mortification and sacrifice, exterior and even more interior, both from himself and from his followers. In his moderate office as superior General with one smaller sized window shows that he was satisfied with poor lighting and his small living room also depicts his spirit of poverty. In other words, he opted and practiced an austerity lifestyle as part of his option for the poor. Poverty was regarded as a moral obligation since the material goods received came from sacrifices of the poor for the mission cause (Vol. II: 181). Therefore, the economic living standard in the Mission House was below that of the lower social class. Thus, our Founder was beheading what Pope Francis will say: “I prefer a poor church for the poor”.

The virtue of charity in the Founder’s personal life, in his mission community and its grounding in the overall is done of the mentioned spirituality of poverty. His poverty will be traced as a growth in the virtue of charity and then presented in two basic dimensions: ‘ad intra’ as fraternal charity within the community and ‘ad extra’ as charity in dealing with people and what is currently called in the terminology of the SVD, as the Option for the Poor (WTW, 1981, No. 7, [in:] Nuntius SVD, XI/1981, No. 3, 318-352). It is the same for the SSpS and SSpSAp missionaries.

Some of the most outstanding phrases of Pope Francis’ message for the VI World Day of the Poor: “Jesus Christ became poor for you” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). It is the foundation of the option for the poor. The war in Ukraine has left millions of people in situations of forced migration to neighbouring countries and leaving them in misery. In the assemblies of the first Christian communities, they received donations and helped the orphans, the widows, and those who are destitute due to illness or for any other reason, the imprisoned, the foreigners who are among us: in short, they took care of anyone in need, wrote Saint Justin in First Apology, LXVII, 1-6. Solidarity, in effect, is precisely this: sharing what little we have with those who have nothing, so that no one suffers. The more the sense of community and communion as a way of life grows, the more solidarity develops. The generosity towards the poor finds its strongest motivation in the choice of the Son of God who wanted to make himself poor.

Thus, in the spirit and example of Saint Arnold, this VI World Day of the Poor becomes an opportunity of grace, to examine our personal and community conscience, and ask ourselves if the poverty of Jesus Christ is our faithful companion in life.

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Saju George Aruvelil SVD is from India. He is one of the first OTP who has gone to Argentina. He finished his theological studies for the priesthood also there. He then began his service in the education field in our SVD institutions. He obtained a licentiate in Spirituality from Pontifical University of Comillas, Madrid. He also holds a doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical University of Argentina, Buenos Aires. He also helps in the formation of laity and religious candidates. He gives retreats and leads workshops, seminars, etc. He has a radio program and writes in a local newspaper. At present he is a promoter of Laudato Si Movement for caring for the Earth together with his parish priestly pastoral activities.