News Archives » News
Week 4 – 2024 Season of Creation: “To Hope & Act with Creation” September 24th, 2024
(By Maurice Lange, current Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & founder of the Oblate Ecological Initiative)
Reflection #4: September 8 – 14
READ: 4th part of Pope Francis’ letter for the 2024 Season of Creation (below)
REFLECTION:
Image by Sohail Sattar, Pixabay
What is the dominant worldview that we swim within here in the West? It is that we humans are separate from “nature”, that we are superior to it and can do to it what we wish. This perspective is pervasive. It gets preached to us in countless ways by so many means. And, this worldview is deadly. In Laudato Si, Pope Francis stresses an opposite paradigm time and again: that “everything is related” and “everything is interconnected”.
In this year’s Season of Creation Francis calls us “to contemplate in hope the bond of solidarity between human beings and all other creatures”. How have you stepped out and away from the dominant Western worldview? To what are you being called to embrace/let-go-of, so as to live more deeply in solidarity with all other creatures?
READ FULL REFLECTION
ACTION: Ponder those who have lived from a paradigm that everything is interconnected: Hildegard of Bingen, St. Francis of Assisi, Chief Seattle, Rachel Carson, Sr. Dorothy Stang. What did each embrace? What did each let go of?
“Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity. (Laudato Si #240)
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’ Hosts “Navigating Troubled Waters” September 23rd, 2024
On September 19, Frs. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI and Valentine Talang, OMI joined stakeholders and thought leaders in New York City at Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) Annual Conference Event – “Navigating Troubled Waters.”
Corporations play an important role in supporting the resilient and vibrant democracy needed to sustain healthy civic engagement, accountable governance, and a stable economy where business can thrive. However, in today’s politically charged landscape, corporations often face significant challenges navigating their support for democratic values without appearing partisan or becoming entangled in controversy.
In the lead-up to the U.S. elections, the group convened to discuss how corporations can best exemplify good corporate citizenship without furthering the divisiveness of our national discourse.
Visit ICCR’s website to learn more about their work
 |
 |
 |
Week 3 – 2024 Season of Creation: “To Hope & Act with Creation” September 18th, 2024
(By Maurice Lange, current Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & founder of the Oblate Ecological Initiative)
Reflection #3: September 2 – 7
READ: 3rd part of Pope Francis’ letter for the 2024 Season of Creation (below)
REFLECTION:
(Image by Almeida from Pixabay)
Hope. I ponder that with all the pushback Pope Francis has received, what he writes about hope in this Season of Creation is not removed from his own personal journey – with hope connoting: “remaining steadfast amidst adversity” and “not losing heart” in troubling times.
His reflection on hope leads Francis to ponder a medieval visionary who, despite violent times, proposed a new spirit of coexistence among peoples. Francis’ further writes that his own call for universal social harmony in Fratelli Tutii needs to be extended to Creation.
As such, Fr. Thomas Berry, the great, recent visionary, does not lose heart in setting forth the Ecozoic Era: a time of where humans and the rest of the natural world are mutually enhancing.
Let us choose life, then, so that we and the descendants of all species shall live. (cf Deuteronomy 30:19)
READ FULL REFLECTION
ACTION: I encourage you to remain steadfast…and even take on a new layer of hope. Each day this week sit with Thomas Berry as he illustrates the Ecozoic Era.
“Human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures…” (Laudate Deum #67)
2024 Season of Creation: We Are The Seeds of Hope September 12th, 2024
2024: What is the ‘Season of Creation’? — By Bishop Michael Pfeifer, OMI, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of San Angelo
Letter of the Superior General: 2023 World Day of Prayer
for the
Care of Creation
2024: Season of Creation Reflections: “To Hope & Act with Creation” by Maurice Lange, JPIC Director, Presentation Sisters
Learn more about the climate issues by visiting these websites:
Season of Creation
Invites you to use these resources and share them with your church, pastor or other regional authority to join the Season of Creation, and even spread the word to local media.
Laudato Si Movement
The Laudato Si Movement works within the Catholic Church to better care for our common home.
Catholic Climate Covenant
Catholic Climate Covenant inspires and equips people and institutions to care for creation and care
Creation Justice Ministries
Seeks justice for God’s planet and God’s people
Interfaith Power & Light
Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA) works with hundreds of congregations of all faiths across Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia to save energy, go green, and respond to climate change. Together, they are building a religious response to the climate crisis.
August’s Laudato Si Meeting with OMI Novices September 11th, 2024
By Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Center
L to R: Michael Katona (USA), Alfred Lungu (Zambia), Edwin Silwimba (Zambia), Eliakim Mbenda (Namibia)
We welcome this year’s novices: Michael Katona (USA), Alfred Lungu (Zambia), Edwin Silwimba (Zambia), Eliakim Mbenda (Namibia). During their Novitiate year La Vista will help them to explore the call to ecological conversion as it comes to us through Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si and is reiterated by the OMI’s 37th General Chapter which states, “We are thus challenged to commit ourselves more fully to prioritize ecological conversion as a fundamental part of our lives and an integral part of our evangelization”. (11.1)
Each month we’ll investigate what ecological conversion looks like in practice through field trips, documentaries, and in dialogue with Oblates who are living the call to ecological conversion in unique ways.
Our first exploration was right here at the Novitiate as we familiarized ourselves with the uniqueness of the 255 acres the novices will call home for the next year; consequently we considered this aspect of the call to ecological conversion: from excessive anthropocentrism to responsible stewardship (Laudato Si, 116).
We hiked the land to see the results of OMI’s farsighted actions, since Oblates responded to this call long before Laudato Si was published: 1993 – 16 acres dedicated as the Missionary Oblates Woods Nature Preserve 2001 -143 acres dedicated in the Forest Legacy Program 2014 – Pollinator Garden was planted
Land dedicated in 1993 and 2001 was by legal contract, curtailing human activity in favor of ensuring the integrity of the ecosystem in perpetuity. In the photo Novices are pictured in the Oblate Woods Nature Preserve by a sign which reads: All plants, animals and other natural features within this area are protected by law. Weapons, vehicles, pets, horses, and camping are prohibited. Through this dedication the land and its inhabitants now have a voice!
We also viewed The Rights of Nature, a TEDx talk by Sister Patricia Siemen, OP, Director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence at the Barry University School of Law. She helped us to understand the inherent rights of all creatures and land as more than inert matter; rather, as a sacred community of soils, animals, bluffs, waters, woods and human beings. Her sixteen minute presentation was well worth our time! One novice had an awakening moment during her talk when he noted that we give legal rights to corporations in the spirit of capitalism; should we not also give legal rights to other members of the Earth community?
My hope is that these four remarkable young men will carry this call into their future ministries and they care for our common home wherever they are sent.
