July 15th.  Family roots.  In their own families the older people considered and shared, “So many of our children these days emigrate to different countries to find a better life, to escape from conflict and war, for safety and security or for greater wealth.  How strong are your ties to the land of your birth and does it really matter?”   “I may still see myself as a Hollander, an Indian or Malawian, but I wonder whether our children will feel the same.” 

Reflect, share, act. Scripture:   Joseph said to his brothers.  “I am about to die but God will visit you and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.  You shall carry up my bones from here.”  Gen 50: 24-26   Read from Genesis 37 to 50.   Pope Francis. Our contemporary experience of being orphans as a result of cultural discontinuity, uprootedness and the collapse of the certainties that shape our lives, challenges us to make our families places where children can sink roots in the rich soil of a collective history.   AL 193