Chalice employees gather each morning for prayer before beginning our busy workdays. As part of our prayer, we often share stories of the saints and reflect on how their lives can inspire and guide us in our own journeys of faith.

Saint Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit priest who devoted his life to serving enslaved people arriving in the port city of Cartagena, Colombia. Witnessing the suffering and inhumane conditions they endured, he felt called to offer them food, medicine, comfort and compassion, while recognizing the dignity that God had given to every person. His life reminds us that faith calls us to see beyond differences and to stand alongside those who are suffering or forgotten. Through his example, we are invited to recognize the dignity of every person and to serve others with compassion, humility and love.

Going Down Toward the Light: Saint Peter Claver 

In our modern world, waiting is something many of us do not like to do. We are used to having information, food, entertainment and even answers at our fingertips. When we have to wait, even for a short time, we can become impatient and frustrated. 

But for many people around the world, waiting is not simply an inconvenience. When I think of waiting, I think of our Chalice sponsorship site in Haiti North, where we see every day children and families who are waiting: for food, for care, for education, for a better future. 

Saint Peter Claver spent his life reaching out to those who waited in the shadows. In 17th-century Cartagena, he went down into the holds of slave ships to meet enslaved people who were crammed together, hungry, and sick. He did not wait for them in his church. He went to them. He called them by their names. He offered them water, bread, and words of dignity. He said, “We must speak to the ears of the heart.” 

Saint Peter Claver reminds me that God does not remain at a distance. God comes where suffering is greatest, into the damp homes, the insufficient meals, and the worries of the mothers we accompany. 

Like Peter Claver, we are called to go toward those who are forgotten. It means reaching out to a sponsored child, listening to a family, sharing a meal, offering a presence. It means recognizing that Jesus is present today in the least among us. 

Let us pray that, like Saint Peter Claver, we may be witnesses who do not wait, but who go out to meet others. For that is where God comes. 

Reflection written by Edley, site director, Haiti North site, Haiti 

Explore more Saints:

Saint Monica

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Saint Peter Claver

Saint Cyprian of Carthage