Looking to learn more about a critical issue affecting millions here and abroad this Lent? Check out “Mobilizing Faith, Fighting Poverty,” an initiative from Yale Divinity School.YDS

The goal of the movement is, “to spark conversation and resolve among people of faith on issues of poverty, and challenge poverty’s perennial threat to humanity.”

Each day during Lent, the Mobilizing Faith website and facebook page offers a resource with the aim of rallying “heartfelt action that reduces misery and rekindles hope.”

Several faith-based organizations and nonprofits are involved in the efforts, and representatives from Catholic Charities USA and CRS, Catholic Relief Services, attended the launch at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where YDS alumnus Sen. Chris Coons spoke eloquently about his relief work in Africa. A panel representing agenicies devoted to fighting poverty exhorted Christians and all citizens of the US to add their voices to the debate around Congressional budget cuts on the backs of the poor, both at home and abroad, echoing sentiments put forward by US bishops.

Read some compelling essays on poverty and Christian responses in Reflections, the journal of Yale Divinity School, here, and check out the Mobilizing Faith website and facebook page.

Michael J. O’Loughlin is national correspondent at America and author of Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear.