Here’s a film you probably won’t see buzzed on any Hollywood gossip sites.

It’s called The Sower. According to a Sun-Sentinel story it’s “a 10-minute film shot at Florida Atlantic University that organizers say will appear on the Internet and at Catholic parishes around the country. A $5,000 grant from Catholic Relief Services paid for the film, with a script written by Terence McCorry, director of campus ministries for the Diocese of Palm Beach, and volunteer actors….”

Check out the full story here.

Our friends at the CRS Fair Trade blog know Valentine’s Day.

Partly in an attempt to schmooze them (mmmm… chocolate) and more importantly to let you know about an interesting Valentine’s post written by Rees Warne, I urge you to check out Giving Loving Gifts.

- jl

Palestinian Issa Abu Atta places chimes inside olivewood nativities at a crafters workshop in Beit Sahour, West Bank.

Supported by CRS’s Fair Trade Fund and The Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative Society, such programs were formed to counter the deterioration of the local handcrafts industry, which was threatened by regional conflict.

CRS buys the handcrafts through SERRV Fair Trade Organization. Photo by Debbie Hill for CRS

A malnourished toddler from San Marcos, Guatemala. Photo by Rita Villanueva /CRS.

Today’s Readings

“Love is better expressed in deeds rather than in mere words.”
- St. Ignatius

Our life journeys are personal and unique and still each one affects another. Our prayer is their prayer, our air is their air; our souls share the common desire to know and serve God. As we enter into the third week of Advent, let solidarity, fairness, and the promise of hope weave an intricate thread into our thoughts and actions.

Holy Lord, cultivate your spirit within me. Amen.

Act: Consider how your life journey is intertwined with that of others, even people you may never know or see. Consider responding by giving a gift of hope from the CRS Project Catalog in honor of someone who shares your journey very intimately.

Fair Trade is a easy way to give gifts to loved ones and help working poor families around the world. If you’re looking for gifts you won’t find on department store shelves, check out the CRS Fair Trade web site and blog.

You can promote justice for small-scale farmers and artisans overseas when you:

- Educate yourself and people in your parish, school, office and community to understand how their decision to buy Fair Trade items can help.

- Join the CRS Fair Trade network. You will receive your quarterly copy of The CRS Fair Trader, an electronic newsletter that provides updates on new program developments and new opportunities to promote trade justice.

- Serve and Sell Fair Trade coffee, chocolate and crafts after Mass and at special events in your parish, school, office, community and home. It is a great way to begin a conversation with your fellow parishioners, classmates, colleagues and neighbors about Fair Trade and the hope it offers to small-scale producers overseas.

- Buy Fair Trade for your home, parish, school or office.

- Donate to the CRS Fair Trade Fund.

- Advocate for fairer terms of trade.

Village seed trade in Niger. Photo by CRS staff.

Today’s Readings

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
- Psalm 37:4

As we continue to be mindful of fair trade this week, ask yourself, “How am I an impartial participant in my school or workplace?” Supporting our family and community is a vital part of living a fair lifestyle. But is “being fair” enough? This week, challenge yourself to give more … of your participation, listening, affection, smiles … to give more of yourself. While we await the Lord, we await a fair and just world as well.

Gracious God, make known your desires through our prayer. Amen.

Act: Learn about fair trade chocolate and the lives of cocoa farmers.

Fair Trade is a easy way to give gifts to loved ones and help working poor families around the world. If you’re looking for gifts you won’t find on department store shelves, check out the CRS Fair Trade web site and blog.

When you buy Fair Trade, you:

- Celebrate the human dignity of the farmers who grew it;
- Demonstrate a special concern for the poor;
- Act in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need overseas;
- Ensure that farmers earn a just wage;
- Contribute to a more just distribution of wealth;
- Practice responsible stewardship of Creation; and
- Promote the principle of subsidiarity.

But buying Fair Trade is not entirely selfless. After all, you get great products that are unique and received a lot of care in their production.

Fair Trade is a easy way to give gifts to loved ones and help working poor families around the world. If you’re looking for gifts you won’t find on department store shelves, check out the CRS Fair Trade web site and blog.

As Americans, we collectively spend $19 billion a year to feed our coffee habit. (That is, incidentally, nearly twice the Gross Domestic Product of Nicaragua.)

If there are 250-300 million people in the United States and about 60 million Catholics, then we Catholics are just over one-fifth of the national population. And if the national coffee expenditure is about $20 billion, and if Catholics drink about as much coffee as everyone else, then Catholics in the United States spend about $5 billion each year on coffee.

Clearly, this is not a scientific figure. But it is probably safe to say that each year Catholics in the United States spend billions on coffee. And that’s just coffee—the chocolate industry brings in $14 billion a year in the US alone meaning Catholics spend about $3 billion on chocolate.

In Nicaragua, women sorting coffee beans for a fair trade project . Photo by Michael Sheridan/CRS.

Today’s Readings

“Don’t worry so much about livelihood. Your livelihood will turn out as it should. Be constantly occupied instead with listening to God.”
- Jelaluddin Rumi

Catholic social teaching calls us to be socially responsible citizens. As consumers, we can support the fair trade market of goods; as workers, we are entitled to decent wages and safe working conditions. While you look at this picture of women working, reflect on how their work affects people worldwide.

God of justice, install a sense of solidarity within us. Help us realize how our actions affect the global economy. Amen.

Act: Become aware of the dignity of work and how workers in other regions of the world are connected to us by viewing “Solidarity in a Cup,” a multimedia story about how the coffee bean gets to our cup of coffee!

Fair Trade is a easy way to give gifts to loved ones and help working poor families around the world. If you’re looking for gifts you won’t find on department store shelves, check out the CRS Fair Trade web site and blog.

The Fair Trade Federation estimates that fair trade accounts for just .01 percent of the $3.6 trillion in goods exchanged around the world.

The GLOBAL Fair Trade marketplace doubled from 2005 to 2006 to $2.6 billion dollars.

Here in the States Fair Trade Certified product imports into the U.S. have grown at an average annual rate of 76 percent over the last five years (source: TransFair USA).