Trinity Sunday of Laudato Si Week

 

Today we mark the last day of Laudato Si Week. For the last week our Ursuline JPIC team have provided daily reflections on Laudato Si. May we always care for all creation.

Trinity Sunday of Laudato Si' Week

 

"Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love, teach us to contemplate you in the beauty of the universe, for all things speak of you. Awaken our praise and thankfulness for every being that you have made. Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is." LS, A Christian Prayer in Union with Creation   “It is communion that makes things ‘be’; nothing exists without it, not even God.” John Zizioulas

Reflection and Commitment Sunday

 

Today we reach the last day of Laudato Si' Week, but we don't want the activities carried out during these days to be forgotten. Today is rather a time to reflect on the changes we have made and to commit ourselves to sustaining them. For we know that personal changes in our lifestyle become cultural changes. Let's continue to build a more sustainable future together! For more details, visit: laudatosiweek.org

 

Laudato SI Week May 19 - 26, 2024

 

Laudato Si Week (May 19-26, 2024) Let's Celebrate Seeds of Hope

 

The 2023 Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum amplified the urgent call of Laudato Si’ to ecological conversion, to a “pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home.” The theme of Laudato Si’ Week 2024, Seeds of Hope, calls to mind the words of Meister Eckhart, "What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action." We invite you to a daily period of contemplative prayer during Laudato Si’ Week 2024, to a daily planting of the seeds of hope in the soil of contemplation. If you can, pray outside. Begin your prayer by becoming aware of your place in the communion of Creation. Press your feet into the ground. Become conscious of your breathing. Feel the sun or breeze on your skin. Listen for the voices of other creatures. When you feel centered, read the day’s quotes from Laudato Si’ or Laudate Deum and from the other authors. How do they relate to each other? Pick a word or phrase that calls to you. Let that word draw you into silence. Let the seed of hope sink into the soil of contemplation. What are you called to reap in the harvest of action? (These reflections for Laudato Si Week are courtesy of Office of Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation, Sisters of Charity of New York Office of Peace, Justice and Ecological Integrity, Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth) Pentecost Sunday, May 19   “Hence, “the creatures of this world no longer appear to us under merely natural guise because the risen One is mysteriously holding them to himself and directing them towards fullness as their end. The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence”. If “the universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely… there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face”. The world sings of an infinite Love: how can we fail to care for it?” LD 65 “God is God as Spirit-Sophia, the mobile, pure, people-loving Spirit who pervades every wretched corner, wailing at the waste, releasing power that enables fresh starts. Her energy quickens the earth to life, her beauty shines in the stars, her strength breaks forth in every fragment of shalom and renewal…. From generation to generation, she enters into holy souls, and not so holy ones, to make them friends of God and prophets, thereby making human beings allies of God’s redeeming purpose. What we can say is this: Sophia-God dwells in the world at its center and at its edges, an active vitality crying out in labor, birthing the new creation. Fire, wind, water, and the color purple are her signs.”  Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ

Mother's Day Prayer

 

A Prayer in Gratitude for Our Mothers

Good and Gentle God,
we pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women of theory who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life. You who became human through a woman, grant to all mothers the courage they need to face the uncertain future that life with children always brings.
Give them the strength to live and to be loved in return, not perfectly, but humanly.
Give them the faithful support of husband, family and friends as they care for the physical and spiritual growth of their children.
Give them joy and delight in their children to sustain them through the trials of motherhood. Most of all, give them the wisdom to turn to you for help when they need it most. Amen.

• Author Unknown

Sixth Sunday of Easter

 

Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another." (John 15: 9-17)

In today’s Gospel we see that faith in Christ is Christ gift to us. The key today is not simply following the commandments, turning around to see if Jesus is watching. It is more that that. John Shea once said, “if people grasp and understand themselves as link in the love chain from the Father to Jesus, from Jesus to them, and from them to one another, they will be moved from being anxious." Our society today is full of anxiety as we witness wars, dissension, racial conflicts, political storms, and a lack of compassion. This does not have to be a way of life; we can resist that because it's anti- resurrection. Being separated from others, from the form of always making sure that I come first, and that we can only think about everyone else or we're following our own bliss and not having a sense of the common good is preferred. We are invited to remember that the Risen Christ opened his arms wide and always desires that we remain in Him always.

May Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, that rooted and grounded in love, we may have the strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.