Laudato Si Day of Prayer and Action Anna Johnson, North America Senior Program Manager, Laudato Si Movement
Ben Chu, Specialist for Ecological Spirituality, GU Office of Mission and Ministry
Anna Johnson Conference Description:
This summer, we have seen record breaking heat boil across the world, unleashing all sorts of natural disasters. Our hearts break as we hear about the devastation. So many of us may feel helpless. However, throughout history, the Catholic Church has provided solace, strength, and action in the face of seemingly insurmountable injustices.
Our Church offers the same in the midst of this ecological crisis we are facing. Join us on retreat to talk and dream about enlivening the ways the teachings and rituals of our faith offer opportunities for both grieving and acting to care for our global neighbors and our common home, individually and collectively.
Ben Chu's Conference Description:
Pope Francis invites us in Laudato Si' to continue to go deeper in our journey of ecological conversion. "Various convictions of our faith can help us to enrich the meaning of this conversion. These include the awareness that each creature reflects something of God and has a message to convey to us, and the security that Christ has taken unto himself this material world and now, risen, is intimately present to each being... I ask all Christians to recognize and to live fully this dimension of their conversion." In heeding this call, we will prayerfully engage in three practices of ecological spirituality--an Eco-Examen, a Lectio Divina in Creation, and a Love Letter to Mother Earth--so that we may further attune our hearts to God's beauty, truth, and goodness in creation.
cost: $50 per person
Schedule:
8 - 9 am Gathering/Coffee
8:50 am Opening Prayer
9 - 12 pm Living Laudato Si Individually and as Church
12 - 1 pm Lunch
1 - 3 pm Practicing Ecological Spirituality
3 - 4 pm Mass with Bishop Skylstad