MARFAM WEEKLY ENEWSLETTER 6 AUGUST 2025

Allow me to share a treasured memory of special significance for this day. Nearly 20 years ago in the days when we, Chris and I, were part of a team preparing for the introduction of the Retrouvaille programme here in South Africa we took our US trainer visitors to Kwa Maritane, a bush lodge in the Pilanesberg for the day. All fired up we were with this new initiative for helping troubled marriages. While we were having a meal, having spent a short time visiting the game park, I distinctly remember sharing my feelings and thoughts, “Lord it is good for us to be here.” That is a long time ago now, and Retrouvaille has got well off the ground and will be starting a new programme for couples this coming weekend.

From time to time I continue to visit this special place but with a rather different focus now, on God’s creation, and in particular Becoming Eco-Friendly Families. Today it is that special feastday of the Transfiguration. Can I still repeat those words, “Lord it is good for us to be here?” Can any of us, men, women, children pray that prayer?

it is Women’s Month too in South Africa and Saturday 9th is Women’s Day. How often do we celebrate the gift and the joy of womanhood, as women ourselves, but with our loved ones, spouses, children and others? A related special memory I like to share is of Pope John Paul II and his letter to Women in 1995. It can be downloaded in full from http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_29061995_women.html. I share an extract and shortened version which is being used as part of the THOUGHT FOR THE DAY on 9 August.

Thank you, women who are wives! You irrevocably join your future to that of your husbands, in a relationship of mutual giving, at the service of love and life.

Thank you, women who are daughters and women who are sisters! Into the heart of the family, and then of all society, you bring the richness of your sensitivity, your intuitiveness, your generosity and fidelity.

Thank you, women who work! You are present and active in every area of life-social, economic, cultural, artistic and political. In this way you make an indispensable contribution to the growth of a culture which unites reason and feeling, to a model of life ever open to the sense of “mystery”, to the establishment of economic and political structures ever more worthy of humanity.

Thank you, consecrated women! Following the example of the greatest of women, the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, you open yourselves with obedience and fidelity to the gift of God’s love. You help the Church and all mankind to experience a “spousal” relationship to God, one which magnificently expresses the fellowship which God wishes to establish with his creatures.

Thank you, every woman, for the simple fact of being a woman! Through the insight which is so much a part of your womanhood you enrich the world’s understanding and help to make human relations more honest and authentic. JPII

Nowadays with my eco-family friendly focus spending time in nature has its special moments of goodness and presence. All God’s creatures not only human, but plants and animals too have been granted God’s special gift of reproduction, as male and female carrying the gift and task of pro-creation. I’m seeing and hearing about the animal mothers in creation bearing and caring for their babies. Sometimes the dads are very present, at other times or only partly so. Who can argue over the fact that in the ideal family, of any kind, all those present should be able to pray “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” And the fact that women certainly play the greatest role in making it so. May God grant a special thank you blessing to all women at this time. TR

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Thank you, women who are mothers! You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail. This experience makes you become God’s own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child’s first steps, who helps it to grow, and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life.                              

August 6.  Transfiguration. Rayhab liked to approach the subject in a positive way.   “Some gender topics are challenging from a negative point of view; we are well aware of oppression, exploitation and abuse and violence,  but there is also a positive challenge, for good gender relationships.   These don’t happen naturally and need a lot of hard work.” Tracy, one member of the family team shared, “today’s feastday, the Transfiguration, has been one of my favourites for a long time.  The three apostles chosen by Jesus to witness his transfigured self were overcome with wonder and exclaimed. ‘Lord it is good for us to be here.’  That is my hope and dream for all our gender relationships.” 

Scripture:   Jesus was transfigured before them and his face shone like the un and his garments became white as light. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord it is well that we are here.”  Read Matt 17:1b-9.  Pope Francis.  The joy of Love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church.   For all the signs of crisis in the institution of marriage, the desire to marry and form a family remains vibrant, especially among young people and this is an inspiration to the Church.  AL1.  JUBILEE. For the desire of young people to give birth to new sons and daughters as a sign of the fruitfulness of their love ensures a future for every society. This is a matter of hope: it is born of hope and it generates hope.  SNC 9  Act and pray. For the needs of families of all kinds to grow in love and acceptance.