News Archives » care for creation
“A New Heaven & A New Earth” October 5th, 2023
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth…and the One seated on the throne said, “Behold! I make all things new.” Revelation 21:1,5
Leading Christian composers and musicians from the United States have come together and written songs that highlight the need to care for God‘s beautiful and wounded creation.
They want to work with all their brothers and sisters, inside and with this new music they reach outside the Church too, demonstrating that to lift up Creation is to glorify God, and is a powerful way to serve the Lord and protect what he has given us.
The project’s primary focus is to help faith communities and especially evangelicals around the world to understand and to contribute to the worldwide efforts to address climate change in their lives and communities. Primarily the project is an effort to appeal 
through Contemporary Christian Music, to US evangelicals by creating songs that explicitly draw on the biblical creation themes of Laudato Sí and invite them and others to integrate ecological conversion into their spirituality and lifestyle.
(Image by Marian Anbu Juwan from Pixabay)
READ MORE about the project
Eight songs will be released for listening and broadcast on Christian/evangelical radio throughout 2023, culminating with a CD and a number of concerts in the ensuing years. Links to a couple of the songs are at the bottom of this email.
OMIJPIC has been supporting this project in a number of capacities over the past three years.
Songs and release schedule 2023:
| May 12 | Jason Roy, Building 429 – It’s All – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkXEzRIqw8&list=OLAK5uy_maon8nTUQVIEqaqtLjJi358_5tBxEKJWM |
| June 9 | MŌRIAH – You Mean the World: https://youtu.be/zYYfNgk6ByQ?si=Y5wMv3Ebpu94tWCg |
| July 7 | Aaron Cole – Together: https://youtu.be/RuMK5bDOuuQ?si=arF4wrEpetfg9Ix1 |
| August 4 | Phil Joel – Arms Around the World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm1Q59PyuJE&list=OLAK5uy_mFkdN1q6AmVadTdE-2y9-cCg2jzqJa8ok |
| September 1 | Waterdeep – Into the Unseen – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMWyFNEtd3I&list=OLAK5uy_kukytnUOHhNFLoAKF9-hO4d4efbc1FFs0 |
| September 22 | Don Chaffer, Phil Joel, Jason Gray, Jason Roy – Our Common Home – https://youtu.be/1sKq1tI1NkM?si=YP53DFleHQ9ibCMM |
| October 20 | Jason Gray – Awestruck – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQUlL0a4OT4&list=OLAK5uy_n_MUZ2AF3KhE50y4kJk09JqpTp2lZYRCE |
| November 17 | Micah Tyler – So Will I – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTUjQlGsgBg&list=OLAK5uy_nMzLBgtYZfHZAnEGc49YIiwB5AfvGmGx0 |
MORE: https://chvnradio.com/articles/listen-building-429s-jason-roy-releases-new-song-part-of-a-multi-artist-album
Project on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC75eBN73u2HI1I_I6G-dbvA
Missionary Oblates Oppose U.S. Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement June 6th, 2017
“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods.”
Pope Francis, Laudato Sí: On Care of our Common Home
Missionary Oblates JPIC is deeply concerned about the impacts of environmental degradation on God’s creation. The decision by the Trump Administration to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which was ratified by 195 countries including the United States is a disappointment. We join other faith leaders and communities to urge the Administration to reconsider this decision and propose concrete ways to address global climate change and promote environmental stewardship. As people of faith who value the care for creation, we believe that impacts of climate change will directly impact all communities, both in the United States and around the world, especially poor and abandoned people whom Oblates minister to each day. Visit the links below to read more on the issue.
- US Catholic Bishops’ statement on Paris withdrawal
- Catholic Climate Covenant’s statement on Paris withdrawal
- Missionary Oblates JPIC climate change resource
Register Now for LaVista’s Fall Earth Literacy Program! September 9th, 2016
(Photo courtesy of Bro. Lester Antonio Zapata, OMI)
Exploring the Sacred Universe Earth Literacy Program in Godfrey, IL
Dates: Fri., Oct.19 beginning at 6:00 pm – Sun., Oct. 23, ending at 1:00 pm
Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home has brought new life to this classic program as readers look for ways to deepen their relationship with and responsibility for our common home. That is what we offer during these days of interactive community learning. For the second year we are offering a shortened version of our “Exploring the Sacred Universe” Earth Literacy Program.
Participants will be joined by Oblate Novices, young men from several countries currently studying at La Vista. Last year’s very rich experience during beautiful fall days encouraged us to make this an annual event.
Activities will include sacred rituals, journaling, a field trip, dialogue, cooking and gardening. Presenters will include:
Norman Comtois, OMI
Sharon Zayac, OP
Maxine Pohlman, SSND
And other local bioregional specialists
For a detailed description and registration information download the brochure or visit us online at www.lavistaelc.org. You can also call LaVista at: 618-466-5004.
Program cost: $350 (includes lodging and meals). A $50 nonrefundable deposit is due at registration with the balance due upon arrival.
Ecospirituality Resources March 10th, 2015
We would like to share a resource that you may find useful in your worship planning and personal refection. Ecospirituality Resources is a website that offers material that connects concern for creation with growing faith in the Mystery within it, integrates new scientific discoveries with beliefs and lifestyles, and deepens understanding of threats to Earth’s life systems and our call to respond. Written by Terri MacKenzie, SHCJ, the materials are free, downloadable, and broadly interfaith, or at least, ecumenical.
Visit Ecospirituality Resources to check out Sr. Terri’s blog, worship materials for the Advent and Lenten seasons, and suggested books, videos and websites on ecospirituality. Concerned about fracking? Watch Sr. Terri’s video, Time for an Energy Change
Pope Francis Urges Humanity to Cultivate and Care for Creation, Not Money June 6th, 2013
Pope Francis dedicated the catechesis of Wednesday morning’s general audience to the environment, noting that June 5th is World Environment Day promoted by the United Nations. The following is the summary of his address. The full text of the Pope’s catechesis is available in the link given below.
“When we speak of the environment, of creation, my thoughts go to the first pages of the Bible, to the Book of Genesis, where it is affirms that God puts man and woman on earth ‘to cultivate and care for it’. And the question comes to me:” the Pope said to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, “What does it mean to cultivate and care for the earth? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are we exploiting and neglecting it?”
“Cultivating and caring for creation,” explained the Holy Father, “is God’s indication, given not only at the beginning of history, but to each one of us. It is part of his plan. It means responsibly making the world grow, transforming it so that it becomes a garden, a place that all can inhabit.”
“Benedict XVI recalled many times that this tasked entrusted to us by God the Creator requires that we understand the rhythm and logic of creation. Instead, we are often guided by the arrogance of dominating, possessing, manipulating, and exploiting. We don’t ‘take care’ of it; we don’t respect it; we don’t consider it as a freely-given gift to be cared for. We are losing the attitude of wonder, of contemplation, of listening to creation. Thus we are no longer able to read in it what Benedict XVI called ‘the rhythm of the story of God’s love for humanity’. Why is this happening? Because are we thinking and living ‘horizontally’; we are drawing away from God; we are not reading his signs.”
“But cultivating and caring for doesn’t just refer to our relationship with the environment, the relationship between humanity and creation. It also concern human relationships. … We are living a moment of crisis. We see it in the environment, but above all we see it in humanity. The human person is in danger. … This is the urgency of human ecology! The danger is serious because the root of the problem is profound, not superficial. It isn’t just a question of economics but of ethics and anthropology. … The dynamics of an economy and finance that lack ethics are dominating.”
Speaking off the cuff, the pontiff added: “What is in charge today isn’t the human person but money. Money is in command. And God our Father has given us the task of caring for the earth not for the money, but for us: for men and women. This is our charge. Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption. It is a ‘culture of waste’.“
The full text of the Pope’s remarks are available here… (Download PDF)
