MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 18 MARCH 2026
When you want peace, work for justice which is based on love. This opening line in the newsletter brings together some different issues for me. Peace, of course, is almost an immediate overriding concern for a large number of people affected by the tragedy of the wars going on around the world. Everyone needs to try to relate to and support the call for peace and relief for those suffering. Justice, or rather injustice, is eating at the heart of the human behaviour that results in war. Justice must counter this. Pope Francis stated in Fratelli Tutti that there is no just war. Pope Leo continues in this understanding and has added, in a recent address that justice should be based on love.
Address to the Vatican judiciary on 15th March 2026. “Authentic justice cannot be based simply on positive law, but must rather be understood as the “exercise of an ordered form of charity”. Drawing on the teachings of St. Augustine, Pope Leo said “When love is rightly ordered—when God is placed at the center and one’s neighbor is recognized in their dignity—then the whole of personal and social life regains its proper orientation. The order of love gives rise to the order of justice, since authentic love is never arbitrary or disordered, but recognizes the truth of relationships and the dignity of every person. Justice requires us to respect the rights of every person, leaving space in ordered relationships for the highest fruit of love to be born.
As justice applies to rights, human rights, and family rights these should also be concerned with responsibilities. The way of love is through taking responsibility for managing our rights. The way of love too is of celebration. This week from 16-20 March is National Water week and the SA government campaign, is aimed at educating the public about their responsibility in water conservation initiatives, raising awareness around the need to protect and conserve the country’s water resources. This responsibility is not just for our own personal or family needs but for our society as a whole, human, animal and plant, all of which are dependent on the availability of water
It is recognised by and for all of creation that water is a universal right, a source of goodness and wellbeing, a resource to be celebrated as St Francis did in his Canticle of the Creatures stating, “Be praised my Lord for Sister Water, who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.”
In an interview I conducted with Duncan Stuart Keil we discussed God’s gift of water and the responsible use to manage and develop this resource effectively at all levels. With many years of experience Duncan is much more than a fixer of burst pipes, a master plumber, an expert and consultant on water management to government and industry. He stated that research and education are essential to improve everyone’s water usage, starting from simple steps in daily life. His mentioning alternative sources made me first idly think of creating water – that was God’s work – but looking beyond what happens when I switch on a tap and nothing happens. Rainwater harvesting and education on dealing with the hundreds of aspects of infrastructure designing, building and maintenance, for and by everyone, are necessary to deal with and not exacerbate the water crises facing many of us in every area of life. Projects such as obtaining storage tanks for rain-water harvesting in poorer communities, as is an initiative in one Johannesburg Justice and Peace group, go beyond rights and even beyond justice to acting out of the love, which at the heart of our Christian calling of love for the poor, responds to their cry and that of the earth itself thirsting for our love and care.
Pope Leo in Dilexi te 103 writes, “Love for the poor is an essential element of the history of God’s dealings with us; it rises up from the heart of the Church as a constant appeal to the hearts of the faithful, both individually and in our communities. As the Body of Christ, the Church experiences the lives of the poor as her very “flesh,” for theirs is a privileged place within the pilgrim people of God. Love for the poor — whatever the form their poverty may take — is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God. Indeed, one of the priorities of every movement of renewal within the Church has always been a preferential concern for the poor. In this sense, her work with the poor differs in its inspiration and method from the work carried out by any other humanitarian organization.
The interview I conducted will be broadcast as part of the Family Matters programme on Radio Veritas on Wednesday from 10-11 and will be available as a podcast in due course. Toni Rowland 18 March 2026
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 18 MARCH MOTHERHOOD.
18 March. SEE. Motherhood. Elizabeth spoke up for the first time, on her favourite subject, motherhood. “I’m sure everyone will agree that when you think of our world, as a family of families, all kinds of motherhood examples come to mind. Even just with human mothers we have loving, nurturing and nasty, neglectful mothers, although I do believe that mothers do have an inborn mothering gene. You see it in women in their late 30s suddenly getting broody. Almost every single species in the human and animal kingdom has that quality, to bear and care for offspring, often at considerable cost. All the beautiful wildlife TV series show incredible examples, which even include mothering someone else’s baby. Some insects, bees and termites have unusual mothering capacities, centering on a queen who rules the colony.
Can plants have anything like that instinct to reproduce? Reproduce yes, but nurturing probably is beyond their capability. For me, this reproductive aspect of creation should get a lot more emphasis. I also haven’t come across anything in particular that St Francis had to say about mothering. I wonder why?“ “That is not really fair,” David responded, “We know that he had a great love for Mary and devotion to her. ” “And I think while his relationship with his father broke down it wasn’t like that with his mother.”
JUDGE, reflect and share. Scripture:“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even if these forget yet I will not forget you.” Is 49:8-18. This quotation presents a feminine side of God which is often its main focus when it is used, but with little emphasis on the value of the natural mothering ability. Pope Francis:Your child deserves your happiness. Don’t let fears, worries, other people’s comments or problems lessen your joy at being God’s means of bringing a new life to the world. AL 171. For many Christians this journey of fraternity also has a Mother, whose name is Mary. Having received this universal motherhood at the foot of the cross she cares not only for Jesus but also for the rest of her children. In the power of the risen Lord, she wants to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters and there is room for all those whom our societies discard. FT 278. Pope Leo: Let us not forget that “doubly poor are those women who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, since they are frequently less able to defend their rights. Even so, we constantly witness among them impressive examples of daily heroism in defending and protecting their vulnerable families.” While significant changes are under way in some countries, “the organization of societies worldwide is still far from reflecting clearly that women possess the same dignity and identical rights as men. DT
St Francis and Mary. According to a pious legend, one day St Francis had a vision in which he saw his friars trying to reach Christ by a ladder that was red and very steep. After climbing a few rungs they would suddenly fall back. Our Lord then showed St Francis another ladder, white and much less steep at whose summit appeared the Blessed Virgin, and He said to Francis, “Advise your sons to go by the ladder of My Mother.” From BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, Queen of the Friars Minor Capuchin.
Reflect, share, act, pray. In today’s society the focus tends to be more on empowering women than on motherhood. How can we pay more attention to the issue of motherhood and of Mary?
Recent Comments