MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER. LAUDATO SI WEEK Wednesday, 28th May 2025.

Almost at the end of his encyclical LAUDATO SI  Pope Francis included just a few words that touched a chord in me. “Let sing as we go.” And he adds, “May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.”

During this Laudato si week,, https://laudatosiweek.org/which is also still in the very early days of Pope Leo XIV the Augustinian pope, it is interesting to add some quotes and reflections from Pope Francis, St Francis and St Augustine to our own reflections. One particularly appropriate for our MARFAM FAMILIES IN SONG whatsapp group  is “they who sing pray twice.”   That doesn’t mean that it cuts the prayer time in half but in fact it beautifies and enriches our prayer time x 2, because extra senses and elements are added through which we can experience and express our praise and love of God.  

So during this week I have taken some time to explore relevant music and especially hymns or songs to be sung along with, or at least hummed to, and not just listened to, because the actual experience of raising up our voices is different to just listening.  There is masses of liturgical music that has been composed over many centuries, not just Masses or course.   It is interesting that Pope Leo likes to sing plain chant and in the recent liturgical services from the time of Pope Francis’ death until today, very often the well-known plain chant Missa de Angelis was used.  Also intriguing is that the Vatican’s choir school is offering singing lessons in the use of plain chant.  Much has been composed on the topic of creation and nature. Some is only for listening or for big performances, e.g. Hayden’s Creation,  Vaughan Williams’ The Sea Symphony.   My objective in my musical selection here is to provide an opportunity for singing for us the common folk, so you won’t find fancy arias, but well-known hymns and their singable melodies.  With the help of YouTube.    

This FAMILY MATTERS  programme today then, singing about creation and nature,  mostly uses hymns, some of which are very well-known,  some lesser well-known by regular congregations. As a matter of interest this MARFAM group, also interdenominational, started as a project during Covid with a number of choir members who were missing their opportunity to praise God in this way while parishes were on lock down.  Other people have joined in, some have left, and let’s hope they may choose to return, while enthusiastic hymn singing newcomers are welcome.  

So along with Pope Francis who invites us to sing, and Pope Leo, a singer himself, we also note some other words from Saint Augustine, “Thou hast created us for Thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”  And “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”    In between the music and the hymns there are some special words – prayers for our earth,  a prayer about God-love and parental love. This month of May had as its family theme “Parents form families” and the June theme coming up in a few days is “Children belong in families.”    Laudato si’ week has as its theme “Raising hope”  while the 1st week of June is commemorated as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.”  All these themes form part of our musical journey, also a pilgrim journey of hope with families as signs of hope.

Pope Francis so often wrote, “everything is connected.”  And adds “The world is a web of relationships. Creatures tend towards God and in turn it is proper to every living being to tend towards other things, so that throughout the universe we find any number of constant and secretly interwoven relationships. The human person grow 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 creatures. LS 240.

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY. Nature as God’s art.

Laudato Si’ 221. God created the world, writing into it an order and dynamism that human beings have no right to ignore. We read in the Gospel that Jesus says of the birds of the air, that not one of them is forgotten before God. How can we possibly mistreat them or cause them harm? I ask all Christians to recognize and to live fully this dimension of their conversion. In this way we will help to nurture that sublime fraternity with all creation which Saint Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied. The Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities and therefore from the very heart of things, something new can always emerge. Nature is nothing other than a certain kind of art, namely God’s art (LS 80).

Scripture:  The God who made the world and everything in it, does not live in shrines made by man, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.  Acts 17:15, 22-18:1; Jn 16: 12-15

JUBILEE. If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry.  SNC16

Action:  Discover St Francis of Assisi and his way of life.  

Reflection

All creation is invited to become increasingly aware of our orientation towards what is beyond ourselves. Our Christian tradition emphasizes prayer in every situation and for whatever we need.  Paul, standing in the middle of the Aeropagus says; “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the object of your worship, I found an inscription, ‘To an unknown god.” In his preaching Paul used the basis of what is already there, and declared, in the Spirit of truth, the unknown to be now known in Jesus Christ. It is this God who “made from one every nation of men to live on the all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in hope that they might seek after him and find him.” It is in the forgotten dignity of the human family that we need to re-inculcate the values of moral living and behavior. It is in the family that we can recognize and treat each member with respect and dignity. In the Spirit of St. Francis, let us return to humility and long to be the least of the brethren while acknowledging that all of nature is “God’s works of art.”

Prayer for Families and Ecological Life 

Lord God, who searches every human heart, your will is that we should be a family in creation. Lead us with your Spirit to recognize and respect the dignity of each human child and all the young of creation begotten by your Word. May we learn to always embrace the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and Mary, Mother of Jesus, and in humility surrender in all things to your will. Let us, as families, rooted in faith and love. be seeds of hope, and signs of hope and first fruits in the world, Amen.