Do not exact interest in
advance or accrued interest,
but out of fear of God let your
kindred live with you.
Everyone serves
something. Some serve gain, some serve pleasure, some serve others but the wise
person serves the Lord not out of servile fear but Holy fear; that is out of
love.
Can we say with Joshua
say, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Jos. 24:15) If we
serve the Lord our own house should be open to our own kindred. If everyone did
this would we have any who are homeless? Search your hearts; do you have
kindred who are in need? Sustain them especially widows and orphans; by the way
the divorced are the same as widows and orphans. Real charity is looking after
widows and orphans.
In the summer of 2011, four Air Force officers deployed to
Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During their stay there,
they discovered beautiful hand-crafted artisan scarfs produced by a group of
local women. Over time, it was brought to light that all of these women had
tragically lost their husbands to the Taliban and now had the responsibility of
providing for their families – most of which was through the sales of their
handmade crafts. This fact brought a realization to the four Air Force Officers
that a vehicle of empowerment for the local population did not exist. Thus,
Flying Scarfs was officially founded, and with it, a business means through
which the local Afghani widows could continue to find financial stability.
Today, via their work with Flying Scarfs, these four social
entrepreneurs have reshaped the manner in which many Americans think about
social change. Through a lens of free market capitalism and micro-economic
development, Flying Scarfs is an enterprise dedicated to the
empowerment of the artisans not just in Afghanistan, but around the world. What
was once just a small goal of providing employment for the Afghan widows after
Americans had withdrawn from Afghanistan has now turned into a worldwide
mission to find and aid other individuals in similar situations.
Flying Scarfs is a not-for-profit team of military officers and
volunteers that seek to be an engine of change by building the necessary
bridges so that underdeveloped countries may one day flourish in a global
economy. Our goal is to promote microeconomic development around the
world in order to provide comprehensive networks of stability with a
concentration in providing opportunities for women to succeed.
In short, this means we buy from the “small guys” through localized
economies while promoting peace, both at home and abroad. We intend to
ultimately make a change by providing a "hand up" rather than a
"handout."[1]
What Is Marriage?[2]
Marriage is a lifelong partnership of the whole of life,
of mutual and exclusive fidelity, established by mutual consent between a man
and a woman, and ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation of
offspring. As the Second Vatican Council reminds us, marriage is not a purely
human institution: the intimate partnership of life and the love which
constitutes the married state has been established by the creator and endowed
by him with its own proper laws. . . . For God himself is the author of
marriage. Moreover, God has endowed marriage with certain essential attributes,
without which marriage cannot exist as he intends. The Church has taught through
the ages that marriage is an exclusive relationship between one man and one
woman. This union, once validly entered and consummated, gives rise to a bond
that cannot be dissolved by the will of the spouses. Marriage thus created is a
faithful, privileged sphere of intimacy between the spouses that lasts until
death. Marriage is not merely a private institution, however. It is the
foundation for the family, where children learn the values and virtues that
will make good Christians as well as good citizens. The importance of marriage
for children and for the upbringing of the next generation highlights the
importance of marriage for all society. Conjugal love, the love proper to
marriage, is present in the commitment to the complete and total gift of self
between husband and wife. Conjugal love establishes a unique communion of
persons through the relationship of mutual self-giving and receiving between
husband and wife, a relationship by which ―a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body [flesh]‖(Gn 2:24).The
Second Vatican Council speaks about conjugal love in words of great beauty: The
Lord, wishing to bestow special gifts of grace and divine love on married love,
has restored, perfected, and elevated it. A love like that, bringing together
the human and the divine, leads the partners to a free and mutual self-giving,
experienced in tenderness and action, and permeating their entire lives; this
love is actually developed and increased by its generous exercise in conjugal
love one can see something of how Christ loves his Church (Eph 5:25).
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