January 7. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying,”I will heal you; be clean.”George asked, “Could we see HIV/AIDS as the “leprosy” of our time?   Even after more than 25 years there is still a degree of stigma attached, although not as much as before. In some parts of Africa ebola has been a very serious concern because of its high fatality rate. In the last two years the whole world is being plagued with recurring waves of COVID-19 which have also caused severe illness, and nearly 6 million deaths, as well as tremendous anxiety and fear.” Jack commented, “It seems to me though that, of course, people pray, a lot, but is there real trust in God’s healing power?” “Our faith in the medical profession nowadays is probably uppermost.”    Becoming an eco-friendly family:  Reflect on Laudato Si goal 6. Ecological spirituality. go to http://www.laudatosiactionplatform.org

A man full of leprosy came to Jesus and begged him, “Lord if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I will, be clean.”  Luke: 5:12-16. Pope Francis. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic on 27 March 2020 Pope Francis delivered the Urbi and Orbi prayer (To the City and To the World). He likened the pandemic to a storm laying bare illusions that people can be self-sufficient, and instead finds “all of us fragile and disoriented” and needing each other’s help and comfort. Before the pandemic people were rushing through life, greedy for profit, undisturbed by wars and injustices and not hearing the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. “We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.  Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts,” he prayed. “Save us, O Lord, from illness, epidemics and fear of one’s brother.”

Helping the world carry on during the pandemic are those who Francis called the “ordinary people, often forgotten, who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines or in fashion shows. But these ordinary people “without any doubt are in these very days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law-and-order forces, volunteers” as well as priests, nuns and others,” the pontiff said.