January 5. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Ephraim noted, “With all the violence around us these days it isn’t only children who are afraid.  Parents don’t let kids, especially girls, go out alone, or at night. We men, ourselves, are also fearful. When I watched an incident of road rage that seemed almost irrational, I thought that it somehow had to do with fear and mistrust too. The suspicious way we react to one another, especially to strangers or foreigners, also speaks of fear. Is it really possible to love others as God would like us to?” The group agreed, “We could at least try to be more trusting and open to others.”  Becoming an eco-friendly family:  Consider how to respond to Laudato Si goal 4 : Adopting sustainable lifestyles. go to http://www.laudatosiactionplatform.org

God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.  In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and he who fears is not perfected in love. 1 John 4:11-18.  Pope Francis. We encounter the temptation to build a culture of walls, to raise walls, walls in the heart, walls on the land, in order to prevent this encounter with other cultures, with other people.   Those who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built. They are left without horizons, for they lack this interchange with others. FT 27