Daily Prayer for Mission Month October, Year of St Francis and upcoming Local Elections in SA.  Heavenly Father, during this Mission month, we praise and thank you for the gift of your love and the riches of your creation. As missionary disciples we answer your call to walk in the way of peace.  We lift up to you all leaders of nations. Grant them an open heart and a listening ear to hear the cries of the poor and the needy. Bless all missionaries, protect them from harm, strengthen their hearts in times of trial, and fill them with the joy of your Spirit. As we prepare for the elections and a renewal of society for the common good we acknowledge our shortcomings and faults. We hear the needs that call for help to build a united country under God, as a family of all the families of creation.  Mary, Mother of the Church and of the Rosary pray for us. St Francis, our model and patron saint of all of creation pray for us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen

October 6. SEE. Discipleship. We do often still speak of the husband being the head of the wife, but increasingly equality is considered the norm.  In Luke’s story of the family of Mary and Martha there appears to be no husband or children. The woman friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha, gave him welcome in different ways: listening to and serving him.  Home life in Jesus’ day was well ordered: Martha possibly was head of the household, a manager providing well. Mary welcomed Jesus as a disciple and follower. We welcome our guests too – as best we can, by giving food as well as by listening, but both are essentially forms of discipleship, especially when done together. .  

JUDGE. Reflect, share. Scripture:  At that time Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listening to his teaching. Luke 10:38-42   Pope Francis:  it is not enough to show generic concern for the family in pastoral planning. Enabling families to take up their role as active agents of the family apostolate calls for an effort at evangelisation and catechesis inside the family. AL 200.  Pope Leo:   MH220.Dialogue is an ordinary part of human life and does not only concern relations between States. It involves acquiring an attitude that seeks to forge bonds of fraternity built on listening, an open demeanor, making time for each other and even wasting time together. For if we experience authentic encounters with others, with those who are different, strangers and migrants, it becomes much more difficult even to imagine war.