Sustainability 2.0 and Artworks 3.0 for Season of Creation

 

A Call to Action: “The Effect of Justice Will Be Peace”

 

God calls us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). We are called to live in peace, worship the Creator, and work for a just and sustainable community that aligns with God’s eternal plans. As co-workers with the Creator, we must embody peace with all of Creation.

• “My people shall abide in a peaceful habitation” (v18). God’s peace is unconditional, rooted in justice and righteousness for all people and Creation. Peace cannot exist for only a few.

God’s peace emerges when we work for justice, solidarity, reconciliation, and harmony with Creation. Transformation takes patience, understanding, and trust.

• Action can include advocacy, sustainability projects, cleaning campaigns, or education to show that caring for Creation is central to our faith. We must collaborate and build on diversity to achieve peace.

pp. 11-12 Creation Guide

 

More on this Celebration Guide: https://seasonofcreation.org/resources/
UIW Brainpower Connection's Sustainability through Green Campus Initiative

UIW Call to Sustainability by Dr. John Hooker

NOTE:  The artworks submission deadline has been extended to September 29, 2025

Laudato Si ongoing training

We are exploring three goals from the LS platform (one goal per session):

• Ecological education
• Ecological spirituality
• Response to the cry of the earth

The entire process is aimed at strengthening existing knowledge and building commitments from the personal to the collective in response to the reality we live in as the city of Chimbote, Peru.

The Interconnectedness of Creation and our Purpose

In the most recent parish event before our young ones got dismissed from religious education for vacation, we had a great time being with the children of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles.  We had an opportunity to teach them about Laudato Si.  The religious education director Deacon Rich gave us about 40 students.  Our main topic was about the encyclical in short version.  We had the interconnectedness of the creation as our ice-breaker. We only had less than an hour.  With the number of students that we had we decided that we will enjoy the ice-breaker and keep them engaged with this activity that they were enjoying.   We started with a tree.  A child picked up a tree, another child picked up a bee, another picked up a human being, another picked up a flower, another picked up a bird, another picked up a soil, and so on.  The children were so engaging in thinking how the creatures and biome are connected to each other.   If one does not exist, the food chain, habitat, or the source of energy is cut off.   One feeds on another and one needs another to exist.  Everything has a mission and purpose.   One cannot do the job for what it is designed for and such creature has a special purpose or mission.  A lion nor an elephant can replace the worker bees.  Worker bees cannot exist without the mother bee, and mother bee produces the worker bees and male bees.   Knowing that we have an environmental crisis where everyone can contribute, we ask the children how can they take care of the earth.  

Most of the children who participated received a seed. For the question and answers reusable utensils, which hopefully they will carry with them and use to avoid plastic spoon, fork and knife. Some of the children receive a reusable produce net bag.  Everybody was able to stop and ponder, who is this creature and how is this creature connected to another? 

Spiritual Care Department supported the Earth day by being able to raised the importance of advocacy that plastic pollution has become an epidemic in the world.  It is all around our home, communities, parishes, schools, restaurants, streets, rivers, beaches, etc.  How do we stop and be more aware that we are all contributors to this epidemic?  How do we stop our arrogance against nature that we cannot do whatever we want in terms of our shopping, eating, and living practices having the plastics parts of the daily consumption and trash?  By the questions that we gave to the employees in one of our hospitals, it helped to stop people that there is an issue and they too can raise awareness that there is an issue to be tackled.  We sponsored a raffle in one of our hospitals during the Earth Month to raise awareness and ask the people about the three questions:

1. What is the theme of this year’s (2024) Earth Day? Stop Plastic

2.   Plastics are a danger to humanity and all living creatures, disrupting the delicate balance of life on earth. True

3.  United States Health costs this much increase due to chemicals used in plastics: $200 Billion

It was reported that there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish by 2050.  This is how bad the situation is unless something radical is put in place to stop the epidemic on plastic.  Daphne Bramham: There could be more plastic than fish in oceans by 2050 | Vancouver Sun

Pope Francis, through Laudato Si, is teaching us that we are all connected and where everything impacts another creature or entity in the bios.   Pope Francis has been advocating and inviting people of the world towards ecological conversation.  Even further, Yaka in his article “Rethinking Justice: Struggles for Environmental Commons and the Notion of Socio‐Ecological Justice,” argues that with a socio-ecological consciousness we become aware that human and non-human life can co-exist with dignity. 

Everybody has their own way of expressing their care of the earth and perhaps some are not yet aware of how their carbon footprint impacts the bigger picture.  Each of these contributes to the climate change which we all share.   Pope Francis wrote the Laudate Deum as a follow-up on what has transpired since the Laudato Si in 2015. 

Reflection Questions:

·       What have you done differently for Laudato Si or what are you able to do for Laudato Si Care of our Common Home? 

·       How do you see the Laudate Deum of Pope Francis helping in raising the urgency of the Climate Crisis?

·       What are you able to do for your community knowing about this topic?

June 5 is the World Environment Day, let us be mindful that the environment is a common good and deserves our attention to be mindful stewards of it.  Find out more about this event in https://www.unep.org/events/un-day/world-environment-day-2024

Written by Sr. Marylou Rodriguez CCVI.

The seven goals of the Laudato Si Action Platform

You may have read or heard about the seven goals of Laudato Si, here is a synopsis of what they mean.

1.     The Response to the Cry of the Poor is a call to promote eco-justice, aware that we are called to defend all forms of life on Earth. Actions could include supporting initiatives to end human trafficking, accompanying the elderly, people with disabilities, migrants and families of missing persons, assisting children in day care centers whose low-income mothers have to work, etc.

2.     The Response to the Cry of the Earth is a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all. Actions could include promoting greater use of clean renewable energies and reducing fossil fuels to achieve carbon neutrality, efforts to protect and promote biodiversity, supporting policies that guarantee access to clean water for all, etc.

3.     The Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles is grounded in the idea of solidarity and promoting sobriety in the use of resources and energy. Actions could include participating in urban eco-projects, encouraging the elimination of single-use plastic, adopting a more plant-based diet, supporting people wishing to implement family/community gardens, etc.

4.     Ecological Economics acknowledges that the economy is a sub-system of human society. Actions could include the promotion of cooperatives in indigenous communities, sustainable production, fair trade, ethical consumption, ethical investments, divestment from fossil fuels and any economic activity harmful to the planet and people, investment in renewable energies, etc.

5.     Ecological Education is about re-thinking in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action. Actions could include assistance to patients with alternative medicine, promotion of values of care for creation, promotion of eco-friendly projects, etc.

6.     Ecological Spirituality springs from a profound ecological conversion and helps us to “discover God in all things.” Actions could include prayers on integral ecology, promoting creation-based liturgical celebrations, developing ecological retreats, catechesis, and formation programs, etc.

7.     Community resilience and empowerment envisage a synodal journey of community engagement and participatory action at various levels. Actions could include promoting advocacy and awareness of fracking, fostering rootedness in local territory and neighborhood ecosystems, taking a stand against unfair systems, etc.

A Call to Pray, Reflect and Take Action as a Mission

It has been record-breaking heat on earth where people had to endure the brutal hot temperature in longest days of July.  This has not happened in 120,000 years as reported by scientists in the news.  San Antonio hit a triple digit temperature for the most days of July with 125 degrees in some areas of Southern Texas.  The end of the Summer this year is about to come by September 22.  It comes with hope that the change in season will soften the blow of the summer’s raging temperature.  The end of the season does not, however, end the truth on Climate Change.  On October 4, Pope Francis will publish an exhortation as another message calling us to reflect on our call to revisit Laudato Si, the encyclical published on October 2015 in lieu of the call for ecological conversion.

The summer’s wildfires and bush fires have impacted lives of people, animals, and even cost billions of dollars of damages to the environment and livelihood across the country and in other parts of the world such as Greece, Canada, Australia, Croatia, France, Spain, etc.  A lot of these wildfires are record-breaking in in terms of the number of fires and the extent of the burned areas.   As scientists already reported, this climate change is anthropogenic.  This means, what we are experiencing is caused by human activity and not by cosmic-induced phenomena.  The solution is in our hands.  The greenhouse effect of burning fossil fuels, and other carbon-emitting human-based activities causing atmospheric changes.  The symbiotic relationship of the atmospheric changes to the geological, biological, and ecological system is getting manifested through the changes in weather patterns becoming erratic, and more dangerous.  We are observing the occurrence of natural disasters such as typhoons, storms, and hurricanes that are becoming more frequent and more disastrous which the climate scientists have already warned us.  If human beings are resilient and adaptable to changes, why bother about this Climate Change?  Weather patterns as part of the climate of a region help people and even animals to adapt to the kind of living environment and sometimes survival mechanism. As we are already experiencing effects of Climate Change, the urgency about this crisis demands our action now.  The United Nations (UN) sees 1.5 °C as a critical turning point to avoid cataclysmic results by the end of the century.

There have been several actions such as studies, and even Kyoto Protocol treaty to moderate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 1997 even before the historic Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.  The Paris Climate Agreement marked the world-wide commitment of 194 parties to tackle Climate Change.  Pope Francis wrote the Laudato Si encyclical in 2015 to educate us of our interconnectedness with the creation, and to invite us to answer the call for ecological conversion.   The world has not been more aware of this call.

This is the time to pray, reflect, and take action.  Today is the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.  It is today when St. Helena, while on a pilgrimage on the events where Jesus Christ had thread upon, discovered the true cross in Jerusalem in 320 AD.  It was on September 14 that her son Constantine dedicates the Church of the Holy Sepuclcher in September 14, 335 AD.  Today, we offer our prayer, reflection, and works that Jesus Christ will be triumphant in our lives to pray, reflect and take actions.  As we have learned in the movie "The Letter" as part of the Laudato Si project reflecting the situation in the world, the four vulnerable recipients of the environmental phenomenon are the poor, indigenous, nature, and the youth. This is an invitation to reflect the call to be united in a cause for ecological conversion and to be especially united in solidarity with our vulnerable brothers and sisters incuding the Creation where we all belong.

+JMJ

Message from Laudato Si Movement Program Coordinator for Texas and New Mexico

Rally for the Climate Emergency

Texas State Capitol

Sunday, September 17

Noon – 2 p.m.

Calling all Catholics!  In support of restoring God’s creation to have clean water and air, abundant biodiversity, rich soil quality, protect human health from conception to natural death and to bear witness to the climate emergency we face, you are invited to the south steps of the TX State Capitol.  Come stand and raise your voice for those whose voices are not heard, suffering from environmental injustice and racism.  Hear and learn from speakers and organizations about what more you can do and more importantly, be witness to all political and business leaders to take collective action to end the war against our Earth.  We do this in solidarity with the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels, for the upcoming start of the UN Climate Ambition Summit, as we demand a rapid, just and equitable transformation to save our planet.  Catholics will gather at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral at 203 E. 10^th St. for prayer before proceeding to the capitol at 11:45 a.m. as a people of faith.  You do not need to register but to help with a head count, please let us know how many you are bringing to the event at SignUp Genius  *This is a permitted event by the State Preservation Board.

Rally for the Climate Emergency

Texas State Capitol

Sunday, September 17

Noon – 2 p.m.

 

People of good will who care about clean water and air, biodiversity, soil quality, the climate crisis or human health, are invited to this state permitted event on the south steps of the TX State Capitol.  Come stand and raise your voice for those whose voices are not heard, suffering from environmental injustice and racism.  Hear and learn from speakers and organizations about what more you can do and more importantly, be witness to all political and business leaders to take collective action to end the war against our Earth.  We do this in solidarity with the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels, for the upcoming start of the UN Climate Ambition Summit, as we demand a rapid, just and equitable transformation to save our planet.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laudatositexas/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laudatositexas/

Other Information on the Catholic Youth Conference: Join or support young Catholics marching for their future (salsalabs.org)

 

Choosing Natives for Resilient and Bio-diverse Eco-system

I occasionally volunteer for Headwaters, where I would meet a few people who are also passionate about nature and building community.  I would learn some interesting facts about nature while I get myself immersed in the beauty of nature.  Working with nature can be relaxing, fun, and educational.  You can see interesting plants blooming in the middle of the forest, you can meet fellow nature enthusiasts, you can work hard under he sun and you can have your daily exercise getting your hands dirty with soil while walking, standing, and reaching out for something can be your exercise of the day.   The last time I volunteered for Headwaters, I learned about the Natural Plant Society of Texas.  They give regular and scheduled talks to the public so that the public and members can be aware of the essence of having a locally sound yard and habitat for local species among other things.   One of the recent flowers that I learned from my recent encounter is the "fall obedience."  One of the friendly folks explained and showed to me why it was called “obedience.”  When you push or touch this flower to face a certain direction, this flower will stay where you push it towards.  It is normal that when you touch a flower, it will bounce back at you.  Not this flower.  I also learned that Bermuda grass is a kind of invasive plant.  It does not belong to San Antonio Region, and therefore, it is considered non-native and harmful to the local plants.  We plucked all the Bermuda grasses, weeds, and other invasive plants in all designated areas until we could no longer find any.

After learning a few things about the local plants from my nature-friendly friends, I became conscious of my surroundings, especially those that my new naturalist friend told me.  When I look at the Bermuda grass in the lawn of some of the houses in the neighborhood, it seems natural, green grass on the ground.   It looks beautiful and serene.  However, think twice before you appreciate that lawn with foreign grass.  Having a Bermuda grass and very green lawn in San Antonio, Texas would not be an ideal garden feature you would see or even adapt.  Maintaining Bermuda grass in Southern Texas is not recommended by horticulturist and Natural Plant Society.  It can take up a lot of water for the kind of weather and the drought situation in this region.  I learned from the Natural Plant Society that if you are to keep grass in your lawn in Texas, it is better to choose buffalo grass, horse herb as a turf, which belongs to a family of low-water-use landscape.

Why remove the non-native? Non-natives are normally high maintenance.  It is mostly the local plants that are considered known food for consumption of the local animals and insects.  As a source for food consumption, their numbers would generally dwindle down while the non-native plants occupy and compete with the space and resources that are meant to be for the local plants.  The diseases that the local plants are prone to will also cause these natives to decrease more in number while the invasive non-native plants, being immune to local plant diseases, continue to grow.  Eventually, the native plants have been suffocated by the non-native and invasive plants.  With the presence of only non-natives in the habitat, the animals and insects would no longer find food familiar to them.  One example is that if the bees cannot find flower that they are familiar with, they will go to another habitat, or another place that is suitable for them, having food and a safe habitat. With the drought-stricken city or even state, the residents are to be aware of the benefits of planting natives.  These plants are normally acclimated to the weather and can be low maintenance in terms of water and heat resistant to sun exposure.

Even more conscious of the climate if we use our resources to have vegetables and fruit-bearing plants that are local to us.  Thus, if you are spending a lot of money on your yard, you can harvest something right out of your garden over a few months.  That will be your food security apart from having gardening as a hobby.  When you have a edible garden in your yard, you know the kind of food that you are putting into your body. Hopefully, you will not use chemicals so you can have an organic and satisfying meal.  If you have some leftovers, you can enjoy being charitable by donating your extras to the local food pantries or distribution centers.

Another native plant that is perfectly suited to San Antonio weather is the Texas sage, and oleander.  These do not require much water and are considered a sub-tropical shrub.  These plants work best in USDA zones 8-10.  They can be in full bloom amidst the triple digits weather most of the time.  

When we choose native plants, we conserve our precious water so that it can be used for some other purposes that are critical during the summer season.  The local wildlife and birds will also thank you for choosing native plants.  This type of plant can also save you time in pampering and checking whether they need fertilizer or some trimming and other maintenance that you would do for a non-native species.  Since these plants are known locally, the ecosystem can thrive and flourish according to how nature designed them to be.  Given their natural habitat, the plants can adapt to the make-up of the soil, the weather, and other resources that make the plant grow.  The animals and insects can also find their local sources of food, without going further.  With local consumers, and local producers in the natural habitat, we cooperate with the nature to have healthy and bio-diverse eco-system.

Check out this interesting and cool music by Hila the Earth who invites all to get the native plants on the map:   Hila the Earth - Native Plants (Let's Get Them on the MAP!) (vimeo.com)

Learn more about native plants by checking the npsot.org website: Why Native Plants? - Native Plant Society of Texas (npsot.org)

 Check out out events and survey to serve you better: Justicia, Paz y Tierra / Justice, Peace and Earth: Common Home (saccvi.blogspot.com)

 Happy Season of Creation!  Let's make nature thrive.   

Short Film Series about Eco-Sites & San Antonio Events

Eco-Sites

 

Events

All videos were created and produced by S. Marylou Rodriguez CCVI.

Season of Creation

 

Happy Season of Creation!

From September 1- October 4, we are celebrating the Season of Creation by uniting worldwide in prayer and action. This year’s theme is “Let Justice and Peace Flow.” Here are some resources that might be of interest. Let’s take this season as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to be good stewards of God’s creation. 

(a) Season of Creation Prayer. Creator of All, from your communion of love life sprung forth like a mighty river and the whole cosmos came into being. On this Earth of overflowing love, the Word was made flesh and went forth with the life-giving waters proclaiming peace and justice for all creation. Read more or Print the prayer card by clicking HERE

(b) Activities in San Antonio. A superb CCVI inter-ministerial team led by S. Marylou Rodriguez has created a variety of experiences that are accessible to all. See the program by clicking HERE

(c) Activities in St. Louis & beyond. The Seeds of Justice Network team offers a series of resources for prayer, action, and participation in caring for the common home. Read

(d) Eco-sites in San Antonio (Short-films Series). Sisters Miriam, Christi, Martha Ann and Marylou talk about some of the living sites around us. Videos

(e) Pope Francis' Message. 2023 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. See more

(f) Our Sisters' Sharing. S. Martha Ann Kirk shares about Sister Water (see here), and S. Marylou Rodriguez shares about the care of the common home activities at the UIW (see page 5). 

Blessings!

Abundant Harvest

 

Matthew 9:36-38 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

 

All of us are harvesters in one way or another according to the way in which we are called.  We are leaders in the service of the Reign of God.  This requires patience, perseverance, and resilience in what we are called to do and to be.  If you think there is nothing to do, wait until you go to the Respite Center, Food Bank, Catholic Worker House, Inner City Development, etc. You are needed, and your contribution will be appreciated by the people and organization who need your service.  A man in the Food Bank shared his justice and peace advocacy to someone who is saddened by his situation, he said, “Do you think you have a problem? Come and join us make some sandwiches for the homeless, you will see…”

 

There is usually a lack of budget to fill the demands of a position that relates to social and economic services that requires more than one person to fill in.  There is an abundance of work, there is always somewhere to contribute your time, talent, and effort.  Topping the list is the migrant shelters.  I volunteer with the Catholic Charities Respite Shelter occasionally, and there is non-stop influx of refugees and migrants.  The facility has hundreds of portable beds.  The facility can accommodate 500 but there are more than that on a peak day. The chapel of the facility has become a makeshift room for bed spaces to accommodate people who needed extra space to sleep.  The refugees come and go but their gratitude and good memories from the people who prayed and took care of them in their journey stay with them.  Where do carbon and methane emissions that cause severe heat and drought being the long-term effects of unethical practices come from? How can we to stop climate change, so people do not have to suffer the life-threatening effects of it? Where can we send the laborers?

 

Speaking of abundant harvest, while the temperature is reaching up to more than 100° Fahrenheit in San Antonio, there is a community garden that is thriving.  It is full of life from the plants that are growing.  It brings people, adults, youth, and children alike who are passionate about gardening and nature.  Gardopia is a non-profit organization that educates children, youth, and adults about organic gardening and the value of growing gardens.  My love of nature and care for the earth moved me to give my Saturday morning for this community garden.  We harvested bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  The manager invited us to take some of the harvests. 

While community gardening is good for your social life, it is also good for climate justice. Gardening helps to control urban temperature and mitigate the effects of climate change.

 

If you are looking for something ecological and fun this summer, go out for community gardening, beach clean-up, and other earth and social friendly causes.  The harvest is abundant, and the laborers are few.  Explore opportunities where you can sow some seeds or reap some harvests. As the saying goes, going out there can add to your years, the years can add to your life.  Be part of the life-changing mission.

 

The Transcendental Participation

 

The Transcendental Participation 

by Sr. Marylou Rodriguez, CCVI

God showed us how the power of contemplation and actions can free the people from slavery and oppression (John 5:8).  God wants our participation.  Human beings can participate in creation or destruction. They can contribute to good or to bad in the world.   

As human beings, we thrive through cooperation, collaboration, and just social interactions.  We naturally are attracted to beauty, goodness, and things that make us joyful, but we can become immune to what is wrong. 

We can make bad choices repeatedly and refuse to recognize those. Or we can take time to contemplate our actions and make choices to cultivate the good. We have the power to break the convenient sinful habits with something that is good. 

Someone pays for the wrong convenience that we opt to choose.  The fracking and burning of fossil fuels producing various single-use disposable items, and mass-produced resources in capitalist economy contribute easily to global climate crisis.  Someone who is poor and vulnerable, with the least means to mitigate the risk, eventually can reap the bad effects of our actions. 

What alternatives do we have?

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Development and the Laudato Si Movement worked together to produce the film called “The Letter.”  It shows the frontline leaders who advocate for the Care of our Common Home as they voice their respective concerns to Pope Francis.  A large portion of the global carbon footprint comes from the developed countries due to massive production and consumption.  Thus, the developed countries need to take the big leap of faith and take the big steps in fulfilling the commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Sr. Mary Lou Rodriguez in behalf of the Incarnate Word Sisters Justice, Peace, and Creation Committee with friends invited the Village at Incarnate Word to have the film "The Letter" in Laudato Si anniversary week. The film was produced for people to learn to care for our Common Home. The film includes frontline leaders from all over the world advocating for social and ecological causes in their own respective areas.  

The event was held on May 25, 2023, at 2:30 pm beginning with a prayer led by Sr. Josetta Eveler. The prayer helped to unify hearts and mind to pause and to ask God for guidance in understanding and how each person might take action.  The gathering included a tea break and at the end a short reflection in which participants were invited to share what they felt and what they would be taking with them.  One of the participants shared that he did not know what was happening in the other parts of the world.  He admitted that there are things that we take for granted.

Sisters Consuelo, Juanita, and Angela encouraged everyone to remember that we are part of the solution.  They highlighted the importance of looking at our daily consumption and our actions (e.g., recyclables, reusables, etc.).

Jesus asked the blind man to pick up his mat and walk.  He did not magically heal the blind man and continue to leave him in a place of despair. The man had hoped for salvation for thirty-eight years. Jesus wanted him to actively participate in his cure.  The solution to Climate Change will not magically happen.  We have the abilities to put the solution into action.  God wants us to pick up our mat and walk.