Earth Day
Reflection
Our care for this earth is a sacred act. We call on all that we hold most sacred, the presence and power of God as Creator, to teach us to care for Earth our planet home with its beautiful depths and soaring heights, its abundance of life. We honor and show our love for God by treating God’s creation and all creatures as precious and holy. The capacity for experiencing wonder and awe is an important part of our spiritual foundation. The perception of the world as a manifestation of the Holy with everything as beautiful or good in itself enables us to experience it with grateful admiration, to live in fascination, to feel peace, and ultimately to be at one with ourselves and all else. On this Earth Day we pause and consider this responsibility.
Prayer
May we not think of Earth just today, but cooperate responsibly to restore its health every day of our lives.
Action
Do not delete this reflection as something which does not interest you. We all need a healthy Earth for our health, survival, and happiness.
The theme for Earth Day 2023 is Invest In Our Planet. It calls businesses, governments, and citizens to a partnership for the planet while there is still time to choose a prosperous and sustainable future, and to restore nature and build a healthy planet for our children and their children. Time is short. It will take all of us to assume our responsibility, support the needed changes and hold those in power responsible for inaction.
Support or join in one of these activities:
Support planting billions of trees as one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Support organic farmers.
Make an impact for our planet by cleaning up our public spaces.
Join Global Earth Challenge.
Turn off the lights when not in use.
Use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
Skip plastic. Buy glass or paper products.
Eat less meat.
Use a recyclable water bottle.
Push for climate and environmental literacy education.
Go pesticide free.
Ask for green power.
Contact your representatives. Hold them accountable.
Stand against deforestation.
Grow an organic vegetable garden.
Suggested Reading
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Job 38:4
Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a
wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures
and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.
Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 92
Each community can take from the bounty of Earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect Earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.
Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 67
The Great Work, now as we move into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. The deepest cause of the present devastation is found in a mode of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of all rights on the humans.
Thomas Berry
This earth is what we all have in common.
Wendell Berry
He that plants trees loves others beside himself.
Thomas Fuller
We do not inherit Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
Native American Proverb
If we are ever to halt climate change and conserve land, water and other resources, not to mention reduce animal suffering, we must celebrate Earth Day every day — at every meal.
Ingrid Newkirk
I had assumed that Earth, the spirit of the Earth, noticed exceptions — those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the Earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.
Alice Walker
To treat all parts of Earth as sacred and Earth’s beings as our neighbors to be respected and loved…
Land Ethic Statement, Sisters of Saint Joseph, Brentwood, NY