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Pilgrims of Hope

 A Thought for the Day from Pope Francis on how to be Pilgrims of Hope--the theme for Jubilee Year 2025:

From the St. Andrew's Care for Creation Ministry, our hopes for this Jubilee year:

My hope is that we all become more aware of the precious gifts of Creation: the earth, the seas, the fish and birds and all the animals, and my prayer is that we all live in Peace!

Where there is life there is hope, and I was blessed to see a new generation that I am so thankful for !!! We need to be hopeful with each new day, smile, and flowers to emerge and enjoy the peaceful snow and marvel at God’s gifts of nature and love 

I hope that our political representatives realize their responsibilities to not dissolve regulations that keep our air, land, and water safe for all citizens. 

I hope for the ability to remember that each drop of water coming out of my faucet is precious.

My hope for 2025 is that all people come to the belief that there is something in this world larger than themselves.

My prayer is for an end to violence, respect for all life, and  true peace! 

I pray for a peaceful conclusion to all the present wars and for all governments to pay more attention to our environment. 

My hope for 2025 is for more understanding, tolerance, and positive encounters between people of different nations, religions, races and ethnicities. Peace on earth for all!

My hope for this jubilee year is that we take care of our earth and each other by looking at our hearts for guidance before we express ourselves in word and deed.

"May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope."  (LS 244)

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

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The Star of Bethlehem

The star of Bethlehem--What was it?  A supernova? A comet?  A conjunction of planets? A miraculous appearance that only those of true faith could see?  A poetic invention?

In Laudato Si', Pope Francis quotes St. John Paul II in saying, "alongside revelation properly so-called, contained in sacred Scripture, there is a divine manifestation in the blaze of the sun and the fall of night."  (LS 85)

Star of Wonder--The Roches

Walt Whitman captures the sense of awe and wonder that we might experience in contemplating the Star of Bethlehem--and all of the stars in the night sky: 

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

And here is another song for meditation:

Star of the East--George Cooper and Amanda Kennedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFG0O_93rk4

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

 You can join the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement on Facebook--and you don't have to live in New York! 

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Joy and Peace

  In Laudato Si', Pope Francis includes a section entitled "Joy and Peace" (LS 222-227).  Joy and peace, of course, are words that we habitually, and rightfully, associate with the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child:  "Joy to the World" ...the "Prince of Peace"....

Why did He come?  Listen--

How do we find that elusive joy, that elusive peace?

Laudato Si'  puts it this way:  "Christian spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us...  those who enjoy more and live better each moment...[while] living on little, can live a lot, above all when they cultivate other pleasures and find satisfaction in fraternal encounters, in service, in developing their gifts, in music and art, in contact with nature, in prayer."  (LS 222-223)

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

 You can join the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement on Facebook--and you don't have to live in New York! 

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No Room at the Inn

"Lack of housing is a grave problem in many parts of the world, both in rural areas and in large cities, since state budgets usually cover only a small portion of the demand.  Not only the poor, but many other members of society as well, find it difficult to own a home. Having a home has much to do with a sense of dignity and the growth of families...." (LS 152)

More than 146,000 New York City students—about one in every eight children enrolled in the public schools—experienced homelessness during the 2023–24 school year, the ninth consecutive year in which more than 100,000 students were identified as homeless.  (advocatesforchildren.org)

New York City, and countless other cities, are facing a housing crisis.  The City Council and Mayor Adams have agreed on a plan to reform the city's zoning laws and to foster the construction of 80,000 new homes in the city.

Will it work?  Will it be enough?  Can we find room in our "inns" (cities, neighborhoods...) for those who really need a home?

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

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Gratitude

  Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes in her book Braiding Sweetgrass:  "The exchange of recognition, gratitude, and reciprocity for these gifts [of the earth] is just as important in a Brooklyn flat as under a birch bark roof."

    In one chapter of the book, she quotes from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Thanksgiving Address:

    We are thankful to our Mother the Earth...

     We give thanks to all the Waters of the World...

    With one mind, we honor and thank all the Food Plants...

    Now we turn to the Medicine Herbs...

    Standing around us we see all the Trees...  

    We gather our minds together to send our greetings and thanks to all the beautiful Animal Life...

    We...thank all the Birds who move and fly about over our heads...

    We are thankful for the powers we know as the Four Winds...

    We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother the Sun...to our eldest Grandmother, the Moon...to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry...

    We...thank the enlightened Teachers...

     We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit...

Sound like St. Francis?  "St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us." (Laudato Si', 1)

Please watch this beautiful brief slideshow.  (Sadly, there is no music to accompany it.)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJAehMTphlU

Hoping you might still find a moment to do this survey:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lFTgcniaKsoZR_q7CyhgFy3bWXeGQ5mJJjkOnJ-QWMs/edit

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

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1.5 Degrees

A Joint Statement from Catholic Climate Covenant and Laudato Si’ Movement on Donald Trump’s Presidential Election Victory

Here is a listen:  "Never Turning Back", by Pat Humphries, sung by Judy Small.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPwRnS7ZEA0

Now, the 1.5:

In climate discussions--as even now COP 29 (the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties) is taking place in Azerbaijan--you hear about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).  What is that all about?  

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial level. The 1.5-degree Celsius threshold is considered critical, as it is when the impacts of climate change are expected to become increasingly severe.

Do you have one minute to watch a video?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FawSxPJsloQ

    The New York Times Magazine (11/10/24) has published a photo essay featuring the stories of six teenagers across the globe in areas already devastated by climate change  and their fears about the future.

    In the introduction, David Wallace-Wells writes, "By the time today's teenagers are 45...the world is likely to have passed the two-degree-Celsius warming threshold, which the Paris agreement promised we would avoid.  At that level of warming, the type of deadly flooding that recently hit central Africa would be expected nearly every year; the lethal heat that killed 1,300 during this spring's hajj pilgrimage would be 13 times as likely as today."

Pope Francis, in Laudato Si':  "What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to the children who are now growing up?" (LS 160)

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.

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Election Day and the Green New Deal

 It's Election Day.  Votes have been cast.  We are waiting for the outcome, which will have a great effect on the future of the climate.

   Here is what Pope Francis, in Laudato Si'', has to say about politics:"...political and institutional frameworks do not exist simply to avoid bad practice, but also to promote best practice, to stimulate creativity in seeking new solutions and to encourage individual and group initiatives....A politics concerned with immediate results, supported by consumerist segments of the population, is driven to produce short-term growth....The myopia of power politics delays the inclusion of a far-sighted environmental agenda...."(LS 177-178)

 You have heard of the Green New Deal, but have you read it? It's only 14 pages long--large print!  

   Read it--or watch this 7-minute video.https://www.bing.com/videos/search?view=detail&q=Green+New+Deal+vox&&mid=EB60B5382BA3E531870FEB60B5382BA3E531870F&mmscn=mtsc&aps=51&FORM=VRDGAR

 No matter who ends up with the reins of government, it is up to us to continue to  see, judge, and act.

Laudato Si' recognizes that it's not just about addressing environmental issues." We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental."  (LS 139)

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Floods and Droughts--Are They Related?

Pope Francis, in Laudate Deum, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)"...it is verifiable that specific climate changes provoked by humanity are notably heightening the probability of extreme phenomena that are increasingly frequent and intense. For this reason, we know that every time the global temperature increases by 0.5° C, the intensity and frequency of great rains and floods increase in some areas and severe droughts in others, extreme heat waves in some places and heavy snowfall in others." (LD 5)

 It has not rained in New York City the entire month of October. A bummer for us gardeners, but a mere inconvenience compared to the ongoing drought in our Western states.  

Or in the Amazon.

The world's largest river is parched.

The Amazon River, battered by back-to-back droughts fueled by climate change, is drying up, with some stretches of the mighty waterway dwindling to shallow pools only a few feet deep. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/world/americas/amazon-river-climate-change-brazil.html?searchResultPosition=2

Meanwhile, in the U.K.:  

UK weather: Flash floods leave cars underwater as some areas see more than a month's rainfall

 One more voting reminder!

Again, from The New York Times: "A Pivotal Choice:  Trump vs. Harris on Climate Change" 

Read--or listen:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/climate/trump-harris-climate-change.html?searchResultPosition=1

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement.                                                                                                 Please share!

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Adaptation and Mitigation

   These two words are increasingly being used to name two aspects of how we address climate change.  What do they mean?

Here is an explanation from the World Wildlife Fund:

The climate crisis is increasingly distressing. Fortunately, there are many things we can do to ensure our future is as prosperous as possible. These actions fall into one of two broad categories: climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation. These terms go hand-in-hand while navigating through the climate crisis, but they mean very different things. 

Climate change mitigation means avoiding and reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures. Climate change adaptation means altering our behavior, systems, and—in some cases—ways of life to protect our families, our economies, and the environment in which we live from the impacts of climate change. The more we reduce emissions right now, the easier it will be to adapt to the changes we can no longer avoid.

Mitigation actions will take decades to affect rising temperatures, so we must adapt now to the change that is already upon us—and will continue to affect us in the foreseeable future.

"The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all."  (LS 23)

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Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement. We ask you to please share this information in your own social media platform.

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Floods

There has been a tremendous response to the needs of those in North Carolina and other states whose lives have been upended by the floods generated by Hurricane Helene.  You can join in the relief effort through your donation to Catholic Charities USA:

The website will give you specific details as to how the money is being used.

Bill McKibben explains how this disaster--in an area considered by some to be safe from the effects of climate change-happened:

If you want to understand the horror still unfolding in Appalachia, and actually if you want to understand the 21st century, you need to remember one thing: warm air holds more water vapor than cold....As Hurricane Helene swept in across a superheated Gulf of Mexico, its winds rapidly intensified—that part is really easy to understand, since hurricanes draw their power from the heat in the water....Were it happening just in one place, a compassionate world could figure out how to offer effective relief. But it’s happening in so many places.... We’re now watching the climate crisis play out in real time, week by week, day by day.  

If you want to understand the horror still unfolding in Appalachia, and actually if you want to understand the 21st century, you need to remember one thing: warm air holds more water vapor than cold....As Hurricane Helene swept in across a superheated Gulf of Mexico, its winds rapidly intensified—that part is really easy to understand, since hurricanes draw their power from the heat in the water....Were it happening just in one place, a compassionate world could figure out how to offer effective relief. But it’s happening in so many places.... We’re now watching the climate crisis play out in real time, week by week, day by day.   (Full article here:  https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/water)

In Laudate Deum, Pope Francis writes:   [W]ith the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point. In addition to this possibility, it is indubitable that the impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many persons. We will feel its effects in the areas of healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing, forced migrations, etc. This is a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life. The Bishops of the United States have expressed very well this social meaning of our concern about climate change, which goes beyond a merely ecological approach, because “our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together. Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community. The effects of climate change are borne by the most vulnerable people, whether at home or around the world”. (LD 2-3)

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Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement. We ask you to please share this information in your own social media platform.

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Faithful Citizenship

  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) publishes an official Catholic voting guide called  "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship". 

  The guide is prefaced with this quote from Pope Francis: 

We need to participate for the common good. Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic is not interested in politics. This is not true: good Catholics immerse themselves in politics by offering the best of themselves so that the leader can govern.

"Faithful Citizenship"  makes it clear that parishes ought to "address the moral and human dimensions of public issues" and to "share church teaching on human life, human rights, and justice and peace" but must not "endorse or oppose candidates for political office." 

The document examines many issues, including that, "as one human family dwelling in our common home, we must hear 'both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor' and respond to climate change with actions to better protect creation for our brothers and in generations to come."

Early voting is now, or will soon be, in effect in many states.  Make sure to study all candidates and issues--local, state, and national. 

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Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement. We ask you to please share this within your own social media platform.

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Imitating St. Francis

St. Francis is not only about blessing the animals.

This week we are handing the platform over to Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, who writes in his Daily Meditations (9/30/24--"Practicing the Gospel"):

Father Richard identifies a radical change in lifestyle at the heart of Franciscan spirituality and the gospel of Jesus:

For Francis and Clare of Assisi, Jesus became someone to actually imitate, not just to worship. Since Jesus himself was humble and poor, Francis made the pure and simple imitation of Jesus his life’s agenda. In fact, he often did it in an almost absurdly literal way. He was a fundamentalist—not about doctrinal Scriptures—but about lifestyle Scriptures: take nothing for your journey; eat what is set before you; work for your wages; wear no shoes.

At the heart of Franciscan orthopraxy is the practice of paying attention to different things (nature, people on the margins, humility, itinerancy, mendicancy, mission) instead of shoring up the home base. His early followers tried to live the gospel “simply and without gloss,” as Francis told them.

Fr. Rohr's Daily Meditations can be found at:

For his part, Pope Francis tells us that "St. Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically." (LS 10) and

"The poverty and austerity of St. Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled." (LS 11)

Here's a St. Francis song you might not have heard:

CREDITS: Script and lyrics--Nellita Goes; Music--Joey Mendoza; Video: Baby Kangarooo

As the authors of the song add in the comment section:

WE ARE CALLED: To be vehicles, Of love, joy and peace, To go forth empowering all, To put everyone at ease.

Sharing Laudato Si' comes to you from the St. Andrew the Apostle Care for Creation Ministry, Brooklyn, New York, affiliated with the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement. We ask you to please share this within your own social media platform.