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Reflection on January’s Ecological Conversion Field Trip with OMI Novices February 10th, 2025
We visited a most unusual building to learn about about another aspect of ecological conversion; from throwaway construction to a life-sustaining built environment. The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center in East Alton, Illinois is LEED Gold certified, so it has demonstrated commitment to sustainable practices; for example, all the materials to build it were sourced within 500 miles and recycled materials were used throughout the construction including 100% recycled material in the rubber floor tiles, in the glass countertops, insulation made from recycled newspaper and paper, and 90% of construction-related waste was recycled.
Our tour guide Erica proved to be a marvelous educator, not only teaching about the building, but also helping us to understand the research and conservation outreach mission of the Center. In the picture above, Erica explained a project she created: kits for classrooms that contain tools and activities to teach youth about our living landscape. So, we learned about yet another aspect of ecological conversion: from treating landscape as static scenery to engaging with it as it changes and supports a range of wildlife, where plants and animals interact, functioning as a thriving ecosystem.
We continued our education on the green roof which grows native plants familiar to us on the bluff top at the Novitiate. In the photo Erica is explaining the roof’s construction which is made up of many layers and is handicap accessible! With its green roof, native landscaping and limestone walls, the building complements the surrounding environment, minimizing visual intrusion on the landscape.
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis encouraged “the construction and repair of buildings aimed at reducing their energy consumption and levels of pollution.” We were impressed with this example of green building as it shows one way to a sustainable future.
Reflection on December’s Ecological Conversion Field Trip with OMI Novices January 14th, 2025
Contributed by Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director of Oblate Ecological Initiative
We visited Treehouse Wildlife Center mid-December to experience a community dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured wildlife. TreeHouse exemplifies the spirit of Laudato Si which calls us to shift from the exploitation of other species to treating them as beings “with intrinsic value, apart from their usefulness to us”. Anyone can bring an injured animal to this center, and it will be treated as “brother or sister” in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.
Introducing a Champion Tree at the Missionary Oblates Novitiate November 26th, 2024
- Visit the National Register of Champion Trees to find one in your area: https://www.americanforests.org/champion-trees/
La Vista Hosts Autumnal Equinox Event October 2nd, 2024
At La Vista Ecological Learning Center’s September 21 Autumnal Equinox event, there was buzz around a special champion tree recently discovered on the property at the Missionary Oblates Novitiate.
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)
