MARFAM WEEKLY FAMILY MATTERS NEWSLETTER 27 MAY 2026
COME HOLY SPIRIT, FILL THE HEARTS OF YOUR FAITHFUL, AND ENKINDLE IN US THE FIRE OF YOUR LOVE.
A growing body of research shows that the #1 predictor of long-term health and happiness is LOVE. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running study of its kind, found that people with strong, supportive relationships live longer, get sick less often and feel more fulfilled. Teilhard de Chardin wrote:: “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.”
In 1994 Chris, my late husband, I and our daughter Desiree, with Fr Francois Dufour, on our way to the US for a Catholic Engaged Encounter convention stopped off in Rome to participate in the 1st WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES. Its theme was “The Family: Heart of the Civilisation of Love.” Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II were there. The phrase “civilisation of love” has remained with me and the focus in Marfam and family ministry over all the years.
In itself the term has become popular and one hears it used from time to time in different Church settings. Needless to say I was delighted that Pope Leo in presenting his 1st encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on 25 May, used the concept extensively. While acknowledging the value and enormous benefits of AI, his main message in the document is expressing his concern about the possibly negative impact on the dignity of humanity, of people, human beings made in the image and likeness of God. He said, “The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization.” (par. 213)
Love, human love, God love, the gift of the Spirit of Love is renewed again and again each year at Pentecost when we ask the Spirit to enkindle in us the fire of his love. As catechists we teach about the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. In families, the first educators in the faith, we can think and share on those gifts and fruits. I was reminded this Pentecost how in our family, when our children were still small, we did have a family prayer activity, taking the Holy Spirit into our family, asking what kind of spirit lives with us, asking each person to think of others in the family and what fruits you can see in them, and which of the gifts you personally wish to ask for. This activity was published in MARFAM’s magazines over the years. Today, in a special way. we can still ask, “How are we as families building the civilisation of love in our daily lives, with or without cellphones and with AI? What gifts and fruits of the Spirit are present or desired?”
Over the years, for Chris and me, Pentecost has also meant, a special musical occasion for the choir to “go to town.” For me, more recently, Pentecost includes the wider family of creation too. The week between Ascension and Pentecost is often commemorated as Laudato Si week and Christian Unity week. On Saturday 23rd May The Laudato Si movements offered a global celebratory meeting, commissioning new activists and asking us, older activists, to recommit. As Pope Francis earlier, and Pope Leo more recently in Dilexi Te, reminded us that Creation Care and Care for the Poor is not social welfare work, or even humanitarian “doing good” work, but an expression of the love of God for every creature, however small and insignificant they may be. How can we not reflect on God’s love in animals caring for their families?
Pope Francis spoke of the Trinity whose feastday we celebrate next Sunday. “The world was created by the three persons acting as a single divine principle, but each one of them performed this common work in accordance with his own personal property. The world, created according to the divine model is a web of relationships. The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God with others and with all creation. LS 240. That is why the church set before the world the ideal of a “civilisation of love,” the first social core community, the family.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At a time when digital technologies are developing at a rapid and unpredictable pace, every single person must decide if she or he will be: a passive bystander; an unhelpful commentator; an avaricious architect of a new “Tower of Babel”; or a patient, hope-filled builder of a “civilization of love,” Pope Leo XIV said in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas.”
From POPE LEO ENCYCLICAL. MAGNIFIA HUMANITATIS 245. “With the same faith as Mary, let us become “weavers of hope” in our world, sharing who we are and what we have, so that the presence of Jesus may grow among us and his Kingdom take shape. In the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives.” TR 27 MAY 2026
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
May 27. Servant leadership. SEE. Karen and her neighbour Agatha were discussing the leaders in their different churches. “My priest keeps telling us about servant leadership, as he calls it, but he still expects us to do all the work around the church. Maybe he sees his service as celebrating Mass every Sunday, which he does do beautifully but I think there should be more to it than that.” Agatha listened and shared her experience. “My pastor is married and they have 4 children and I know that his wife has a job. It is quite funny to see a pastor doing housework and helping the kids with their homework. But I think it helps him to understand what all our lives are like every day.”
JUDGE. Reflect, share. Scripture. Those who rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. The Son of man came not to be served but to serve. Peter 1:18-25
Pope Francis: The commitment to Christian spirituality cannot be sustained by doctrine alone, without an interior impule which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity. LS 216. Pope Leo in Equatorial Guinea 22 April 2026. “Dear young people, parents and all who are present, let us be inspired by the beauty of love; let us become witnesses to the love that Jesus has left us and taught us! Let us show every day that it is beautiful to love — that the greatest joys, in every situation, come from knowing how to give and from giving of ourselves, especially when we reach out to those most in need. The light of charity, nurtured in our homes and lived out in faith, can truly transform the world.”
Act and Pray. Consider how servant leadership can be applied in your own setting. Pray that our spiritual leaders will be true to the calling of Jesus. Mary, Mother of the church, pray for us.
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