2025 Season of Creation: “Seeds of Peace and Hope” Reflection #4
September 15th, 2025
(By Maurice Lange, Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & founder of the Oblate Ecological Initiative)
“(St. Francis) shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.” (Laudato Si #10)
READ: 4th part of Pope Leo’s letter for the 2025 Season of Creation (view PDF)
REFLECTION: : “…we seem incapable of recognizing that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way.” Be it mountain-top removal in West Virginia or flooding in Thailand (pictured), our human mining, refining and changing of the climate impacts first and worst those made poor. Upon further pondering: are we indeed incapable of recognizing this…or, have we grown unfeeling? Between political 
polarization and our ever-increasing bonding with screens and machines, I fear that our culture is becoming exponentially insensate. Demonizing indigenous, immigrants and wilderness seemingly justifies our hard-heartedness. During this Season of Creation: how am I to be counter-cultural? What aspect of my prophetic calling from baptism needs to be realized?
(Photo: Flooded village in Thailand where
Presentation Sisters minister)
ACTION: Practice mercy – including Pope Francis’ addition to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Live simply – so that others may simply live. Grow in compassion – from the Latin “com-passio” or “to suffer with”. *
“Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest.” (Laudato Si #48)
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Visit the Presentation Sisters, US Province’s WEBSITE
READ MORE OF MAURICE’S WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
- Week 1: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection
- Week 2: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection
- Week 3: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection
- Week 4: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection
- Week 5: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection – COMING SOON
- Week 6: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection – COMING SOON
- Week 7: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection – COMING SOON
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Related keywords: 2021 Season of Creation, 2025 2025 Season of Creation, climate action, climate change, Ecology, Laudato Si, maurice lange, oblate ecological initiative
