成人快手

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Sarah Teather, UK Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service

Good morning.

Today is World Refugee Day. On this day four years ago I was out with our home visits team in Lebanon meeting Syrian families in the backstreets of Bourj Hammoud in Beirut.

We had come to see a family who lived at the top of a ramshackle block of flats. 鈥淎s-Salaam-Alaikum, can we come in?鈥� A face peeked around the door, and then another, before a teenage girl gestured that we should follow her through a dark galley kitchen to an entirely empty sitting room, where we sat down on the floor. Soon it began to fill with people. Three large families lived in this small space. The children were attending specially provided classes to help them catch up with their missed education, get support with trauma and learn French and English needed for the Lebanese school system.

As foreign visitors, we were the ideal audience for the children to show off to. Counting demonstrations ensued, in two languages, 鈥渙ne two three, un deux trois鈥濃�� all to raucous applause. 鈥淗ow old are you?鈥� said one little boy at the back. 鈥淥h, more than you can count!鈥�, I quipped. 鈥淣o鈥� said the boy, 鈥淚 can count to a hundred!鈥� And off he went.

In all the boisterous jollity, it took me a while to notice his mother crying. 鈥淎sk her in Arabic why she cries鈥�, I whispered to my colleague. 鈥淚 am just so happy to see them do this,鈥� she answered. 鈥淚t gives me so much hope, because now I know they have a future鈥�.

Lord Jesus, you beckoned the children to come to you, keep those around the world who are displaced from their homes safe from harm this day, and show us the way to support them to nurture a future full of hope.

Amen.