Pope Francis’ document on the family, “The Joy of Loving,” gives many helpful reminders for dealing with the stress and challenges of everyday life. One that is stated very early is, “Where love is concerned, silence is always more eloquent than words.”
In our age of Instagram and Twitter, texting and posting, silence seems to be a rare response. How many people regret the emails that they posted before they took the time to think! In general silence seems to be a rare commodity in today’s world. We are constantly bombarded by noise and media. In response to this, colleges have quiet dorms and trains have quiet cars. Some families keep cell phones off the dinner table.
France bans plastic bags: As of July 1st, most of the 17 billion lightweight plastic bags (12 billion for fruit and vegetables) used annually in France have been banned. An average plastic bag takes one second to make, is used for roughly 20 minutes and takes up to 400 years to degrade naturally. They have also legislation effective in 2020 banning plastic cutlery and cups. There is opposition from the plastic industry and others with a financial stake in this. Other than a small number of municipalities which ban plastic bags, Canada lags far behind in this regard.
I thought it would be of interest to us that Sister Janet Malone’s article “A Spirituality of Aging in Religious Communities” was used at a retreat that my sister Mary (Sr. Mary Gillis, CND) made recently in Japan and that the Jesuit priest who conducted the retreat told her that, the Japanese Jesuits were so impressed with the article they had it translated into Japanese and published in their Theological Digest. There is also interest in getting a copy of her book so I am in the process of facilitating that. So happy to know that Sister Janet’s incredible insight lives on.
