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Apr 11, 2020

"We turn our backs on death"

Pope Francis offers much-needed reminders in his homily for the Easter Vigil, 2020

In one of the darkest Holy Week's in recent memory, the Holy Father's homily for the Easter Vigil sets straight our paths with powerful reminders of the value of life, true hope, and the light and promise of our faith in Jesus Christ.

“After the Sabbath” (Mt 28:1), the women went to the tomb. This is how the Gospel of this holy Vigil began: with the Sabbath. It is the day of the Easter Triduum that we tend to neglect as we eagerly await the passage from Friday’s cross to Easter Sunday’s Alleluia. This year, however, we are experiencing, more than ever, the great silence of Holy Saturday. We can imagine ourselves in the position of the women on that day. They, like us, had before their eyes the drama of suffering, of an unexpected tragedy that happened all too suddenly. They had seen death and it weighed on their hearts. Pain was mixed with fear: would they suffer the same fate as the Master? Then too there was fear about the future and all that would need to be rebuilt. A painful memory, a hope cut short. For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour....

Apr 11, 2020

"The King sleeps"

In an annual tradition, Catholic Ecology posts this ancient homily for Holy Saturday.

With the slower pace of quarantined life for so many, perhaps Catholics and all Christians this year can prayerfully reflect on an awesome reality of #Christianity—one that’s often under-appreciated in the Western church: Christ’s Harrowing of Hell.

This ancient homily, posted on the Vatican website, is a wonderful way to embrace the mysteries of Holy Saturday.

The Lord's descent into hell

"What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.

The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and...

Mar 28, 2020

“New lifestyles”

What our pontiffs have been calling for is being discovered as our world slows, reflects on the value and basics of life

The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity.

+ Pope Francis, Extraordinary Moment of Prayer, Urbi et Orbi, March 27, 2020

Listening to the Holy Father during yesterday’s stunning and truly historic moment in Saint Peter’s Square, I could not help but remember these words of his predecessor:

“What is needed is an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles ‘in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors

...
Mar 17, 2020

Nurturing healthy ecosystems with Mary Gardens

Contributor Kat Hoenke explains how big or small yards, or even an apartment patio, can make a big difference in caring for our common home

We depend on healthy ecosystems for our survival. This includes clean air, clean water, and ecosystems that can adapt to a changing climate. We know that the more biodiverse an ecosystem, the better it's able to provide these "ecosystem services." However, biodiversity is decreasing on our planet.

When speaking of biodiversity in Laudato Si’, Pope Francis said “[t]he loss of forests and woodlands entails the loss of species which may constitute extremely important resources in the future, not only for food but also for curing disease and other uses. Different species contain genes which could be key resources in years ahead for meeting human needs and regulating environmental problems.”

However, there is hope.

One of the best ways to help increase biodiversity is to reduce barren lawns and plant trees and plants on native to your area on your property, whether that be in your yard, on your Parish or school grounds, or even your apartment balcony. We need to integrate our developed communities with nature. Native plants provide food for pollinators and sequester carbon, as well as increase biodiversity.

Science has shown that integrating native plants on our properties on a large scale could restore...

Mar 14, 2020

Home

Caring for our global home benefits from a love of our first ones

Two weeks ago, after I told my mom that one of her sons passed away, I found myself on my front porch watching clouds pushed along by late winter winds. Because I live in the house in which I grew up, the morning’s views and smells were more than familiar to me. They were parts of what had made me. And so they provided comfort—a reminder of my brother Chuck, who would have played in this neighborhood, this yard, and in the nearby woods, over which the clouds were now racing.

In this time of social distancing and quarantines—of people staying close to home—I’ve been thinking about not just my home, but the privilege of getting to grow up and grow old in the house of my boyhood.

Our connection with a place is a sacred reality. We moderns have mostly forgotten this.

Fast-paced urban living, frequent relocations, children of divorced parents having two or sometimes three homes—all these factors, and more, can add up to a lack of any foundation in a place that is home. And with that comes a lack of known lands, skies, and cycles of light and scent that have nurtured you and will continue...

Feb 10, 2020

Guest post: Small changes for a sustainable future

Genesis 2:15 tells us that “The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it." But how can we help to do that?

In November 2015, 364 scientists from 184 countries signed a manifesto in the journal BioScience, an alarm of unprecedented scale, twenty-five years after the first warning from scientists in the world to humanity.

Over the past twenty-five years, the article noted, the quantity of drinking water available per inhabitant had dropped by 26%, the number of dead zones in the oceans had increased by 75%, fishing catches have dropped. The appeal also cites the loss of 120 million hectares of forest.

"Particularly troubling is the current trajectory of a potentially catastrophic climate change, due to the increase in the volume of greenhouse gases (GHG) released by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and agricultural production", underlined the scientists.

Today, mankind consumes an enormous amount of energy and the cost of this energy increases considerably and continuously. It is therefore essential to act to protect our environment in order to avoid many climatic and other ecological upheavals.

Here are some steps you can take to do your part:

Stop Buying/Using Plastic Completely

Plastic has invaded the planet: Every minute around the world, one million plastic bottles are purchased and thrown away literally minutes later. If we add all...

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.