A Christian Earth-Conscious Spirituality

All the delegates have gone home from the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris. And our Earth and all her inhabitants await our action.

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                                                                                             Does my spirituality include the fuchsia?

I am interested in how such a [Christian] spirituality can motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world.

– Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 216

 

What Meaning in Lola’s Face?

¿Qué es el sentimiento mystico en la cara de Lola?
                                                                               ¿Qué es el sentimiento mystico en la cara de Lola?

The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.” 

– Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 233

Creation – A Reflection of God’s Love

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The entire material universe speaks of God’s love…boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God.

– Pope Francis, Laudato Si‘ 84

We Are There

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As Christians, we are also called  “to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbors on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human met in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet. (Laudato Si’, 9)

Unless you haven’t been paying attention, you know that there is a gathering in Paris right now – a most important Climate Summit. I preparation for this Summit, the Dominican Sisters Conference launched a year of study and prayer which we entitled, Paris 2015 and Counting . . . We also created a website to share our study with others.

Certainly the countdown for the Summit is past, for COP21 has begun, and four of our Dominican Sisters are there representing civil society. They are Sisters Margaret Mayce, OP (Amityville Dominican who is our NGO representative at the U.N.), Patricia Daly, OP (Caldwell Dominican), Patricia Siemen, OP (Adrian Dominican), and Elise Garcia, OP (Adrian Dominican who is going as a journalist for the Global Sisters Report – a project of National Catholic Reporter).

The wait for the Summit may be over, but not the wait for Climate Justice. Please join the Dominican Sisters in prayer for our world leaders – that they may do the right thing for Earth and for all the people and creatures that share this beautiful home with us.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing quotes from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’.

The Fragrance of Gratitude

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Gratitude is the sweet fragrance of an opening heart.

– Aine Belton

Grateful Glimpses

siena_061807_002In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.

– David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

Grateful through Experience

Knowing God is good
Knowing God is good

The grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.

– Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Gardening Gratefulness

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Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
– Marcel Proust

Expressing Gratitude

As in previous years, the posts during the month of November we will concentrate on Gratitude, though truly it is not a seasonal topic.

As I express my gratitude, I become more deeply aware of it. And the greater my awareness, the greater my need to express it. What happens here is a spiraling ascent, a process of growth in ever expanding circles around a steady center.

– David Steindl-Rast

Spiral stairway at the Vatican Museum
Spiral stairway at the Vatican Museum

 

Contemplation of the Beauty of Earth

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.  
– Rachel Carson
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Contemplating Glacier National Park