September 14. Triumph of the Cross.  Everybody has got his own favourite “love is……’ saying.  Melody asked them all to sit together and share their own.  Eventually they came to the conclusion that maybe our concept of love can be too sentimental.  Reflecting too on this feast of the Triumph of the Cross the pains and joys of love made their thoughts more comprehensive and real.  “We learned a lot about love and care and responsibility too during the covid-19 pandemic.” Pauline reflected.  “It also made me think of the poor little scaly pangolins that somehow got blamed for causing the start of the pandemic. They are the most trafficked of all the animals on earth, even here in South Africa they are captured and sold. Surely they need love and protection as much as the poor in general and all the human family.”

Scripture: If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burnt but have not love I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Cor 13. Pope Francis: As part of the universe called into being by one Father, all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family. God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement. LS89 

ECO-TIP AND PRAYER:  On social media start an ecological renewal campaign with the slogan “Love is ……………………     Pray for an increase in love as the basis for change. Pray, Glory be to the Father.