On the 24th May it is the 10-year anniversary of Laudato Si’, the invitation from Pope Francis to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. We have linked to it above so you can read it for yourself. As we take the time to remember the legacy of Pope Francis we can with intention celebrate Laudato Si’ week from May 24-31. For that week we will be posting resources and reflections that we encourage you to use.
In his 2016 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation message, Pope Francis proposed adding “Care for Our Common Home” as an eighth work of mercy—both spiritual: “a grateful contemplation of God’s world”, and corporal: simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness”.
As Mercy communities in Aotearoa, we stand at the intersection of three rich streams of wisdom: the ecological vision of Laudato Si’, embracing mātauranga Māori, and the traditions of Catherine McAuley. These three threads weave together to strongly call us as Whānau Mercy Ministries to take real action and to make a difference. Living Mercy as a verb as we live our value of kaitiakitanga to Papatūānuku, our common home.
Catherine saw God’s providence in every living thing and called her supporters to tender, practical stewardship of creation and response to the needs of the poor where they were, situated within the environmental context of Dublin at the time. We can imagine that she would have responded as attentively and directly to all the needs we have now including the cry of the earth.
Whānau Mercy Ministries has registered on the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, and as we being to develop our seven goals that are in alignment with the goals of Laudato Si’ we will keep you all updated.
As part of this journey, we will be carrying out a self-assessment and developing a Care of the Common Home Plan. This feels like a response that honours all the threads that make up who we are, and we look forward to sharing that with our communities. With our Trustee Charlotte Cummings also doing work in this space as part of Mercy Global Action Emerging Leaders Fellowship also doing work in this area as part of her project, we are very excited.
The prayer that is in Laudato Si’ “A prayer for our earth” can be found on our website in the resource section under everyday prayers. This section will be getting more resources added to it regularly, so we encourage you to keep checking back.
We ask our Ministries to think about Laudato Si’ and ask ourselves what we are being called to do differently collectively as ministries and as individuals and people of Mercy in Aotearoa.