Summer

Summer sun

It's summer time ... the days are getting longer. In fact I've been tracking the muezzin's call to pray before sunrise. Today it was 3.45am, which in solar time is 2.45am. It'll get earlier still until next week when the summer solstice marks the longest day of the year. Then sunrise will gradually become later and we prepare for autumn.

Yesterday was another day of violence ... from local triad societies. In Nazareth, usually quiet and calm, a series of killings the past weeks has been perpetrated. Yesterday one was shot dead and another wounded. In the southern city of Ashkelon, another was shot dead. This culture of violence has to stop ... or the younger generation will have no future.

I'm still in contact with the Sisters of Charity to organize a summer camp for the poorest children in our parish. It's also a break for the mothers who spend the entire day at home cooking and cleaning all through the school year. They too come to the summer camp and enjoy the fun. The camp may be short, but for these poor it's an event to look forward to; a break from routine and the pressures of living in poverty.