Check out https://marfam.org.za/thoughts-for-the-day-october-2026/ and https://www.marfam.org.za/shop/ for ongoing Care for Creation.

MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

Each year the Season of Creation has a specific theme.  This year it is LIVING WATER.  Last year it was Peace with Creation and previously themes included aspects of hope and justice.  The 2021 theme,  the first time I was involved with the Laudato Si Action Platform, was,  “A home for all? Renewing the Oikos of God”. Oikos is the Greek word for “home,” or “household.” 

In November the LSAP commemorates its 5th anniversary and I have been invited to participate in this event in Rome, to reflect and also look ahead to the next 5 years.  Maybe I won’t be around by then, but in any case this is my favourite theme – “a home for all,”  and my version “all families matter.”  Although Pope Francis repeatedly said “everything is connected”  and Laudato Si has a number of reference to family life, these are mainly about the human family.  Pope Leo has spoken quite often and strongly about the environment, care of creation but he also speaks mostly of the human family and the dignity of each person as we are all brothers and sisters.

My very particular focus however is on the World as a Family of Families, with a nod to St Francis who in his Canticle of the Creatures calls the elements of sun, moon, water and fire by family-oriented names, Brother Sun, Sister Moon etc.  However he does not include plants and animals or even human beings specifically. Over my many years of reflecting and writing about “family” I have come to focus more strongly on the specific biological relationships of creatures within their families.  All the relationships from mother, father to each other and to their children as well as their own elderly are not just generic, in the sense of one person to another with little recognition of a very unique biological aspect of the relationship.  This does have a major influence on how people interact.  Gender awareness, or sexuality, is also a very relevant aspect. It is certainly needed and involved in reproduction or procreation, but also in general interpersonal interactions.  Gender-based violence, such a scourge today, is a seriously misdirected use of sexuality, even within and also beyond the immediate family.

When I was introduced to biomimicry (the study of what we can learn from nature) I was also exposed to the history of creation of the universe presented as a timeline from 14 billion years ago until today.  The history of our earth and the development of different species and ecosystems is 3 billion years long.  If this was presented as a calendar year we, as homo sapiens – the most advanced form of humans – would have arrived at about 20 seconds before midnight on the last day of the year. This alerted me more to how recent we are but also the importance of sexuality in the evolution of all species.  Without it there could be no ongoing life and no evolution. I don’t think we promote this idea, and its implications nearly enough in the Church as a basic factor in life.    

One of my all-time favourite people is David Attenborough, the renowned naturalist, who just turned 100, and remains a model for anyone interested in studying and protecting the environment and biodiversity. His series on THE TRIALS OF LIFE unpacks stages of interaction within families of animals as they go through the process of passing from one generation to the next, securing as best they can the future of their particular ecosystem.  Some of this information I will share in our Radio Veritas broadcast version of this newsletter.         

A Season of Creation FAMILY MATTERS programme from some years ago focusing on some of the creatures in the Pilanesberg National Park was recorded on Youtube and can still be viewed on this link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSR089CgxBc&t=382s&pp=0gcJCTIMAYcqIYzv

Many Laudato Si members have been busy this month doing awarenessraising, advocating, demonstrating, tree planting – I promoted spekboom once again – and some of their acts related to the LIVING WATER theme were posted on social media and the www.seasonofcreation.org website  as we were invited to do. 

During most of the year FAMILY MATTERS deals with human families and the whole range of relationships and areas e.g. marriage, parenting, grandparenting and also the spirituality of relationships.  This aspect includes love, hope, trust, acceptance and belief in a Creator, God or someone who transcends earthly life experiences. Would the other living families of creation experience spirituality but to different degrees and different ways?  Modern scientific research into the psychology of other creatures has discovered that plants and animals can and do think and feel, communicate and have relationships.  I recently read a book going way back to my schooldays.  “Uit oerwoud and vlakte” by Afrikaans nature writer about lion families and even a lifelong friendship between a rhino and a hippo who were both orphaned young. These animal creatures were all there before us, living their family lives in some degree of harmony.  Will they survive the wily ways of the late comers, humankind?  The Lion King and such humanized animal stories have existed in all cultures.  But, dare we call that humanized or anthropomorphized or are they true to their own created capabilities giving glory to God? In each of their and in our own ways family life and relationships are the essence of creation in imitation of the Trinity. (See image of my St Francis front garden}.

In Laudato Si, Pope Francis made some astonishing statements, quoting too from scripture.   “The New Testament does not only tell us of the earthly Jesus and his tangible and loving relationship with the world.   It also shows him risen and glorious present through creation by his universal Lordship.  ‘for in him all the fullness of was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Col 1:19-20). At the end of time the Son will deliver all things to the Father, so that ‘God may be everything to everyone.’  (1Cor 15:28)   The creatures of this world no longer appear to us under merely natural guise because the risen One is mysteriously holding them to himself and directing them towards fullness as their end.  The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence.  LS 100.  What can this tell us about how and why All Families Matter?    TR  30 September 2026  

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.

September 30.  CLEANUP-TIME 2026.   (From Becoming Eco-Friendly Families)  https://www.worldcleanupday.org   The website reports that on September 20, 2025, World Cleanup Day, In 2025, 25 million people from 190 countries and territories came together, representing 86% of UN member states, to take action for a cleaner, healthier planet. “This proves that no matter where we live, every small action counts and together we can create massive change. Since 2018, when the campaign started, people in 211 countries have stood up and by raising awareness and cleaning up waste, making it the biggest positive civic action the world had seen.  Over 114 million volunteers registered since the inaugural event in 2018. WCD is a gateway for lasting societal change in attitudes towards waste in general. and raise awareness of the mismanaged waste crisis. Our global network sends a clear message of collective determination to create a waste-free world.

The massive problem of waste.  Each year, humanity generates 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste. Without urgent action, global waste will increase by 70% at current levels by 2050. Additionally, over 3.5 billion people lack access to efficient waste management systems, with much of their waste being incinerated, or ending up in nature, the seas, and the oceans, mainly through river systems.  Earth.org  reports that 60% of an annual 300 million tons of plastic waste end up in landfill or nature, with at least 8 million tons per year entering the oceans.  It is estimated that + 40% of the ocean’s surfaces are covered in plastic debris.

Digital Cleanup Day and its needs.  In the digital world there is also a huge amount of trash. Unnecessary emails, files, apps, duplicates of photos and videos, etc. are all digital waste. This creates digital pollution that continues to consume energy, even when we have forgotten it’s there. Each year the internet (and its supporting systems) produces 900 million tons of CO2, which is more than the annual output of the whole country of Germany!   Digital Cleanup Day results for 2023’s campaign saw over 380,000 participants, from 105 countries and territories, delete 12.7 million GB from their devices, thus preventing the annual production of at least 1,742 tons of CO2.

A major concern with the growing use of AI is the enormous amount of energy consumed in creating and managing AI systems that abound almost everywhere now. Ongoing research and development and the massive servers required use large amounts of energy – often fossil fuel generated – and contribute to CO2.  Hardware and data centres that produce AI also consume large amounts of energy and need water for cooling.  Think driverless cars, search engines info production all save but also cost.    
Reflect, share, act. Scripture:   When the days drew near for Jesus to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.  And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him, but the people would not receive him.  Luke 9:51-56.  Pope Francis: We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world and that doing good is worth it. LS 229   Eco-tip. Clean-up Action: 1. Become aware.  2. clean away waste including digital waste . 3. Change behaviour,  4. Enjoy the cleaner, healthier environment.

DAILY FAMILY PRAYER from Season of Creation 2026.  May God our Father, who brought water from a rock, sustain us in the desert. May Christ our Lord, who is Living Water, refresh us for the work of restoration.  May the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen. St Francis guide and inspire us on our way.