February  12.   “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” While Bruce was the groups’ Old Testament scholar Margaret’s study had been of the New Testament.  She explained, “When you consider the stories about kings and kingdoms and the ideal qualities of kings it is clear that Jesus is the ultimate countercultural kingly type person. He was driven not by the prestige and honour that we associate with them, but exclusively by life-giving love and concern for others and not for himself.  Think of the story of the feeding of 4000 after three days of following him.  Anyone who has done any form of ministry knows it is tiring and three days is a very long time to be leading a crowd of people. Taking the initiative himself to arrange for them to be fed shows his compassion and human concern.  I believe that some of our charities and feeding schemes must perform absolute miracles too.”    Becoming an eco-friendly family:   Think of and share examples of compassion shown by animals to their weaker members.     

“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way and some of them have come a long way.  Mark 8:1-10    Pope Francis:  A sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be real if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings.  It is inconsistent to combat trafficking in endangered species while remaining indifferent to human trafficking, unconcerned about the poor or undertaking to destroy another human being deemed unwanted.  LS 91