September 6.    ECO-TIP AND PRAYER: Check out some stories on how animals care for others. What can I learn about caring?  Adopt some creature that is vulnerable and create awareness of its needs. Pray, Glory be …………       Whether about marriage or family life in any setting, the groups discussed the importance of growth to maturity.  Paul asked, “Is animal behaviour necessarily at a lower evolutionary level than human behaviour? In many of our animal stories and films the animals are given human characteristics of friendship, love, faithfulness and care for one another.  Certainly elephants live in extended families with a matriarch and older daughters caring for young.  At times care happens even beyond their own species, like in stories of a dog adopting a baby squirrel or a chimpanzee mothering a kitten.  Current scientific research is examining “altruism” even in plants, and sharing, as well as aggression, in particular fighting over possible mates.”   Ann replied, “Surely humans have more advanced psychological and spiritual thinking and  behaviour which should make us more accountable for our actions. But are we?  We are the ones who often act selfishly and have caused so much harm to the environment. I think that there are times and skills that we can learn from other creatures, but ultimately we humans should have superior wisdom.  

Brethren:   Christ we proclaim, warning every one and teaching every person in all wisdom, that we may present everyone  mature in Christ. For this I toil. Colossians 1:24-2:3. Pope Francis: Human beings even if we postulate a process of evolution also possess a uniqueness which cannot be fully explained by the evolution of other open systems.   The sheer novelty involved in the emergence of a personal being within a material universe presupposes a direct action of God and a particular call to life and to relationship on the part of a “Thou” who addresses himself to another “thou.” LS 81. All creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival which is God. Human beings, endowed with intelligence and love, and drawn by the fulness of Christ, are called to lead all creatures back to their Creator.  LS83.