Laudato Si Sunday Reflection: Love is patient

Today's reflection is brought to you by
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13.

O God,
you call us to the excellence
that only love can bring.

No matter how eloquent,
wise,
or faithful
we may be,
no matter how generous or self-sacrificing,
without love,
none of it matters.

And our love
must also reach
beyond our own existence
to all that you have made.

You know us completely --
help us to know and love you completely
by loving all that you have made.

Make us patient in allowing nature to take her course.

Make us kind in the way we reach out to those in need.

Remove our envy and boastfulness,
so evident when we try to outdo others by having more than enough.

Take away our irritability and resentment
when our desires conflict with the needs of your creation
and help us to put it first.

Help us to bear all things,
believe all things,
hope all things
and endure all things
as we work to ensure
the common good
of our common home
for future generations.

Come, Holy Spirit
help us to heal our home
and all its creatures.

+Amen.

* * * * * * *

Early in Pope Francis' letter to the world, Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home, he quotes Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox churches, who uses powerful words to call us to a deeper love of the environment. He challenges us to replace "consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which "entails learning to give and not simply to give up... a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God's world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion." (paragraph 9)

If we approach nature and the environment with love, openness, awe and wonder, if we speak the language of community and beauty in our relationship with the world, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then care will well up spontaneously, and we will never turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled. And that's how the world becomes a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise instead of a problem to be solved.

Of course, simple positive thinking isn't enough to solve all our problems, to make humanity ecology-minded and turn us from our present course of destruction. Positive thinking has to be translated into action. The challenge is to stop acting as masters, consumers and ruthless exploiters of the earth, trying to satisfy our limitless wants through taking everything.

So today... I want to put on my ecological mind. It's time to look around my life a little. Where am I overdoing it with my consumption of the earth's resources? Where am I failing to appreciate creation? Where do I need to care more and exploit less? It could be something as simple as remembering to turn off a light, or compost an apple core. To avoid buying something I don't need. To think less of myself, whose needs are satisfied, and offer my resources to do more for those whose basic needs aren't being met.

Making it a daily habit to be aware of our consumption of resources and to pray for our earth might also help us to restore the balance it has lost on our account. And that would be worth a lot!

Laudato Si Sunday Reflection: On being one body

Today's reflection is brought to you by
1 Corinthians 12:12-30 and paragraphs 1-6 of
Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.

Your body, O God,
is visible in your creation,
and we are part of it.

We all drink of your spirit:
the tallest trees
to the smallest insects.

Pope Francis said
this earthly home you give us
is like "a sister with whom we share our life
and a mother who opens her arms to embrace us."

We are all part of your one body,
embraced by the great web of life
from the furthest reaches of the universe
to the ground on which we stand.

Help us to see beyond ourselves,
to the places and the creatures that we hurt
by our forgetfulness to care for ALL that you have made
through our pursuit of our own desires.

Bring us to ecological conversion
"for our good and the good of all of creation."

Please remind us,
frequently,
that your body does not consist of only human beings,
but of many other members too:
rain forests and coral reefs,
glaciers and wetlands,
bees and polar bears,
human beings and tiny aquatic life.

Help us to see
that when other members suffer
we also suffer.

Help us to think deeply
about the choices we make
so that we
may do the least harm
and the most good
for all
 -- and so
honour you.

Make us aware of our place
in your one body.

Come, Holy Spirit,
help us to heal our home and all its creatures.

+Amen

Sunday Reflection: To live self-controlled, upright and godly lives

This reflection is brought to you by
Titus 1:11-14 and Pope Francis' encyclical
Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.

Your grace, O God,
is with us always.

But too often we treat your world
like it isn't holy.

Our "worldly passions"
prevent us from
living with self-control,
uprightness,
and godliness.

We forget that your glory
is in everything that you have created,
that creation is sacred,
and that we are called
to see ourselves not as stewards of resources,
but as partners with you
and all your creatures
in the great web of life.

And now our beautiful earth
needs more than prayers
and pious platitudes.

We need to pray
and act,
to do what we can
to avert further climate catastrophe.

We need to heed the scientists
and work a true metanoia,
a real change of heart
in the way we live.

It's a tall order.

But you are so powerful,
John the Baptist felt unworthy
to undo even your sandals.

If anyone can help us
to do the things that we must do,
to make sacrifices for the sake of our future,
you can.

Please,
help us,
O God.

+Amen.

* * * * * * *

I'm finding it a challenge to meditate on scripture when climate scientists from all over the globe are telling us that we need a radical rethinking of our lifestyle... and when our city is under an air quality advisory today because of smog that makes it hard for some to breathe. 

As a result, it feels like I'm being pushed to revisit Laudato Si, Pope Francis' 2015 letter to the world about our struggling planet and what we need to do for it. I've been thinking and praying about this for weeks, and dragging my feet at the same time, because my last foray into the encyclical was a huge amount of time and effort. 

Still, I invite you, if you missed the last go 'round, to join me in looking at sections of the Pope's letter over the Sundays ahead. I'll try to be a little more succinct this time, picking and choosing the most critical pieces, and hopefully I can attach some updated information and links for further reading. And I'll end with a two line prayer/mantra instead of the wonderful Prayer for our Earth found at the end of the encyclical (see the image below).

Come, Holy Spirit,
help us to heal our home and all its creatures.
+Amen.