You Pray for the Hungry Then You Feed Them This is How Prayer Worksã‚â Pope Francis

"You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That's how prayer works." - Pope Francis (X-post from /r/Catholicism)

Spotted in r/Catholicism, but I thought it would be more appreciated here.
The source of the quote is not certain. It is attributed to Pope Francis from around March 2015, but I can't find when/if he actually said it. The original was probably in Italian, I guess.

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level 1

Reminds me of the old joke: "Prayer and an aspirin cure a headache. Just don't forget the aspirin."

level 2

That reminds me of another joke: " I prayed for a bike, but God doesn't work like this, so I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness"

level 1

Why not just skip the prayer and go straight to feeding? Saves time and feeds more hungry people that way!

level 2

The people who don't make it while you're making a Pat Robertson constipation face and talking to yourself, go straight to Heaven:
Constipated?

level 1

Be nice if more religious folk around the world actually read their holy book. That whole "faith without works is nothing," bit seemed important to me...

level 2

....but "good deeds are like dirty rags" without the faith part.

I told my fundie MIL, "too bad!" Meaning, I can be secular and do good things. She got all huffy.

level 1

Pro-tip: If you skip the prayer, they'll be able to eat sooner, and you'll have more free time yourself.

level 1

Except the part where they hold the sandwich ransom until you pray for it, I'd say that's an accurate statement.

level 2

I LOATHE the Roman Criminal Church. I grew up Roman Catholic and I have NOTHING decent to say about the institution but to be fair, Catholics DO NOT force prayer at soup kitchens. That is an EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT thing. I volunteered at the Protestant Bowery Mission in Manhattan and was appalled that yes, they did obligate prayer, Bible reading and a sermon before feeding hungry people. That is an EVANGELICAL thing, not a Catholic thing. Having said that, yes, the Catholic church is an organized crime syndicate that can't implode fast enough for me.

level 1

That's the only way it works.

level 1

If I pray to god to deny a roomful of people food because they are unworthy but then I feed them anyway does that mean I'm more powerful than god?

level 1

"Unless they use drugs."

-Scott Walker

level 1

Why do we waste time praying if we are going to do the work?

level 1

Or you could just ditch the waste of time part, and start by doing something that actually works in the beginning.

level 1

Seems like you could feed more hungry people if you knocked off the praying and used the time for cooking.

level 1

It seems to me that you can save a lot of time by skipping a step, most people save even more time by skipping both.

level 1

On this, he's our advocate in that he urges people to embrace action in ADDITION to observing your beliefs and not in it's stead. Perhaps what he is trying to say is not "pray" for them, but feel for them. That's a fairly innocuous message.

level 2

Yes, it is an urge to take action, and it is a consistent teaching of the Catholic Church that you should actively work toward the things you pray for. ("Pray as if everything depends on God; act as if everything depends on you." - attributed to various saints.)

But, It's also humorous in its implication that prayer is redundant - the hungry are fed by someone feeding them, not by someone praying for them

level 1

Is Pope Francis really an atheist?

level 2

I don't think you really want truthful answers here. Unless you doing some sort of penance.

level 2

It's full of people who willingly worship a supposed being who allegedly and needlessly drowned all the world's babies in a global flood when omnipotence provided him with another option.

What? It's just a story? Stop basing your life on stories please.

Or is there a third option I'm missing?

level 2

An echo chamber of people making excuses for the atrocities they support.

level 2

Simpering apologists for a corrupt institution dealing in the sexual torture of children, for an organized crime syndicate that should be held accountable for RACKETEERING. Gross.

level 2

Op · 6 yr. ago · edited 6 yr. ago

De-Facto Atheist

Well, I get less downvotes there for posting atheist perspectives than I get here for posting anything counter to the group mind.

But not by much.

level 1

You guys are misinterpreting the quote. "You pray for the hungry", as in "You pray for there to be hungry people". Then you feed some of them just a little bit, look great doing so, and rake in the good PR. That's how prayer works.

cloydineved.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/5dxmty/you_pray_for_the_hungry_then_you_feed_them_thats/