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FOR PRAYER & REFLECTION
Questions for reflection during the 40-Hour FAST
Q: How will my economic decisions to buy, sell, invest, divest, hire or fire, serve human dignity and the common good?
Q: How do my economic choices contribute to the strength of my family and community, to the values of my children, to sensitivity for those in need?
Q: In this consumer society, how can I develop a healthy detachment from things and avoid the temptation to assess who I am by what I have?
Q: How do I strike a balance between labor and leisure that enlarges my capacity for friendships, for family, for community?
Q: What government policies should I support to increase the well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable?
Moral Principles for Economic Life
1. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.
2. All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family, and serve the common good.
3. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.
4. All people have the right to life and to secure the basic necessities of life (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, safe environment, economic security.)
5. All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions, as well as to organize and join unions or other associations.
6. All people, to the extent they are able, have a corresponding duty to work, a responsibility to provide for the needs of their families, and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.
From “Economic Justice for All,” U.S. Catholic Conference, 1986
A Prayer in this Time of Economic Crisis was written especially for use across New York on the occasion of the 2010 40-Hour FAST.
Last Updated:02/12/2010
© Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
