Everything is Connected — Many Things Have to Change Course

Note: We want to share these blogs which have been adapted from “Our Common Home,” a joint initiative of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development along with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). This is the eighth blog in a series of eight.

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ (202)

We do not stand separate from the planet we share with other life; we are intimately related to it and so are also responsible for its care. This truth must be recognized in order to meet the challenges of this critical point in history. What is at stake is nothing less than our children’s rights to a safe climate, clean water and air, sufficient food, physical security, and the wonders of a planet rich with life.

We cannot overcome the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, nor overcome pollution, resource degradation, poverty and injustice, without transforming outmoded patterns of behavior, culture and economics. We must move beyond an exploitative relationship to our planet towards one based on stewardship and care. While such a transformation has already begun, the gravity of the situation demands greater action.

People and communities must join together to ensure that those who make decisions and hold the most responsibility and power understand that action on these issues is a priority for the people they serve, and that they are held accountable.

As much as this is a moment of crisis, it is also one of opportunity: We can renew our relationship with the planet so that we not only sustain ourselves, but also thrive and flourish.

A Prayer for Our Earth

All-powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as siblings, harming no one.

O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and Earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

Pope Francis, Laudato si’ (246)