July 12. “You know us oldies still have something to offer and hope it will accepted.   I am happy to do some mentoring to the unemployed youth to try to teach them some useful skills.” “We women can teach sewing and knitting and the men can teach carpentry or other practical skills too.”  “We tried that. I thought it would be easy, and that they were keen to learn.  But sometimes I do get despondent, as I have to beg them to come rather than them coming eagerly for help.” Reflect, share, scripture:   The Lord says, ‘return O Israel for you have stumbled because of your iniquities. In you the orphan finds mercy.  Whoever is wise, let him understand these things, whoever is discerning, let him know them, for the ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them. But transgressors stumble in them.  From Hosea 14:1-9.  Pope Francis:   Just as God asks us to be his means of hearing the cry of the poor, so too he wants us to hear the cry of the elderly. We must reawaken the collective sense of gratitude of appreciation and hospitality which makes the elderly feel like a living part of the community.  AL 191   ACTION AND PRAYER.     How tolerant and accepting are we elderly amongst ourselves?