Reflection
Whether we like it or not, the future of this earth, its health, our health and the health of our children, their future, and the future of all living creatures on this planet, is in our hands. Our decisions as a species within the larger community of life will make the difference. Our consciousness of the fact that in all of creation only the human species plunders the earth and takes more than it needs is essential. We need to remember that on this fragile planet we are not owners, rather we are all part of the unity of life. Everyone conceived and born on this planet, every animal, every plant has the right to eat of the planet, drink of the planet, and breathe of the planet. Our contemplative call is to the awareness that we are all held in being by a sustaining, compassionate loving and life-giving Presence at the heart of creation. Our responsibility is not to just use our world and then turn away from it when we want to find God, but to realize that in finding God we truly discover and respect the world.
Prayer
Give us light and courage to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly on this earth.
Action
Stop and think of our human responsibility for our earth home. Reflect on the harm done to all life by wars, polluting industry, fracking, genetic engineering of food, the clearing of forests for profit and so many other contemporary human activities. What are your own attitudes toward these things? Do you participate by not paying attention or not holding those in power responsible for their actions? Do you examine the factuality of propaganda for profit?
Suggested Reading
How many are your works, O God! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104
What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? The question not only concerns the environment in isolation; the issue cannot be approached piecemeal.
Pope Francis
Let us be good stewards of the Earth we inherited. All of us have to share the Earth’s fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has a role to play in preserving them. If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it.
Kofi Annan
Are we to regard the world of nature simply as a storehouse to be robbed for the immediate benefit of man? … Does man have any responsibility for the preservation of a decent balance in nature, for the preservation of rare species, or even for the indefinite continuance of his race?
Kenneth E. Boulding
Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents. It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world. We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment.
Richard Branson
As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness.
Richard Gere
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
Ansel Adams
The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago… had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.
Havelock Ellis
In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops.
Paul Brooks
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo Leopold
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
George Carlin
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
Chief Seattle, 1855