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