Dear Friends
Many greetings - I hope you’re well
The dustbin men and the road sweeper have been already - neither heroes nor martyrs but would we be without them? These days especially they are the absolutely essential guardians of our streets.
In their own way they remind us of one of Pope Francis’ key messages in Laudato Si - that caring for the world of nature is the responsibility of all the children of God; it is a sharing in God’s own work of creation. And a key component of that is, for us in the more affluent north and west of our planet, is the avoidance of waste.
He could not be any clearer: ’The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered by rubbish …. These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affect the excluded just as quickly as it quickly reduces things to rubbish.’
Perhaps, in these days of continued lockdown, we might ponder how we contribute to that waste (60 million tons of food waste each year in the UK alone) and maybe think of simple ways in which we might begin to turn back that tide. And as we do so give thanks to God for the simple beauty around us.
We continue to pray for those who are sick especially
Adela, Winnie, Sylvia, Joe, Susan, Irene, Audrey, Janet and Paddy
And for those who have died especially
Fr Peter, Michael, Roy, Alf, Malcolm, Elsie, Matthew, Anne, Stella, Chris, Kenneth, Carol Ann, Ingeburg, Winnie, Patricia, Eileen, Maureen, Joan, Frank, Robert, Lynda, Cecilia, Lourdes, Dale, John, Eileen, Michael, Graham, Maria, Andrew, Gladys, Ellen, Patrick, Pauline, Michael, Alice, Gordon, Mary William, Lynn, Elsie and Richard
St Joseph, pray for us
Every blessing
Fr John