‘Because the world can change a lot in 40 days’

How will I connect spirituality and works this Lent? For inspiration, I look to Pope Francis’ words in Laudato Si’ recalling that all people need “an ‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (LS # 217)

One resource that I can use is a Lenten calendar that reminds me daily why I’m fasting from plastic, or increasing my abstinence from beef, or advocating for clean water, while I am encouraged to keep taking my own small steps.

‘Because the world can change a lot in 40 days,’ VAIPL* has created a Lenten Creation Care Calendar for 2022. This year’s theme is It’s Time to Act. The calendar begins on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday; each week has a theme and each day offers either a prayer, a fact about environmental impact, or a suggested action to help us care for earth and neighbor as part of our spiritual Lenten practice. Links to additional resources are also included.

Give it a look to see if the calendar may be a conversation starter and motivator for you and your family.

You can access and print a copy of the calendar (see below)!

*Virginia Interfaith Power & Light (VAIPL) is the state affiliate of a national organization, Interfaith Power & Light, which is dedicated to bringing together all faith communities to mobilize a religious response to climate change through energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. VAIPL collaborates among people of faith and conscience to grow healthy communities by advancing climate and environmental justice.  See www.vaipl.org
​

​Ash Wednesday falls on March 2nd, marking the start of Lent. You may not realize that our Lenten call to prayer, fasting and almsgiving also leads us to embrace Pope Francis’ guidance in Laudato Si’ to respond to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” in addressing climate change.

By abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, we each reduce our responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, animals raised for food that produce an estimated 14.5% of human-driven greenhouse gas pollution.* Calculations by the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., suggest that merely by avoiding all meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, the average observant Catholic’s personal contribution to emissions reduction would amount to 45 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents.  When looked at community-wide, this makes a significant impact!  The 446,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Arlington alone could avoid 12,000 tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of taking 2600 cars off the road for this full year.

Raleigh’s Greener Lent program promotes the idea of doing a little more than the minimum by enlisting people to reduce their beef consumption in particular and calculates the impact. During this Lent, you could save your weight in CO2e by reducing your consumption of red meat, while eating well and still enjoying some poultry and fish.  Check out the options at their website: https://greenerlent.org.

We are all asked to make personal sacrifices during Lent out of appreciation for God’s gifts and Jesus’ sacrifice for us.  But not all such sacrifices also offer such a quantifiable positive effect in preserving and protecting God’s creation.  After Holy Week, we will check back to ask those who participated in such purposeful fasting what they did, and will calculate Saint Luke parish’s GHG reductions if we obtain enough data.  Have a truly meaningful Lent!
 
*[UN Food and Agriculture Organization
https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/)].
 
REMINDER – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, AT 4:00 P.M., FLAHERTY HALL
Are You Ready for Gardening Season?
Please join the Care for Creation Ministry as we welcome Master Gardener Kim Young.

​Learn tips for eco-friendly gardening in Northern Virginia and bring your questions as we look forward to planting season in McLean!

Lent is a couple weeks away, so I’m thinking about the connection between care for creation and Lent; I found a source of inspiration and encouragement in Dan Misleh’s message in the February Catholic Climate Covenant newsletter. In it, he encourages us to face reality while maintaining hope. We are guided to place climate awareness and action at the forefront of our Lenten practice. Here is Dan’s letter:

​Dear Friend, 

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20:29)  

As we head into year three of the pandemic, I thought of this line from John’s Gospel. An online search revealed several Sunday school lessons that linked the Doubting Thomas story with COVID19. One featured hairspray: you can’t see it, but you know it’s doing its job.   
These lessons struck me as ironic. Children get the message more readily than adults. But far too many adults act as if the unseen threat is not there.   
The same can be said of climate change. Young people see a grim future because invisible and excessive greenhouse gases are doing their job a bit too well. Yet for most adults, we simply go about our lives as if our CO2-spewing cars, homes, businesses and flights aren’t multiplying the threat of extreme floods and droughts.
 
Climate anxiety, especially among young people, is real. Stack on the social isolation of the pandemic, the deterioration of our civic discourse (often spilling over into our churches) and threats to our democracy, and it’s not hard to understand why more and more young people are looking elsewhere for hope, and leaving institutional solutions, including from our Church, behind.
  
Let’s all face reality as we head into Lent. We must rise to the real threat posed by climate change, lower the temperature on our civic discourse, purposefully encounter the “other”—including disillusioned young people—and embrace their story. And we must live a Christian life worthy of the example of Jesus, who loved all, especially the lost, the lonely, the forgotten, the outcast.
​  
With blessings,   
Dan
Dan Misleh  
Founder   
Catholic Climate Covenant 
Reprinted with permission from the February 2022 Newsletter at www.catholicclimatecovenant.org
​

Lent is a couple weeks away, so I’m thinking about the connection between care for creation and Lent; I found a source of inspiration and encouragement in Dan Misleh’s message in the February Catholic Climate Covenant newsletter. In it, he encourages us to face reality while maintaining hope. We are guided to place climate awareness and action at the forefront of our Lenten practice. Here is Dan’s letter:

Dear Friend,
 
“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20:29) 
 
As we head into year three of the pandemic, I thought of this line from John’s Gospel. An online search revealed several Sunday school lessons that linked the Doubting Thomas story with COVID19. One featured hairspray: you can’t see it, but you know it’s doing its job.  
 
These lessons struck me as ironic. Children get the message more readily than adults. But far too many adults act as if the unseen threat is not there.   
The same can be said of climate change. Young people see a grim future because invisible and excessive greenhouse gases are doing their job a bit too well. Yet for most adults, we simply go about our lives as if our CO2-spewing cars, homes, businesses and flights aren’t multiplying the threat of extreme floods and droughts.   

Climate anxiety, especially among young people, is real. Stack on the social isolation of the pandemic, the deterioration of our civic discourse (often spilling over into our churches) and threats to our democracy, and it’s not hard to understand why more and more young people are looking elsewhere for hope, and leaving institutional solutions, including from our Church, behind.  

Let’s all face reality as we head into Lent. We must rise to the real threat posed by climate change, lower the temperature on our civic discourse, purposefully encounter the “other”—including disillusioned young people—and embrace their story. And we must live a Christian life worthy of the example of Jesus, who loved all, especially the lost, the lonely, the forgotten, the outcast. 
​ 
With blessings,   
Dan
Dan Misleh  
Founder   
Catholic Climate Covenant 
Reprinted with permission from the February 2022 Newsletter at www.catholicclimatecovenant.org

In his encyclical, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis calls to all of us when he says “Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet....In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.” (LS #3)
 
Peruvian Bishop Luis Barrera Pacheco of Callao, responds to the Pope’s exhortation by speaking publicly about the oil spill that fouled one hundred miles of shoreline north of Lima in January, poisoning habitat and destroying livelihoods.
 
Bishop Barrera asks for immediate response by government and private industry even as the Church, through its social justice ministry, Caritas, works to support people whose lives are affected now and for years to come by this tragedy.
 
Bishop Barrera insists that the interconnectedness between people and the environment be recognized.  He boldly calls for those responsible for the oil and those charged with protecting the country and its citizens to act swiftly to clean up and rebuild from the damage and loss to habitat, livelihoods and health.
 
"We need leadership from politicians so disasters like this are not repeated," Bishop Barrera wrote. "We call on public officials to take an integral approach to environmental issues and to be concerned about the interrelated ecological, social, cultural and economic dimensions of creation."
 
Through his statement, Bishop Barrera is fulfilling what Pope Francis calls us to in Laudato Si’. He publicly stands up for the rights of the poor and the rights of the earth, challenging the powers of industry and government.
 
How am I called to respond to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”? (LS #49)  Bishop Barrera inspires me to keep my eyes open and be attentive to equity in local projects around redevelopment, building, water management, and housing, and then, to talk about what I see.
 
The full article can be found under Earthbeat on www.NCRonline.org : “Peru bishop warns of harm to environment, livelihoods from oil spill,” by Barbara Fraser, Catholic News Service