Check out the daily list of of Do’s and Don’ts for Lent on https://marfam.org.za/2024/02/14/lent-and-the-family-2024/.

February 19.  Mrs Benadie led some family groups in their sharing.  “Lent is about rights and also responsibilities.  I think that sometimes it seems easier to go and love your neighbour then to make peace with your own family.  The close relationships in a family do make us more vulnerable.  Most of us wouldn’t treat other people the way we treat our own family at times.  Why is there domestic violence, abuse, incest within a family?” She looked around and added, “We have to study that aspect of intimacy. The closer you are, the more you hurt one another. Not so?”    George added another thought. “As we’re also focusing on other families of nature, I am fascinated watching wild life TV programmes where in the so-called mating game, lions fight lions, and elephants other elephants. They might even kill the other.  Is that a law of nature, that we humans should have been able to overcome?”

Reflect, share, Scripture:  You shall not hate your brother in your heart and take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Read Levit 19: 11-18.  Pope Francis: In the story of Cain and Abel we see how envy led Cain to commit the ultimate injustice against his brother, which in turn  ruptured the relationship of Cain and God and between Cain and the earth from which he was banished. LS 70.  St Francis loved every creature God created. His life is a far cry from our situation today where sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse, the abandonment of the most vulnerable and attacks on nature. LS 66  LSAP goal 6 ecological spirituality.  Pray: for peace and tolerance in family relationships everywhere. Choose an appropriate action.