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Over recent weeks our attention is drawn to the devastating bush fires across Australia. Media reporting captures some of the human tragedy, lost lives and homes, the devastating effects on the environment, including wildlife, and even ash clouds reaching South America. Having just returned from Australia in preparation for a move there next month, the human dimension of what communities face is even more visible than what the media can convey to us from afar. Seeing a city like Sydney enveloped in a hazy smog and giving up an orange glow at sunset or people anxious to get home to protect their property and that of their neighbour's from an advancing fire. And appreciating how quickly a situation can change as last Thursday, I came across a bush fire that had just started in a rural part of the country. Watching volunteer fire-fighters rush to the scene, police closing roads, and worried townspeople praying and hoping that the growing cloud of smoke on the other side of the hill could be extinguished or contained. The clouds, the fear, and the urgency made it all very real. While bushfires in Australia are not new many notice their greater frequency fuelled by record high temperatures, drought and set against the backdrop of global warming. The question for many of us when faced with such natural tragedy is how to respond. First, how to help those in imminent need and to do so meaningfully, and second how to prevent such dreadful events reoccurring. Increasingly it is not easy to prevent or minimise the extent of future natural tragedies and it can be too much for one local community or nation to tackle alone. Recognising that, Pope Francis, writing in 2015, in his Encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, challenged humanity to reflect and critique its attitude to the natural world. He said, 'concern for the natural world is no longer optional, but is an integral part of the Church teaching on social justice'. Urgent global action was needed. While global action is still lacking, local responses are not. Last Thursday, as I watched a local community rush to protect itself from fire, I was reminded of the subtitle of Pope Francis' Encyclical, 'care for our common home'. That rural community illustrated the very point. Volunteers acting out of solidarity and concern for their common home, looking out for the other, and understanding the danger posed by in-action. It was a powerful example, if one was ever needed on a global level, about how to care for 'our common home'.