SAINT LUKE CATHOLIC CHURCH
  • Home
  • About the Parish
    • Overview >
      • Staff/Contact
      • Directions and Boundaries
      • Parish History
      • Parish Council
    • Registration
    • FAQs >
      • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Mandate for Health Coverage
    • Parish Finance Council >
      • Stewardship
      • Electronic Donations
      • Gifts of Stock and IRAs
      • Corporate Matching Gifts
      • Planned Giving
    • Picture Gallery
  • Liturgy
    • Mass Times
    • Funerals >
      • What We Can Do
      • Eulogies and Remembrances
      • FAQs
      • Readings
      • Music
    • Liturgical Ministers >
      • Altar Servers
      • Lectors
      • Eucharistic Ministers
      • Ushers and Greeters
    • Sacraments >
      • Sponsor Forms
      • Anointing of the Sick
      • Baptism >
        • Infant Baptism
        • Child Baptism
        • Adult Baptism
      • Confirmation >
        • Catholic Adult Confirmation
      • Eucharist
      • Marriage/Weddings
      • Ordination
      • Reconciliation
    • Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults/RCIA >
      • Overview
      • Catechumens, Candidates, Sponsers
      • Schedule and Meetings
      • Inquires/Contact
    • Children's Liturgy of the Word
    • Private Devotions
    • Daily Readings and Resources
  • Music
    • Music Ministries
    • Music in McLean Concerts
    • Pipe Organ
    • Resources
  • Religious Education
    • Schedule
    • Enrollment
    • Car Chat!
    • Child Protection Program
    • Confirmation at Saint Luke >
      • Confirmation Information
      • Renewal of Baptismal Promises
      • Responsibilities of Candidates
      • Responsibilities of Parents and Sponsors
      • Saint Resources
      • About the Holy Spirit and Interview information
      • What Every Confirmed Catholic Should Know
      • Catholic Social Teaching
      • Confirmation FAQs
    • First Reconciliation
    • First Communion
    • Children's Social Outreach
    • Resources
    • Get Involved
  • Youth Ministry
    • High School (Grades 9-12)
    • Middle School (Grades 6-8)
    • Grate Patrol
    • Best Week Ever (VBS)
    • Youth Ministry Calendar
    • Catholic Youth Sports CYO
    • Catholic Scouting
    • WorkCamp
    • Volunteer Opportunities
  • Adult Faith Formation
    • Baptism Preparation
    • Adult Bible Study
    • Faith & Wisdom Book Group
    • Women/Walking With Purpose
    • Women's Study & Fellowship
    • That Man Is You/TMIY
    • Men's Prayer Group
    • FORMED
    • Lenten Soup Suppers
    • Library
    • Resources
  • Organizations
    • Care for Creation - Home >
      • About
      • Events
      • Initiatives
      • Education >
        • Laudato Si' Study
        • Resources
        • Vatican News
        • Blog Page
    • Ecumenical and Interreligious Ministry
    • Kaffee Klatch
    • Knights of Columbus, Saint Luke Council
    • Pro-Life Committee
    • Seniors 50+
    • Supper Club
    • Ministry Fair
  • Social Outreach
    • Bereavement Ministry
    • Outreach Programs
    • Outreach Committee
  • Saint Luke School
  • Planning Our Future
    • Mission and Vision
    • Saint Luke Survey Results Fall 2013
    • Strategic Plan
    • Areas of Focus
    • State of the Parish, Nov. 9, 2016
Search

Falling in love with creation

9/17/2021

0 Comments

 
​Falling in Love with Creation
Gary Gardner
 
Gary Gardner is a writer on issues of faith and sustainability. His latest book is The Earth Cries Out: How Faith Communities Meet the Challenges of Sustainability. He is a member of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Arlington, VA.
 
The great Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould once wrote that to save our endangered environment, we must forge an emotional bond between ourselves and nature, for “we will not fight to save what we do not love.” We will not fight to save what we do not love.

Much of the vast damage inflicted on our planet has occurred, arguably, because we have fallen out of love with nature. Industrial development of the past two centuries, for all its benefits, has taught us to view the natural world as a warehouse of resources. Forests are so many board-feet of lumber, for example. Expanses of meadowland are potential shopping malls, and rivers are pipelines to farms and thirsty cities. This utilitarian stance does not generate the emotional bond that Stephen Jay Gould advocated, the attitude of reverence that teaches us to live in harmony with our planet.

So how can we learn to love nature if this was not part of our early formation? Perhaps surprisingly, our Judeo-Christian tradition can help. Laudato Si' and its environmental ethos, far from being a new Christian concern, is as old as our faith itself; it sees nature as a sacred expression of God’s love.  

We hear that expression in our Scriptures as far back as Genesis, where the very setting for God’s creation is a garden of overflowing abundance. We hear it in Psalm 65 and in the Canticle of Daniel, which calls out the waters, the sun and moon, and the stars of heaven to bless the Lord. In our Scriptures, nature is a sacred gift and a bridge to God. 
 
Beyond Scripture, the Franciscan family offers rich resources that can deepen in us a love of God’s Creation. Consider St. Francis himself, who uses poetry to articulate the beauty of Creation, speaking intimately of “Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon,” for example. For Francis the elements of nature are family, so deep is his love for them. Can we imagine approaching nature with the same reverence?
 
Or consider the teachings of another Franciscan, St. Bonaventure, who builds on Francis’ poetry with theological insights that can deepen our love of Creation. Bonaventure begins with the Trinity, describing the Father, Son, and Spirit as a God of communication and relationship whose idiom is love. But their dialogue of love is not a conversation confined to themselves. No, they share their love generously, speaking out to the universe. In this way, the universe—Creation — can be understood as the speech of God, an outward expression of God’s love.

Take that in. Creation is the speech of God. Chirping songbirds, gurgling streams, wind whistling through trees—God speaks to us! Even the quiet miracles of emerging leaves and germinating seeds speak to us deeply, if we pause and invite them in.

Bonaventure is not finished. If Creation is the speech of God, doesn’t nature become another way of understanding the Word of God? Bonaventure thought so. The Franciscan-authored book Care for Creation explains that for Bonaventure, the natural world is a companion to Scripture in expressing the Word of God. Indeed, every creature can be thought of as a “little Word” of God. Think about that on your next outing: squirrels, finches, wind, water — each a little Word of God.

In short, loving nature becomes organic once we see nature as God’s communication to us. We receive God’s generous outpouring to us, and we respond in kind, through our love of the natural world.

Indeed, if we understand nature as God’s self-communication to us, we might adopt new practices that reinforce our love of nature. Daily walks become not just exercise, but a chance to exult in the natural world, where every moment is an entrypoint and invitation to experience God. 
 
Our consumption habits might change: appreciating nature as gift, consumption becomes not merely the pursuit of pleasure, but a mindful appreciation of the gifts God has given us. We might extend our habit of grace before meals to broader patterns of consumption, similar to the practice of the Tlingit people of Alaska: before harvesting forest resources, they give thanks for them and promise to use only as much as they need. Imagine such resource consciousness in our daily life—expressing gratitude and promising sobriety every time we flip a light switch or reach for the car keys. Wouldn’t this engender in us a greater reverence for Creation?
 
Whether our effort to love and protect the Earth is expressed as a greened prayer life, a mindfulness of lifestyle, or greater commitment to Earth advocacy, energy for the work can be found in a warm and consoling truth: that God loves us through Creation itself, in a never-ending generosity that sustains us each moment. How could our response be anything but love in return?
0 Comments

2021 Season of Creation Earth Examen

9/12/2021

0 Comments

 
​“His divine presence, which ensures the subsistence and growth of each being, ‘continues the work of creation’”. Pope Francis Laudato Si’ #80

As we begin the second week of this year’s Season of Creation, consider practicing an Earth Examen.
 
An examen is a way of being in prayerful wonder of something you behold. In celebration of the Season of Creation, look for a quiet time to spend in nature, paying attention to the life cycles of plants, animals, or any facet of our earth. An Earth Examen is one of the resources offered through the worldwide Season of Creation.org site; a guide to this practice can be found by searching Season of Creation Earth Examen.
 
Would spending time in nature make a difference to our lives? Would stopping to pay attention to the complexity that surrounds us every day in the wildlife and landscapes that we live among increase a sense of respect for the environment? Would focusing on the season right now encourage us to appreciate this particular moment of creation and recognize the bounty of this month’s harvest and the impact of eating local seasonal foods? Would our health and well being be influenced?  What about the effect on local small farms?  
 
What are other ways that can help us slow down and take some deliberate time to explore how God is revealed through Creation?  The Examen guide on the Season of Creation site offers a step-by-step practice that helps us re-discover our own sense of the sacredness of the world and thereby enliven our desire to respect and nurture it through our lives.
 
“The spirit of life dwells in every living creature and calls us to enter into relationship….Discovering this presence leads us to cultivate the ecological virtues.” 
Pope Francis Laudato Si’ #88

0 Comments
    Main Education Menu

    Care for Creation - Blog Team

    Care for Creation Blog Team share information on variety of topics and initiatives, in an effort to educate and increase awareness of Pope Francis' encyclical, Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021

    Categories

    All