May 27.   In their family Charles and Dorothy had battled with the experience of their son’s addiction with great difficulty at first.   He had been an excellent scholar, an adventurous boy and that is where the trouble had started. He’d been tempted to try crystal meth and got caught up.   As a couple it had been so hard because, much as she tried, Dorothy had hardly been able to get Charles to open up.  “God knows, “she would say, “let’s ask him for help.  I can’t believe he willed for this to happen. I can only accept that it is because of free will. Now God is waiting for us to turn to him.” Charles’ conversion, after the young man’s death, came about as a slow process, helped each step of the way by Dorothy’s love and concern for the two men she loved so much. “Only a little as much as God loves them,” she reminded herself.  

The Most High knows all that may be known and he looks into the signs of the age.  He declares what has been and what is to be and he reveals the tracks of hidden things.   No thought escapes him and not one word is hidden from him.   Sirach 42: 15-25.     The Lord has not enabled his holy ones to recount all his marvellous works, which the Lord the Almighty has established that the universe may stand firm in his glory.  He searches out the abyss and the hearts of men and considers their crafty devices.

Pope Francis:  The responses given to the 2014 and 2015 pre-synodal consultations spoke of a variety of situations and new challenges they pose. Drug use was mentioned as one of the scourges of our time, causing immense suffering and even breakup for many families. The same is true of alcoholism, gambling and other addictions.  The family could be the place where these are prevented and overcome but society and politics fail to see that families at risk lose the ability to act to help their members.  AL 50-51.   Mary, counsellor and guide for the lonely and lost, pray for us.