MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 27 AUGUST 2025
It is nearly the end of August, which has been SA Women’s month. We have reflected on women, mothers and also MARFAM’s focus on Sexuality as a Family Gift. Today’s feastday of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine, whose feastday we celebrate on 28 August is an important commemoration too, as she like almost every mother had her work cut out with a highly talented son, almost a delinquent in his early years, before his conversion to become one of the Church’s greatest saints. All in all, this month, I have consciously kept a family aspect in mind as well as the social, relational perspective and the psycho-spiritual aspect of sexuality as a gift from God for ongoing creation.
Now, at the end of August and looking forward to the Season of Creation I use this psycho-spiritual and sexual focus when considering the environment with MARFAM’s September theme THE WORLD OF FAMILIES.
We are blessed with the annual Season of Creation as an ecumenical and spiritual initiative of more than 30 years, to which Pope Francis made a Catholic contribution of the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation on September 1. Pope Leo has now added a special Mass for Creation that can be celebrated at any time. Prayer and an awareness of creation are important aspects of ecology and are not often enough brought into secular ecological discussions, but vice versa too. In our spiritual lives do we keep all the families of creation in mind?
I’m not a very avid devourer of daily news but it appears that climate change and disasters are only reported as news from a secular perspective and when there is a disaster. The SA National Dialogue which is starting to get underway does not appear to have put the ecological crisis and environmental justice high on the agenda. The disasters e.g. fires, floods, heatwaves, droughts and famines do involve people as well as animals and plants, i.e. the other families of creation and their lives and deaths. Today my focus is on the lives, how life starts in the process of reproduction.
My article in reflecting on a particular aspect of “The Trials of Life” illustrates my developing interest in creation, its theology and an ecological spirituality about family life and for families. In the words of Attenborough, “People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.” Families should incorporate a spirituality which calls them to “missionary” action, to join in the battle for survival, not of the fittest, but of God’s world as we have still known it in our era.
This newsletter is used in FAMILY MATTERS, the weekly programme I present on Radio Veritas and this week’s programme will include a recording of an article called. CO-CREATION WITH THE CREATOR, THE WONDERS OF REPRODUCTION IN NATURE. The recording will be posted for downloading https://marfam.org.za/laudato-si/ but the full article is available in text format. I created the article from studying The Trials of Life: A Natural History of Behaviour, a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough. Now at 99, he is not only a British national treasure as proclaimed by the BBC, but in my view, due to his study, insights and presentations of an enormous and very detailed and exquisitely filmed account of life on earth, and in addition his efforts to fight against the loss of biodiversity, he can only be regarded as an international and intergenerational treasure. His earlier work focused more on the wonders of the natural word, but his later work also clearly shows his concern about the ravages of man-made climate change on the natural world.
The article is about behaviour, i.e. the social psychology of other species and primarily around the one particular aspect; evolution, sexuality and reproduction. Only a few examples from the book are outlined here on the sexual reproduction of some creatures, of the sea, birds, mammals and plants too. However I do recommend downloading my full article from the website, and of course the Attenborough document with its visuals and colourful explanations as well as the BBC series. Great food for reflection, discussion and naturally sexuality education.
The Trials of Life are described in terms of behaviour at different stages of life ARRIVING, GROWING UP, FINDING FOOD, HUNTING AND ESCAPING, FINDING THE WAY, HOME-MAKING, LIVING TOGETHER, FIGHTING, FRIENDS AND RIVALS. TALKING TO STRANGERS. COURTING. CONTINUING THE LINE. The topics of arriving, courting and continuing the line are most relevant here.
The development of animal life on earth occurred from 3 billion years ago until the present time. The reproduction at first was unicellular. The method still practiced today, of male sperm and female egg evolved billions of years later.
ARRIVING. In many cases the arrival of new offspring is largely dependent on seasons and prevailing environmental conditions. Some animals arrive in the world, tiny, undeveloped and with a million siblings. Others do so as singles, and may be large and well-formed. Both can be equally successful. Sperm and egg are the male and female cells but the actual fertilization happens in a variety of ways and places, within or outside of the female body.
Take example of sea creatures including fish. They produce vast quantities of sperm and eggs. Spring, sea water temperature and the moon which determines tides facilitate the whole process, of release of vast quantities of sperm and eggs into the water where they meet and fertilization occurs. Crabs, clams and turtles behave in similar ways. Many millions of crabs, living on land, migrate to the ocean at the instinctively experienced time.
Many female birds, frogs, snakes and insects lay eggs. Some are fertilized before and some after being laid. Insects lay eggs on and under leaves of the plants which are also their food, for the parents and their infants. Keeping the egg/s warm is a parental task, that requires both parents to be on hand with one brooding on the nest while the other gathers food. Cuckoos cheekily invade and use others’ nests.
Some unusual creatures are snails that have both male and female organs and can self-fertilise, or some worms that can reproduce from just a portion of their body.
Behaviourally mammals are the best known as we humans belong to that species too. However, the process of courting and mating can vary vastly, with fighting over a potential mate, falling in love of having arranged relationships. There may be single or multiple encounters or single and multiple births. Offspring need to be cared for in order for the species to survive. That after all is God’s gift of pro-creation, bestowing the gift of the purpose of sexuality, and including his creatures in the ongoing reproduction and continuance of all of creation.
Pope Francis in Laudato Si frequently wrote that everything is connected, physically, but spiritually and behaviourally too, Without the spirituality and creation focus there is little social acceptance of responsibility and accountability for the harm done to all the areas of creation. We humans are the only creatures that should take responsibility as animals and plants do not cause the kind of harm that we do by burning fossil fuel, pollution and wastage of resources. Nature itself has a natural circular and sustainable economy so that waste becomes reused elsewhere. LS140.
How well do we humans creatures at the developmental epitome of creation, manage our part of the bargain? TR 27 August 2025
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
August 27. St Monica. Mrs Buthe shared her perceptions and experience of the last month. She added, “it is also quite interesting that this is the feastday of St Monica. She was a Christian, a wife and mother. Her pagan husband converted to Christianity and she prayed constantly for her son Augustine. . After an early life of loose living he eventually converted, became a teacher, a bishop and is considered one of our greatest saints, a doctor of the Church. I’m sure he did come to understand too that our sexuality and spirituality are gifts from God, beautiful and to be cherished. Too often this is spoilt and attacked by negative influences and images. I love art and for me the arts are meant to edify and raise our spirits to wonder at God’s greatness. Pornography today is a perversion of art, sadly too accessible to anyone, also too early in life and too commonly used even as escapism from real relationships.”
Scripture: A good wife is a great blessing. She will be counted among the blessings of the man who fears the Lord. Sirach 26:1-4 O Lord you search me and know me. From Psalm139. Pope Francis: The word patience refers to the quality of one who does not act on impulse and avoids giving offense. In the Old Testament we read that God is slow to anger. The God of the Covenant calls us to imitate him also within the life of the family. AL 91 The Synod Fathers expressed concern about the current spread of pornography and the commercialisation of the body, fostered also by a misuse of the internet. AL 41. JUBILEE. In our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now. We no longer have time simply to be with others; even families find it hard to get together and enjoy one another’s company. Patience has been put to flight by frenetic haste, and this has proved detrimental, since it leads to impatience, anxiety and even gratuitous violence, resulting in more unhappiness and self-centredness. SNC 4. Act and pray. For the needs of families of all kinds to grow in love and acceptance.
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