News Archives » St. Francis of Assisi
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)
2023 Season of Creation – “Let’s Irrigate Life!” September 15th, 2023
By Maurice Lange, current Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & former Executive Director of the Oblates Lebh Shomea House of Prayer
“Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world.” (Laudato Si #231)
READ: 3rd part of Pope Francis’ letter for the 2023 Season of Creation (below) (READ FULL REFLECTION)
REFLECTION: Pope Francis does not mince words in calling us to put an end to war upon Creation. Our calling is to stand with victims of this war, both human and other-than-human. Justice and peace cannot flow when so many bodies of water are drying up. Yes, our human societies are that linked to the natural world! Greed and selfishness, on the part of individuals and industry, are wreaking havoc on Earth’s water cycle. Creation’s heartbeat works in cycles…we Westerners think and act linearly. Can we align our hearts with the way that Earth functions…and live cyclically?
ACTION: This week go outside — near a stream, brook or small river — and just be. Ponder the flow of that water…and where it merges with other streams or rivers. How does this increase provide for creatures and habitats downstream? What are some novel ways you can irrigate (and not deplete) “the life of our marvelous planet and our human family”?
Reflections in this series:
Let Justice & Peace Flow: Season of Creation 2023 August 31st, 2023
“Let Justice and Peace Flow” — By Maurice Lange, Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters
Letter of the Superior General: World Day of Prayer
for the
Care of Creation
New Resource!
Practical Ways
We
Can Help Pollinators
Learn more about the climate crisis 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.
Preparing for the 2023 Season of Creation – “Let Justice and Peace Flow” August 30th, 2023
By Maurice Lange, current Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & former Executive Director of the Oblates Lebh Shomea House of Prayer
“Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.” (Laudato Si #207)
READ: 1st first part of Pope Francis’ letter for the 2023 Season of Creation (below)
REFLECTION: What is God’s desire? Pope Francis begins this Season of Creation by getting immediately to the heart of the matter: God wants justice to reign. Equating the kingdom of God to right relationship with God, humanity and nature, Francis makes clear that such righteousness, authentic justice and peace, is like a nourishing stream that does not fail. As we prepare to begin this annual Season, let us reflect on the ways in which we contribute to the stream and “let justice and peace flow”. And, for a thorough ecological examen: how do some of our perceptions inhibit such a flow? From where did we imbibe these “dam-Ing” perceptions? Let us live at the heart of the matter this Season of Creation and beyond.
(Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay)
ACTION: The Season of Creation begins September 1 and continues through October 4. Procure and keep a Season of Creation journal. You may wish to play with the water imagery of this year’s theme. Like a stream that flows with new water, may this Season be one of new commitment for you. “We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace.” (LS closing prayer #246)
Saint Francis of Assisi: An Inspiration to Care for God’s Creation October 4th, 2016
Pope Francis’ Encyclical letter Laudato Si’ opens with this line:
“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]
Click here to read the full document.
