Listen to The cry of Earth . The Jubilee is a sacred moment for all to remember, return, rest, repair and rejoice. It’s a time of personal and communal conversion, a time of grace to repair the original harmony of creation and heal damaged human relationships. As Pope Francis said: “If we take the temperature of the planet, it will tell us that the earth has a fever. And it feels bad, like anyone who is sick”.
– Earth’s pain is increasingly felt through our irresponsibility, caused by: fires, deforestation, tidal waves, droughts, floods, melting glaciers, extreme heat waves, hurricanes, pollution of various kinds, all of which cause massive destruction to our planet, migration and loss of human life. Earth is howling, because it’s being mistreated.
– In this Lenten season, can we hear and see the pain we are causing: to our planet, to millions of people and to the victims of environmental disasters?
– Take a moment of silence to contemplate the beauty of nature: the earth, plants, the air we breathe, the benefits of fire, water, the sun, the moon, the stars, clouds, animals, human beings created in God’s image, the notion of time…and so on.
Prayer
to thank God for his many gifts and to praise
and praise his work in creation
Benevolent God, the cry of the earth and ours rise up to you like incense,
God of Love, with Earth, we ask you to free us from greed, selfishness and indifference.
Merciful God, with air, water and wind, we ask you to help us rid ourselves of pollution.
Wonderful God, with the forest, fire, birds and animals, give us the strength not to destroy them ourselves and the delicate webs that bind our ecosystems and all life together.
God of Hope, with all creation and all peoples, we give you thanks for the efforts to restore our sister Earth. We pray Amen!
Lent: Week 1
Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation
Laudato si’ Comisión: Sister Pascaline YAMEOGO, PERU
