Support Voices at the Border!

Voices at the Borders/Voces en las Fronteras!!!
A Giving Voice Project 
September 30-October 2nd, 2016

Voices at the Borders is a project of Giving Voice, made up of young women religious and novices in the U.S.  We made a brief video to introduce this project to you and hope you will view it HERE.

Here is our mission statement:

• We Catholic religious sisters who belong to Giving Voice use our voices in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters. We support their rights to safety, dignity, respect, and family unity. Therefore we advocate for compassionate immigration reform.

Here is our action:

• We will have a 3 day pilgrimage to the border in southern Arizona, praying for our immigrant brothers and sisters and for compassionate immigration reform as we walk and relying on parishes and God for our needs. We will conclude our pilgrimage at the border at Nogales, AZ with a liturgy that gives voice to the immigrant experience and prays for reform.  
• We will use our prophetic voices for good and invite our Sisters, the people we minister to and our partners to walk and pray with us.
• We will invite the press and make a public statement of compassion, peace, and unity.

We REALLY hope you will join us & participate in some way!

Please express your level of interest and give us input by using this form
  and please hold us in prayer as this project moves forward. We would appreciate your response within the next week so that the necessary sub-committees can begin action. Save the date and stay tuned for more information. Thank you!

Peace,
Sisters Julia Walsh, Desire Anne Marie Findlay, Morgan Schweitzer, Krystal Funk, Maria Guadalupe & Tracy Kemme 

Laudato Si Online Conference June 13-17th

The celebration of the Laudato Si’ anniversary next week will be memorable.

We are glad to announce that Senior Vatican officials, world-renowned experts of multiple disciplines and leaders from different faiths will come together in the Laudato Si’ Online Conference to share their Laudato Si’ insights with you.

It will be an exciting online conference that you can join from your computer, in which prominent leaders will dialogue in depth about Laudato Si’ and each of its chapters.

• Vatican officials such as Cardinal Turkson (Pontifical Council Justice & Peace), Bishop Sanchez Sorondo (Pontifical Academy of Sciences) and Cardinal Onaiyekan (Archbishop of Abuja)
• World-renowned experts such as Jeffrey Sachs (bestselling author & UN Senior Advisor), Marcia McNutt (Editor-in-Chief of the Science journals) and Veerabhadran Ramanathan (atmospheric scientist)
• Faith leaders such as Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Rev. Kyoichi Sugino (Buddhist Dharma Teacher) and Din Syamsuddin (Islamic scholar); and
• Notable theologians such as Fr. Michael Perry (Minister General of Franciscan order), Mary Evelyn Tucker (Yale University) and Fr. Sean McDonagh (Columban eco-theologian).

Space is limited so register today!

REGISTER FOR THE ONLINE CONFERENCE

This online conference was developed in the interest of following the Pope’s “urgent appeal for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet”.

Our common home is in grave danger from climate change and the wider environmental crisis. Every month this year has been the hottest one on record.The faith community was VITAL in lifting up the moral call for action on climate at Paris. We cannot let this energy die away. This is a moment for us to remind ourselves why we are acting, to re-engage our communities, and to show our governments that we are still here, willing to dialogue and hungry for action.

2016 Pope Francis Voter Guide

“The Gospel tells us constantly to risk a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction. True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.”—Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium 72)

As we live out this Jubilee Year of Mercy and the United States enters into the 2016 election season, Americans face a myriad of choices between competing visions for our nation’s future. As Catholics, we are called by our faith to engage in this election. Pope Francis says that “a good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of one’s self so that those who govern can govern well.”

Politics, Francis says, “is one of the highest forms of love, because it is in the service of the common good.” While visiting the United States last year, he called on us to orient our politics based on the Christian models of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Lincoln.

We engage in this political process not because we’re partisan, but because we’re Christians.

Our faith offers a specific vision for the common good. It isn’t theoretical or abstract. It’s rooted in the story and person of Jesus Christ. In short, the entire social vision of the Catholic Church is this: in Jesus, God became poor to save humanity from every form of oppression. We must do likewise.

The Catholic vision for the common good, then, is a radical invitation to what Pope Francis calls a “revolution of tenderness.”

God’s mercy reigns in this new community.  Here the last are first, the poor are blessed, and enemies are loved. Black lives matter here. LGBTQ lives matter here; and so too do the lives of refugees, the imprisoned, the unborn, and anyone else who suffers dehumanization, exclusion, and injustice.

While we offer this guide to help inform our brothers and sisters about their specifically political vocation as Catholics in the United States, let us say at the outset: We do not in any way wish to claim for ourselves the right to speak for the Catholic Church, nor for all Catholics.

Instead we offer this guide to show how we apply the teachings of our Church to the problems of our day. We here seek to take up the call issued by the American bishops in their document Faithful Citizenship to form our consciences in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By doing so, we hope our brothers and sisters will prayerfully examine the signs of the times and reach informed, conscientious decisions about the issues we hold dear as Catholics and as Americans.

Read more here:  https://popefrancis16.com/ 

Celebrate World Oceans Day by Reducing your Plastic consumption!

World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future. This site serves as the central coordinating platform for World Oceans Day, with free resources and ideas for everyone – no matter where you live – to help expand the reach and impact of World Oceans Day on June 8 and year round.

This year's theme is “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet” and individuals and organizations across the planet are taking action for prevention of plastic pollution in our ocean.

World Oceans Day has grown tremendously each year since The Ocean Project started coordinating it in 2002. With hundreds of partners involved, and the United Nations officially recognizing June 8 as World Oceans Day in 2008, we have reached millions worldwide.

How will you take action for the ocean?

PLASTIC POLLUTION IS A HUGE PROBLEM FOR THE OCEAN.

On May 25th, singer Jack Johnson started the Wave for Change, asking people to do something for the ocean on World Oceans Day, reduce their plastic usage, and spread the message that the oceans need our help.

Join us by taking a video, sharing your commitment to the ocean and your challenge for others, and making a wave with your body. Pass it on by sharing your video online with the tags #WaveForChange and #WorldOceansDay. Don’t forget to tag World Oceans Day on Facebook & Instagram, and @CelebrateOceans on Twitter. Let’s get everyone to make a wave for ocean conservation!

Example script:
“For World Oceans Day I’m joining with others around the world in a wave for change to help keep plastic trash out of our ocean and away from ocean animals. My pledge is to stop using disposable plastic bags and bottles (do the wave now) and I challenge you to make your own pledge, post it, and keep this wave going!”

With social media, we can turn small promises into a wave of support for the ocean. Help us make this epic by making a commitment, doing the wave, and sharing it! Let’s help this movement grow and swell!

St. Louis Sisters and JPIC Office learn about Sustainability!

 On Saturday, June 4th, Incarnate Word Sisters from St. Louis, MO gathered with staff from the Congregational JPIC Office to learn about sustainability and reflect on sustainable actions that they can take in their own lives as well as throughout the Congregation.  This was part of the Congregation's larger celebration of the one year anniversary of Laudato Si, commemorated by hosting workshops on sustainability throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Peru.

The St. Louis group attended the Green Homes Fair at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, which was filled with many different vendors and organizations sharing their knowledge and skills related to the various ways we can live more sustainably.  Some of the topics covered included renewable energy technologies, green building and home improvement, nature scaping resources, energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, recycling, composting, gardening, weatherization, energy audits, eco-friendly household cleaning products, and sustainable living ideas.   It was a beautiful day to walk around the botanical gardens, surrounded by the beauty of God's creation, and be inspired by the many ways we can care for our common home!

After spending a few hours at the Gardens, the group met at the Incarnate Word Foundation to reflect on what they saw and learned and share ideas about future actions.  There was a lot of interest in having energy audits of the sisters' homes and buildings conducted to see how we can take steps to make these living and work spaces more energy efficient.  We also learned about a local Green Schools Challenge to help area schools form a Green Team and devise and implement a sustainable project at their school.  One sister who attended is also interested in building her own rain barrel and offered to build one for other sisters who might be interested as well!

At the end of the day each of the participants shared one way that Laudato Si has inspired them to take action to live more sustainably.  The Catholic Climate Movement has a social media campaign right now encouraging everyone to share how Laudato Si has inspired them to take action, and we encourge you to participate as well!  Download this flyer and take a picture of yourself with your answer to how Laudato Si has inspired you with the hashtag #CreationCare and #LaudatoSiWeek.  Each of us doing our part to live Laudato Si and care for creation makes a difference!