"It's hard to pin down what it was that made me stop… but it would have played on my mind if I hadn't," he said.

"That's not how you live your life is it? You don't just walk past when you see someone in need."

On that January morning in London's rush hour, hundreds of other people were doing exactly that. But Laybourn didn't and - it turned out the man, Jonny Benjamin, was contemplating suicide.

Six years later he would launch a campaign to find and thank Laybourn for persuading him down off that ledge.

The two of them now give talks on mental health issues and suicide prevention together.

Looking back now on that day, Laybourn says: "It's made me much more aware of how important it is to put the amount of kindness you have in you, out into the world."

But what is it, exactly, that makes us kind? Why are some of us kinder than others - and what stops us from being kinder?

The Kindness Test, a major new study involving more than 60,000 people from 144 different countries, has been looking into these and other questions.

Launched on BBC Radio 4 and devised by the University of Sussex, it is believed to be the largest public study of kindness ever carried out in the world.

The results, which are currently the subject of a three-part Radio 4 documentary The Anatomy of Kindness, suggest that people who receive, give or even just notice more acts of kindness tend to experience higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction.

Other encouraging findings are that as many as two-thirds of people think the pandemic has made people kinder and nearly 60% of participants in the study claimed to have received an act of kindness in the previous 24 hours.

"It is a big part of human nature, to be kind - because it's such a big part of how we connect with people and how we have relationships," says Claudia Hammond, visiting professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Sussex and presenter of the documentary.

"It's a win-win situation because we like receiving kindness, but we also like being kind."

Our desire to be kind is actually quite selfish, on one level, she explains.

Because we have evolved to have empathy, we have all sorts of "ulterior motives" for being kind - the chief one being that it makes us feel good.

"We know from brain research, there is a warm fuzzy feeling that people feel straight away. But also, it gives you the sense that you are a kind person who cares about other people. And we want to be good, we want to feel good about ourselves and what we are like."

Your religious beliefs and your values system also help to determine how kind you are, the study shows.

"We found those who believed benevolence was important were more likely to give than those who believed power and achievement were more important."

People who have been told they should be kind are naturally more likely to notice opportunities to be kind:

"They have expectations, which might be the expectations of their religious teachings or it might be the expectations of those around them," Hammond says. Continue reading

We didn't know how to react.

Understanding this, our leaders knew they needed to give daily broadcasts.

Those updates held us together. We tuned in each day to Covid news that finished with a personal message, the words ‘Be kind.'

A direction to kindness! That was so powerful!

It was also new, not the sort of instruction that came from political leaders.

But we recognised it as something that belonged in this country. Generally, kindness is the way we respond to need. It is the way Aroha works in our island country.

How can we describe the effect of kindness? Let us reflect on that.

Kindness is active. It moves us from concern with self to concern for others. In lockdown, it created connection in separation.

Kindness is transformative. It changes the way society works by letting go of judgemental thinking. Us and them become simply us.

Kindness is a two-way gift. It benefits the giver as it does the receiver. An act of loving-kindness brings the feeling that this is how life should be lived.

Kindness is healing. In some way, it lubricates the dry parts of our lives. It is a balm to chafed areas of consciousness, and it mends all those little wounds caused by anxiety and distrust. This works for both giver and receiver.

I am not a fan of atonement theology that focuses on sin and guilt. The writers of the gospels were still entrenched in Mosaic laws, but Jesus' was, above all, a healer. He showed a new way to wholeness.

He was the Way, the Truth and the life.

He demonstrated the way of loving-kindness, the truth of loving-kindness, and his life was lived in loving kindness.

In that life of giving, the Word made Flesh did not recognise a hierarchical society. All people were equal.

When he talked about giving, he said, "Inasmuch as you do it to the least of these, my children, you do it unto me."

I remembered those words during Lockdown because that seemed to be the way our little country was operating.

I want that to continue, that feeling of togetherness that reminds us we are all waves on the ocean of God.

There are times when we need to give money to worthy causes. There are also times when we need to stand up in support of someone who has been wronged

But if these actions don't come from loving kindness, they are, as St Paul says, "The sounding of brass."

I'm trying to remember that.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

The document focuses on fraternity and social friendship as the ways to build a better, more just and peaceful world - with the contribution of all: people and institutions.

The official summary follows, with a link to download the full document at the end.

What are the great ideals but also the tangible ways to advance for those who wish to build a more just and fraternal world in their ordinary relationships, in social life, politics and institutions?

This is mainly the question that Fratelli tutti is intended to answer: the Pope describes it as a "Social Encyclical" which borrows the title of the "Admonitions" of Saint Francis of Assisi, who used these words to "address his brothers and sisters and proposed to them a way of life marked by the flavour of the Gospel" (1).

The Poverello "did not wage a war of words aimed at imposing doctrines; he simply spread the love of God", the Pope writes, and "he became a father to all and inspired the vision of a fraternal society" (2-4).

The Encyclical aims to promote a universal aspiration toward fraternity and social friendship. Beginning with our common membership in the human family, from the acknowledgement that we are brothers and sisters because we are the children of one Creator, all in the same boat, and hence we need to be aware that in a globalized and interconnected world, only together can we be saved.

Human Fraternity

Fraternity is to be encouraged not only in words, but in deeds.

Deeds made tangible in a "better kind of politics", which is not subordinated to financial interests, but to serving the common good, able to place the dignity of every human being at the centre and assure work to everyone, so that each one can develop his or her own abilities.

A politics which, removed from populism, is able to find solutions to what attacks fundamental human rights and which aims to definitively eliminate hunger and trafficking.

At the same time, Pope Francis underscores that a more just world is achieved by promoting peace, which is not merely the absence of war; it demands "craftsmanship", a job that involves everyone.

Linked to truth, peace and reconciliation must be "proactive"; they must work toward justice through dialogue, in the name of mutual development.

This begets the Pontiff's condemnation of war, the "negation of all rights" and is no longer conceivable even in a hypothetically "justified" form, because nuclear, chemical and biological weapons already have enormous repercussions on innocent civilians.

There is also a strong rejection of the death penalty, defined as "inadmissible", and a central reflection on forgiveness, connected to the concepts of remembrance and justice: to forgive does not mean to forget, the Pontiff writes, nor to give up defending one's rights to safeguard one's dignity, which is a gift from God.

In the background of the Encyclical is the Covid-19 pandemic which, Francis reveals, "unexpectedly erupted" as he "was writing this letter". But the global health emergency has helped demonstrate that "no one can face life in isolation" and that the time has truly come to "dream, then, as a single human family" in which we are "brothers and sisters all" (7-8).

Global problems, global actions

Opening with a brief introduction and divided into eight chapters, the Encyclical gathers - as the Pope himself explains - many of his statements on fraternity and social friendship, arranged, however, "in a broader context of reflection" and complemented by "a number of letters, documents" sent to Francis by "many individuals and groups throughout the world" (5).

In the first chapter, "Dark clouds over a closed world", the document reflects on the many distortions of the contemporary era: the manipulation and deformation of concepts such as democracy, freedom, justice; the loss of the meaning of the social community and history; selfishness and indifference toward the common good; the prevalence of a market logic based on profit and the culture of waste; unemployment, racism, poverty; the disparity of rights and its aberrations such as slavery, trafficking, women subjugated and then forced to abort, organ trafficking (10-24).

It deals with global problems that call for global actions, emphasizes the Pope, also sounding the alarm against a "culture of walls" that favours the proliferation of organized crime, fuelled by fear and loneliness (27-28).

Moreover, today we observe a deterioration of ethics (29), contributed to, in a certain way, by the mass media which shatter respect for others and eliminate all discretion, creating isolated and self-referential virtual circles, in which freedom is an illusion and dialogue is not constructive (42-50).

Love builds bridges: the Good Samaritan

To many shadows, however, the Encyclical responds with a luminous example, a herald of hope: the Good Samaritan.

The second chapter, "A stranger on the road", is dedicated to this figure.

In it, the Pope emphasizes that, in an unhealthy society that turns its back on suffering and that is "illiterate" in caring for the frail and vulnerable (64-65), we are all called - just like the Good Samaritan - to become neighbours to others (81), overcoming prejudices, personal interests, historic and cultural barriers.

We all, in fact, are co-responsible in creating a society that is able to include, integrate and lift up those who have fallen or are suffering (77).

Love builds bridges and "we were made for love" (88), the Pope adds, particularly exhorting Christians to recognize Christ in the face of every excluded person (85).

The principle of the capacity to love according to "a universal dimension" (83) is also resumed in the third chapter, "Envisaging and engendering an open world".

In this chapter Francis exhorts us to go "'outside' the self" in order to find "a fuller existence in another" (88), opening ourselves up to the other according to the dynamism of charity which makes us tend toward "universal fulfilment" (95).

In the background - the Encyclical recalls - the spiritual stature of a person's life is measured by love, which always "takes first place" and leads us to seek better for the life of the other, far from all selfishness (92-93).

Rights have no borders

A fraternal society, therefore, will be one that promotes educating in dialogue in order to defeat the "virus" of "radical individualism" (105) and to allow everyone to give the best of themselves.

Beginning with protection of the family and respect for its "primary and vital mission of education" (114).

There are two 'tools' in particular to achieve this type of society: benevolence, or truly wanting good for the other (112), and solidarity which cares for fragility and is expressed in service to people and not to ideologies, fighting against poverty and inequality (115).

The right to live with dignity cannot be denied to anyone, the Pope again affirms, and since rights have no borders, no one can remain excluded, regardless of where they are born (121).

In this perspective the Pontiff also calls us to consider "an ethics of international relations" (126), because every country also belongs to foreigners and the goods of the territory cannot be denied to those who are in need and come from another place.

Thus, the natural right to private property will be secondary to the principal of the universal destination of created goods (120).

The Encyclical also places specific emphasis on the issue of foreign debt: subject to the principle that it must be paid, it is hoped nonetheless that this does not compromise the growth and subsistence of the poorest countries (126).

Migrants: global governance for long-term planning

Meanwhile, part of the second and the entire fourth chapter are dedicated to the theme of migration, the latter, entitled "A heart open to the whole world".

With their lives "at stake" (37), fleeing from war, persecution, natural catastrophes, unscrupulous trafficking, ripped from their communities of origin, migrants are to be welcomed, protected, supported and integrated.

Unnecessary migration needs to be avoided, the Pontiff affirms, by creating concrete opportunities to live with dignity in the countries of origin. But at the same time, we need to respect the right to seek a better life elsewhere.

In receiving countries, the right balance will be between the protection of citizens' rights and the guarantee of welcome and assistance for migrants (38-40).

Specifically, the Pope points to several "indispensable steps, especially in response to those who are fleeing grave humanitarian crises": to increase and simplify the granting of visas; to open humanitarian corridors; to assure lodging, security and essential services; to offer opportunities for employment and training; to favour family reunification; to protect minors; to guarantee religious freedom and promote social inclusion.

The Pope also calls for establishing in society the concept of "full citizenship", and to reject the discriminatory use of the term "minorities" (129-131).

What is needed above all - the document reads - is global governance, an international collaboration for migration which implements long-term planning, going beyond single emergencies (132), on behalf of the supportive development of all peoples based on the principle of gratuitousness.

In this way, countries will be able to think as "human family" (139-141).

Others who are different from us are a gift and an enrichment for all, Francis writes, because differences represent an opportunity for growth (133-135).

A healthy culture is a welcoming culture that is able to open up to others, without renouncing itself, offering them something authentic. As in a polyhedron - an image dear to the Pontiff - the whole is more than its single parts, but the value of each one of them is respected (145-146).

Politics: valuable form of charity

The theme of the fifth chapter is "A better kind of politics", which represents one of the most valuable forms of charity because it is placed at the service of the common good (180) and recognizes the importance of people, understood as an open category, available for discussion and dialogue (160).

In a certain sense, this is the populism indicated by Francis, which counters that "populism" which ignores the legitimacy of the notion of "people", by attracting consensuses in order to exploit them for its own service and fomenting selfishness in order to increase its own popularity (159).

But a better politics is also one that protects work, an "essential dimension of social life", and seeks to ensure everyone the opportunity to develop their own abilities (162).

The best help to a poor person, the Pontiff explains, is not just money, which is a provisional remedy, but rather allowing him or her to have a dignified life through work.

The true anti-poverty strategy does not simply aim to contain or render indigents inoffensive, but to promote them in the perspective of solidarity and subsidiarity (187).

The task of politics, moreover, is to find a solution to all that attacks fundamental human rights, such as social exclusion; the marketing of organs, tissues, weapons and drugs; sexual exploitation; slave labour; terrorism and organized crime.

The Pope makes an emphatic appeal to definitively eliminate human trafficking, a "source of shame for humanity", and hunger, which is "criminal" because food is "an inalienable right" (188-189).

The marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem. It requires a reform of the UN

The politics we need, Francis also underscores, is one that says 'no' to corruption, to inefficiency, to the malign use of power, to the lack of respect for laws (177).

It is a politics centred on human dignity and not subjected to finance because "the marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem": the "havoc" wreaked by financial speculation has demonstrated this (168).

Hence, popular movements have taken on particular relevance: as true "social poets" with that "torrent of moral energy", they must be engaged in social, political and economic participation, subject, however, to greater coordination.

In this way - the Pope states - it will be possible to go beyond a Policy "with" and "of" the poor (169).

Another hope present in the Encyclical regards the reform of the UN: in the face of the predominance of the economic dimension which nullifies the power of the individual state, in fact, the task of the United Nations will be to give substance to the concept of a "family of nations" working for the common good, the eradication of indigence and the protection of human rights.

Tireless recourse "to negotiation, mediation and arbitration" - the Papal Document states - the UN must promote the force of law rather than the law of force, by favouring multilateral accords that better protect even the weakest states (173-175).

The miracle of kindness

From the sixth chapter, "Dialogue and friendship in society", further emerges the concept of life as the "art of encounter" with everyone, even with the world's peripheries and with original peoples, because "each of us can learn something from others.

No one is useless and no one is expendable" (215).

True dialogue, indeed, is what allows one to respect the point of view of others, their legitimate interests and, above all, the truth of human dignity.

Relativism is not a solution - we read in the Encyclical - because without universal principals and moral norms that prohibit intrinsic evil, laws become merely arbitrary impositions (206).

From this perspective, a particular role falls to the media which, without exploiting human weaknesses or drawing out the worst in us, must be directed toward generous encounter and to closeness with the least, promoting proximity and the sense of human family (205).

Then, of particular note, is the Pope's reference to the miracle of "kindness", an attitude to be recovered because it is a star "shining in the midst of darkness" and "frees us from the cruelty … the anxiety … the frantic flurry of activity" that prevail in the contemporary era.

A kind person, writes Francis, creates a healthy coexistence and opens paths in places where exasperation burns bridges (222-224).

The art of peace and the importance of forgiveness

The value and promotion of peace is reflected on in the seventh chapter, "Paths of renewed encounter", in which the Pope underlines that peace is connected to truth, justice and mercy.

Far from the desire for vengeance, it is "proactive" and aims at forming a society based on service to others and on the pursuit of reconciliation and mutual development (227-229).

In a society, everyone must feel "at home", the Pope writes.

Thus, peace is an "art" that involves and regards everyone and in which each one must do his or her part. Peace-building is "an open-ended endeavour, a never-ending task", the Pope continues, and thus it is important to place the human person, his or her dignity and the common good at the centre of all activity (230-232).

Forgiveness is linked to peace: we must love everyone, without exception - the Encyclical reads - but loving an oppressor means helping him to change and not allowing him to continue oppressing his neighbour.

On the contrary: one who suffers an injustice must vigorously defend his rights in order to safeguard his dignity, a gift of God (241-242).

Forgiveness does not mean impunity, but rather, justice and remembrance, because to forgive does not mean to forget, but to renounce the destructive power of evil and the desire for revenge.

Never forget "horrors" like the Shoah, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, persecutions and ethnic massacres - exhorts the Pope.

They must be remembered always, anew, so as not be become anaesthetized and to keep the flame of collective conscience alive. It is just as important to remember the good, and those who have chosen forgiveness and fraternity (246-252).

Never again war, a failure of humanity

Part of the seventh chapter, then, focuses on war: it is not "a ghost from the past" - Francis emphasizes - "but a constant threat", and it represents "the negation of all rights", "a failure of politics and of humanity", and "a stinging defeat before the forces of evil" which lies in their "abyss".

Moreover, due to nuclear chemical and biological weapons that strike many innocent civilians, today we can no longer think, as in the past, of the possibility of a "just war", but we must vehemently reaffirm: "Never again war!"

And considering that we are experiencing a "world war fought piecemeal", because all conflicts are interconnected, the total elimination of nuclear arms is "a moral and humanitarian imperative".

With the money invested in weapons, the Pope suggests instead the establishment of a global fund for the elimination of hunger (255-262).

The death penalty inadmissible, to be abolished

Francis expresses just as clear a position with regard to the death penalty: it is inadmissible and must be abolished worldwide, because "not even a murderer loses his personal dignity" - the Pope writes - "and God himself pledges to guarantee this".

From here, two exhortations: do not view punishment as vindictive, but rather as part of a process of healing and of social reintegration, and to improve prison conditions, with respect for the human dignity of the inmates, also considering that "a life sentence is a secret death penalty" (263-269).

There is emphasis on the necessity to respect "the sacredness of life" (283) where today "some parts of our human family, it appears, can be readily sacrificed", such as the unborn, the poor, the disabled and the elderly (18).

Guarantee religious freedom

In the eighth and final chapter, the Pontiff focuses on "Religions at the service of fraternity in our world" and again emphasizes that violence has no basis in religious convictions, but rather in their deformities.

Thus, "deplorable" acts, such as acts of terrorism, are not due to religion but to erroneous interpretations of religious texts, as well as "policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression".

Terrorism must not be supported with either money or weapons, much less with media coverage, because it is an international crime against security and world peace, and as such must be condemned (282-283).

At the same time the Pope underscores that a journey of peace among religions is possible and that it is, therefore, necessary to guarantee religious freedom, a fundamental human right for all believers (279).

The Encyclical reflects, in particular, on the role of the Church: she does not "restrict her mission to the private sphere", it states.

She does not remain at the margins of society and, while not engaging in politics, however, she does not renounce the political dimension of life itself.

Attention to the common good and concern for integral human development, in fact, concern humanity, and all that is human concerns the Church, according to evangelical principals (276-278).

Lastly, reminding religious leaders of their role as "authentic mediators" who expend themselves in order to build peace, Francis quotes the "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together", which he signed on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, along with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyib: from that milestone of interreligious dialogue, the Pontiff returns to the appeal that, in the name of human fraternity, dialogue be adopted as the way, common cooperation as conduct, and mutual knowledge as method and standard (285).

Blessed Charles de Foucauld, "the universal brother"

The Encyclical concludes by remembering Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and above all Blessed Charles de Foucauld, a model for everyone of what it means to identify with the least in order to become "the universal brother" (286-287).

The last lines of the Document are given to two prayers: one "to the Creator" and the other an "Ecumenical Christian Prayer", so that the heart of mankind may harbour "a spirit of fraternity".

Fratelli Tutti - Encyclical of the Holy Father, Francis, on the fraternity and social friendship

The encyclical calls for a new kind of politics and emphasises social friendship as a way to build a more just and peaceful world.

It encourages the contribution of all people and institutions and seeks to build a global movement of fraternity.

In many cases the encyclical is a condensation of the issues Francis has tacked during his pontificate.

The document covers a range of topics, for example, from digital culture, migrants, economics, war and nuclear weapons, the death penalty, religious freedom, peace, forgiveness, the markeplace, Christian charity, love, trafficking, racism, unemployment, excessive profits, culture walls and the role of christians in politics.

Among many of the topics Francis traverses, he observes that currently humanity seems to be the midst of a worrying regression and is intensely polarized.

He says people are talking and debating without listening, and global society seems to have devolved into a "permanent state of disagreement and confrontation."

In some countries, leaders are using a "strategy of ridicule" and relentless criticism, spreading despair as a way to "dominate and gain control," Francis observes.

Although beginning to write the encyclical before the outbreak of COVID-19, Francis argues the world's response to the crisis shows the depth of humanity's mistrust and fractures.

In this light, Francis says that Christians have a key role in political life and despite all the difficulties should not bow out of political engagement.

Christians, he said, must act at a local level to build relationships of trust and assistance and support politicians and political platforms that promote the common good.

"Whereas individuals can help others in need when they join together in initiating social processes of fraternity and justice for all, they enter the ‘field of charity at its most vast, namely political charity,'" he said.

Getting practical, Pope Francis explained that "if someone helps an elderly person cross a river, that is a fine act of charity. The politician, on the other hand, builds a bridge, and that too is an act of charity" but on a larger scale.

Focussing on one of society's most visible items of mistrust, Francis dwells on the fractious issue of immigration, saying that unnecessary migration needs to be avoided by creating concrete opportunities to live with dignity in the countries of origin. But at the same time, humanity needs to respect the right to seek a better life elsewhere.

Focussing on receiving countries, Francis says there needs to be a right balance between the protection of citizens' rights and the guarantee of welcome and assistance for migrants.

Saving harsh words for politicians who have "fomented and exploited" fear over immigration, Francis observes a healthy culture is a welcoming culture, one that does not have to renounce itself.

The pope observes that despite all our hyper-connectivity, we are witnesses to a global fragmentation making it difficult to resolve problems that affect us all.

The encyclical also offers some developments to Catholic social teaching, including on war where he writes that due to nuclear chemical and biological weapons that strike many innocent civilians, today we can no longer think, as in the past, of the possibility of a "just war", but we must vehemently reaffirm: "Never again war!"

The pope also expands another area of Catholic social teaching; the death penalty.

Francis says that not even a murderer loses their personal dignity and the death penalty must be abolished worldwide.

Sources

• Washington Post
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Our Father's House Soup Kitchen

We're all familiar with the "be kind" mantra, but I question its ability to achieve… well, anything.

Ardern asked landlords to chill with raising their rent when the kind thing to do would be to introduce rent controls.

Work and Income staff were asked to have more compassion when dealing with people when the kind thing to do would be to provide livable incomes for all.

What's happening on the ground in our communities is the opposite of "being kind" and we're over it.

People receiving benefits can't eat kindness.

They can't pay their overpriced rent and power bills with it.

They can't buy food with it or take their babies out to the movies, or have a nice family meal out during the school holidays with it.

"Be kind" means nothing to the families Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP) serve in our communities.

It means nothing when you fail to uphold the principles and values of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It means nothing without meaningful action and practices behind it.

Work and Income must have missed the "be kind" memo because people are still being declined basic assistance and care.

The winter energy payment is running out in October.

Those in emergency housing will be charged 25% of their entire income.

Supposedly 30,000 more people are going to have more money in their pockets because they will be allowed to work a whole eight hours at minimum wage before their benefits are affected.

Implementing initiatives that only affect tens of thousands of people isn't enough when hundreds of thousands of people live below the poverty line here.

The government is choosing to stay on the same status quo track its been on for generations.

Many of us are familiar with how Metiria Turei was run out of parliament before the 2017 election, simply because she shared her truth about what she had to do in order to survive as a young single mother.

Our incredible volunteers, many of whom are receiving benefits, have been harassed online for sharing the truth about their own lives. AAAP - alongside other organisations like Child Poverty Action Group, KidsCan, Action Station, the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, unions, the Human Rights Commission, and the Children's Commission - have been demanding the government transform our welfare system and still not enough is being done.

We have seen the government respond to gun laws and Covid-19 with swift decision making.

It can no longer say it has not heard us or that it is unaware of the extreme levels of poverty that exist in Aotearoa.

It's so much deeper than having enough money to thrive. Continue reading

• Brooke Stanley Pao is the incoming co-ordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty,

On a short visit to Isfahan during the holiday, Iran announced inter-city travel restrictions so Bushra and Nada were separated from relatives and had to find temporary accommodation.

15-year-old Nada told TVNZ that they were unable to go out: "and it's pretty dangerous, and this coronavirus is kind of getting out of hand, and we're running out of money.

We're unable to afford a place to stay at soon, and we're unable to afford warmth, food."

St Hilda's Anglican Church is in Island Bay Wellington.

Cutts recognised her in the TVNZ item.

He felt called to help Bushra, and through a series of providential connections —Hamed, a travel agent; and Sahra, Bushra's elder daughter—he created a Givealittle page for her.

However, Givealittle takes a month to pay out crowd funders, and Bushra's need was much more immediate than that.

Cutts approached the leadership of St Hilda's, asking them to underwrite the page so that the travellers could come home as soon as possible.

Through the church's Barnabas Fund, for people who need emergency relief, the church was able to help. The Givealittle page was created on Monday, April 13.

"By about 1 am that night—I was staying up late looking at it—people had given a thousand dollars," Jonathan says.

Jonathan used social media connections to help promote the Givealittle page.

Donations reached more than $8000 in just two days.

Three days after the Givealittle page was started, Bushra and Nada left Tehran on Qatar Airways, the only carrier still operating out of the country.

Through the kindness of strangers, they arrived in Auckland, after a layover in Qatar.

They were quarantined in a hotel in Auckland until May 2.

Source

• tvnz.co.nz
• movementonline.org.nz. Shanti Mathias
• Image: screenshot tvnz.co.nz

"When Jesus wants to teach us how a Christian should be, he tells us very little," the pope said, but he shows people by feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger.

Celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae June 8, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the pope spoke about the boundless love of Christ, "which surpasses knowledge."

It is not easy to understand, he said, but God expresses his infinite love in small, tender ways.

In the day's first reading, the prophet Hosea says the Lord loved his people like a child, taking them into his arms, drawing them in, "close, like a dad" would, the pope said.

"How does God show his love? With great things? No, he becomes small with gestures of tenderness, goodness," he said. God stoops low and gets close.

In Christ, God then became flesh, lowering himself even unto death, the pope said, which helps teach Christians the right path they should take.

"What does (Jesus) say? He doesn't say, 'I think God is like this. I have understood God's love.' No, no. I made God's love small," the pope said, that is, he expressed God's love concretely on a small scale by feeding someone who was hungry, giving the thirsty something to drink, visiting a prisoner or someone who is ill.

"The works of mercy are precisely the path of love that Jesus teaches us in continuity with this great love of God," he said.

Therefore, there is no need for grand speeches about love, he said, but there is a need for men and women "who know how to do these little things for Jesus, for the Father."

Works of mercy continues that love, which is made small so it can "reach us and we carry it forward," Pope Francis said.

Sources

• America
• Image: CNN

"She was picking her groceries out of her trolley one by one at the same time as having them scanned to see what the total was and if she could afford it," Andersen said. Continue reading

There are emotional needs, physical needs, and lifestyle needs.

And technology has made it harder on parents - no more sitting in the living room watching their television shows with them; they are streaming it on their phones, finding resources and information on YouTube, and constantly learning new ways to access connections that parents then struggle to learn about.

It's not your imagination.

Parenting has gotten more difficult.

When you think about parenting, you might think about all the things listed above, but consider adding one more aspect to your toolbox of "things to focus on" - teaching your kids the fine balance between being strong and sticking up for themselves and what they believe in, and being kind.

It may seem like a disconnect - "only the strong survive" and "nice guys finish last" are some of the adages - but teaching kindness, in a world that seems to reject it more and more each day, may be the only way to help your children survive and thrive throughout their lives.

Becoming Strong

Being strong does not mean being a bully.

In fact, the truly strong person has developed an inner core that allows them to withstand whatever life throws at them, including bullying and naysaying.

The strong individual has developed an inner confidence that allows them to believe in themselves no matter what happens.

What are some things parents can do to help their children be strong, but not overbearing?

Teach them to recognize their own triggers and learn what upsets them or throws them off their game.

Why learn this? Because the more a person knows about their triggers, the sooner they have a chance to deal with them in a less emotional and more direct manner.

The more upset you become, the more likely you are

to "blow" your top, or to go inward.Practice direct, non-violent language.

Instead of "I hate you", say "I get very negative when you ask me to do something I don't like to do".

Help them assess their response and connect their comments to the actions, not the person. Hint: As the adult, it is critically important that you model this behavior, too.

Stand for something.

Help your children find something they care about and something they believe in.

Allow them to volunteer, write letters to someone they admire about something important, become educated about what's happening around them (yes, even young children can learn to care about their environment and their world).

The more they have an inner core that stands for something, the less likely they will be to fall for anything.

Including Kindness

Doing all of the things listed above can help them develop an inner core, but without kindness and compassion a strong person can fall victim to too much intensity and possible narcissism as they age. Continue reading

• Image: South Shore Senior News

Tainui Singh-Clark, 16, has been giving the handwritten messages to strangers since earlier this year, leaving smiles in his wake. Read more

This is the conclusion I draw from touring England over the past few weeks, talking about loneliness and mental health. Everywhere I have been so far, I've come across the same, double-sided story: stark failures of government offset in part by the extraordinary force of human kindness.

First the bad news: reminders of the shocking state of our mental health services. I met people who had waited a year for treatment, only to be given the wrong therapy. I heard how the thresholds for treatment are repeatedly being raised, to ration services. I met one practitioner who had been told, as a result of the cuts, to recommend computerised cognitive behaviour therapy to her patients.

In other words, instead of working with a therapist, people must sit at a screen, using a programme to try to address disorders likely to have been caused or exacerbated by social isolation. Why not just write these patients a prescription instructing them to bog off and die?

At least then they wouldn't have to wait a year to be told to consult their laptops. I heard of children profoundly damaged by abuse and neglect being sent to secure accommodation - imprisoned in other words - not for their own safety, or other people's, but because there is nowhere else for them to go.

These are not isolated cases. It is a systemic problem. There has been no child and adolescent mental health survey in this country since 2004 (though one is now planned). Snapshot studies suggest something is going badly wrong: figures published last week, for example, suggest a near quadrupling in the past 10 years of girls admitted to hospital after cutting themselves.

But there are no comprehensive figures. Imagine the outcry if the government had published no national figures on childhood cancer for 12 years, and was unable to tell you whether it was rising or falling. Continue reading

• George Monbiot is the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain.

A white man overcome by the sweltering heat and wearing a Nazi swastika on his T-shirt was escorted to rest and shelter by a black man wearing an officer's uniform.

That man in the uniform was Leroy Smith, who runs the state Department of Public Safety, and a photo of his encounter with the racist demonstrator wearing the swastika has gone viral on the internet. Continue reading

Ava Faulk said her son Josiah Duncan, 5, wouldn't stop asking her questions when he spotted a disheveled man holding a bag with his bike outside the restaurant in Prattville.

When Faulk explained the man was homeless, little Josiah asked "What does that mean?"

Faulk told Josiah that it meant he didn't have a home, to which her son responded, "Where is his house? Where is his family? Where does he keep his groceries?"

But Josiah was most concerned that the stranger didn't have any food, and he begged his mother to buy the man a meal at the restaurant, she told WBTV. Read more

Alola Frederickson, 73, became the face of the Hibernian Credit Union fraud last week, after she delivered a short victim-impact statement in Wellington District Court during the sentencing of Susan Terri Hagai.

RAK Day is all about people doing kind things for others - for no reason at all. To lift the kindness temperature in our country, step out of our comfort zone and do something randomly kind for a stranger or friend.

Over the last six years people have been RAK'd by strangers buying them coffee, paying for their parking, neighbours arriving with gift hampers, pizza being delivered to the local fire station for lunch and even huge giveaways like flights and cruises.

Source

• Scoop
• Image: Napier City Council