The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Ohio Province has responded to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ Action Platform by creating the Dorothy Stang Initiative for Laudato Si’ Action. While in the process of gathering data from sisters, associates, staff, donors and others in our circle, we were reminded that all steps we take are important - both big and small. We therefore introduce Your Little Bit of Good, a short weekly one-pager that focuses on some aspect of the environment. It is an attempt to bring forward small things we can do.
Teresa Phillips
Director of Justice, Peace and Care for Creation
Prayer
Loving God, Lord of heaven and earth, this earth, our home belongs to you.
Give us grace to love it as you do.
Give us courage to give ourselves, as you do, for the good of all people and all of your creation.
Strengthen us to stand, as you do, with the vulnerable poor.
Give us wisdom to know when we have enough, and the voice to say “enough” to all that harms creation and hurts the poorest.
This earth, our home, belongs to you.
Amen.
Knowledge
As we continue our journey in the Season of Creation, I have focused this edition on the hopeful things happening for our environment. There is much about which to be concerned. And, many things need to change in regards to both personal habits and business/government practices in order to address the environmental issues facing our planet. Our work will doubtless, never be done.
But, it is good to pause now and then to look at the good things that are happening. One of the outcomes of the near global lockdown in spring of 2020 was that we saw how quickly the earth will repair itself. Air quality improved almost overnight in the world’s largest cities. Several aquatic species that hadn’t been seen in rivers in decades were spotted in various waterways. While these things are small, it gives us reason to believe that all is not lost.
I was reading Happy Eco News this past week. It is where I go when feeling overwhelmed with climate news. There is a story about sand batteries – large stores of sand that are heated by the sun during the day and can provide supplemental heating to homes at night. I also read about Africa’s solar future.
There are many groups organizing for systemic change. Our advocacy must be loud and frequent. We can vote with the environment in mind. We can do that at both the ballot box and the department/grocery/online store. Much hope lies in our actions, a growing understanding of the reality of climate and in science and engineering.
Action
My Action column is a bit different this week. Let’s ask how we can keep our spirits uplifted in light of our current climate reality.
It’s a struggle some days… many days. One of the people I go to is St. Julie Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Many times in her life, she wrote of her total faith that God will take care of things. We simply have to do our part. Each day in the SNDdeN world, we are provided with a single quote from her writings. They are always just right. Today’s quote is, “For goodness sake, let us use well the time the good God gives us... animate all your actions to achieve His greater glory.” See? Perfect!