This excellent 3-minute video will help adults and teens understand Catholic Social Teaching in regard to Care for God's Creation. DISCUSSION GUIDE is available.
Laudato Si Week is in May.
Pope Francis invites us to Care for Our Common Home through his encyclical Laudato Sí
The guidebook is jointly published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers, and Catholic Climate Covenant.
“This guide offers insights into how Catholics can bring the riches of the Catholic theological tradition to ecumenical and interreligious discussions and actions that uphold the dignity and sanctity of our environment.” — Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, Chairman, Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform is a space for institutions, communities, and families to learn and grow together. Find planning guides, resources, inspiration, and practical tips.
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Form a small group study with help from Just Faith Ministries
Sacred Air: Climate & Energy/ What is causing the climate crisis? Sacred Air: Climate & Energy is a small group program created by JustFaith Ministries (in collaboration with Creation Justice Ministries) that explores the impact of the climate crisis on God’s creation and God’s people. Sacred Air contains eight sessions, which are 2½ hours for in-person meetings or 2 hours for virtual meetings. In addition to engaging in active listening and holy conversation around this important topic, you will also hear from a guest speaker and conduct an immersion experience in order to learn more about eco-justice efforts already taking place and opportunities for action. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM |
Climate-oriented study guide from the USCCB for select themes in Querida Amazonia, the papal exhortation to all people of goodwill.
Includes discussion questions on:
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World Forum Foundation offers a toolkit for families to inspire children's care for the earth, with learning, adventures, and actions:
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A home energy audit can help you determine how much energy your home uses, where your home is losing energy, and which problem areas and fixes you should prioritize to make your home more efficient and comfortable.
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Sadlier Religion is offering these 10 printables for use at home:
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Loyola Press provides resources to help parents with ideas for home activities that celebrate the beauty of God’s creation while learning what the Church says about caring for the environment.
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RCL Benziger has a Blessing of Seeds, Activities with Children for a Better World, and prayer resources that can be used at home:
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Video resources for Care for Creation.
Beautiful images make this 2.5-minute Prayer for Creation a great choice to share with most age groups.
This 4-minute summary by America Magazine of Pope Francis' "On Care for Our Common Home" is good for teens and adults:
This 4-minute video helps children understand the Church's stand on Caring for Creation.
In this 20-minute video, Franciscan Fr. Dan Horan introduces viewers to three approaches to creation that have arisen over the course of Christian history. Probably best for adults, but interested teens will like the depth.
For adult education, this 1-hour session with a variety of speakers is engaging and informative:
Celebrate the Season of Creation
September 1- October 4
See the Vatican letter inviting us to join our ecumenical family in observing the season of creation
"Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue;
it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience."
(Laudato si’ #217)
it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience."
(Laudato si’ #217)
CLICK HERE for the USCCB statement on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
“Once again, we unite in prayer with the Holy Father, who reminded us that ‘every member of the human family can act as a thin yet unique and indispensable thread in weaving a network of life that embraces everyone.’ To weave the network of life, we set our sights on the ‘Author of Life’ (Acts 3:15) and pray for help to heal our ailing planet." CLICK HERE for a collection of prayers to Care for Creation. CLICK HERE for the USCCB Prayer for Our Common Home. |
CLICK HERE for a good collection of catechetical ideas on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation from
Loyola Press. |
These resources and more are in our diocesan library:
Our Mother Earth: A Christian Reading of the Challenge of the Environment.
by Pope Francis Our Sunday Visitor, 2020. Gathered from the writings and discourses of Pope Francis on the environment, Our Mother Earth sets forth a Christian vision of ecology. Responding to our global ecological crisis will require a global approach in which "the whole human family in the search for a sustainable and integral development" unites to protect our common home. |
Teaching Kids to Care for God's Creation: Reflections, Activities and Prayers for Catechists and Families
by Mary Elizabeth Clark Twenty-Third Publications, 2018 Based on Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ (On Care for our Common Home), this short (80 pp) but substantive book presents thirty well-designed lessons on learning what we can do—in the classroom, in the home, and in the community—to raise awareness and take action. |
When God Was Flesh and Wild: Stories in Defense of the Earth
by Bob Haverluck Liturgical Press, 2017 Dramatic and whimsical storytelling for adults at the service of faith and justice. Artist, storyteller, and theologian Bob Haverluck offers a rollicking set of stories--together with provocative cartoons and original music--that provide poetic takes on Daniel's dream interpretation, Jesus's baptism, the events of Holy Week, and the apostle John on his island prison. The result is a more imaginative way to engage issues of conflict against the earth and her creatures in the light of God's abiding providence and the witness of Scripture. Humorous, harsh, and persistently hopeful, When God Was Flesh and Wild will be an unforgettable reading experience for any person of faith |
Creation In Crisis: Science, Ethics, Theology
by Joshtrom Kureethadam Orbis Books, 2014 When we speak of the "environmental crisis" facing the planet, we reduce the coming catastrophe to a physical problem. In Creation in Crisis, Joshtrom Kureethadam seeks to extend the current understanding of what is truly an ecological crisis to include ethical and spiritual perspectives, arguing that the crisis is not merely an environmental problem, but is truly 'eco-logical' (a discourse about our common home - oikos) in nature. In its careful incorporation of the latest science around issues such as environmental degradation, pollution, climate change, and food production, this book also enters into dialogue with various disciplines in understanding the contemporary ecological crisis. Creation in Crisis offers a depth of vision that yields up profound insights about our present milieu and the future of our common home. |
Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril.
by Elizabeth A. Johnson
Orbis, 2018.
In this fresh creative approach to theology, Elizabeth Johnson asks how we can understand cosmic redemption in a time of advancing ecological devastation. In effect, how can we extend the core Christian belief in salvation to include all created beings? Immediately this question runs into a formidable obstacle: the idea that Jesus’s death on the cross was required as atonement for human sin—a theology laid out by the eleventh-century theologian St. Anselm. Constructing her argument (like Anselm) in the form of a dialogue, Johnson lays out the foundations in scripture, the teachings of Jesus, and the early Church for an understanding that emphasizes the love and mercy of God, showing how this approach can help us respond to a planet in peril
by Elizabeth A. Johnson
Orbis, 2018.
In this fresh creative approach to theology, Elizabeth Johnson asks how we can understand cosmic redemption in a time of advancing ecological devastation. In effect, how can we extend the core Christian belief in salvation to include all created beings? Immediately this question runs into a formidable obstacle: the idea that Jesus’s death on the cross was required as atonement for human sin—a theology laid out by the eleventh-century theologian St. Anselm. Constructing her argument (like Anselm) in the form of a dialogue, Johnson lays out the foundations in scripture, the teachings of Jesus, and the early Church for an understanding that emphasizes the love and mercy of God, showing how this approach can help us respond to a planet in peril
God's Good Earth: Praise and Prayer for Creation
by Anne & Jeffrey Rowthorn, Anne & Jeffrey Liturgical Press, 2018. Offers Christians and their communities an engaging resource for prayer, reflection, and worship that reflects and nourishes their efforts to serve God and care for God's creation. Compilers Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn have prepared 52 beautiful, ready-made prayer services, each around a specific theme, drawing from a rich variety of ecumenical resources: psalms and other responsive readings, Scripture, hymns, prayers, and reflections from the world's most engaging nature writers and interpreters of the social and cultural landscape. Each section can be used in full, or the user may select smaller sections; permission is granted to the purchaser to reproduce for use in public prayer. |