The LiveSimply prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, help me to live simply
To follow your steps,
To share what I have,
To think about those who have nothing.
Help me to be kind and helpful to people;
Help me not to waste food or water;
Help me to eat smaller meals;
Help me not to destroy your world,
But to think before I do things.
Lord Jesus Christ, help me to live simply,
So that others may simply live. Amen
(St.Peter’s Community, Hinckley,
First Communion Children 2007)
"God's
Planet Too"
Saint Peter's
Catholic Church
Hinckley
Creation, even
without humanity, is intrinsically good. And so
it is that the bible starts with Genesis and thus creation.
We are not asked
to see the earth as separate from ourselves
but rather that nature in its own right indicates a deeper reality of
God’s
unfathomable power and creativity. We are the stewards
of the earth and as such bear a heavy responsibility in
its preservation not just for the lifestyle that we are used to but for
the
generation to come and the generation after that, and .... the
generations
after that.
It is through
prayer and meditation, through awareness and
reality that we are called to take up the mission of:
"Caring for our
Planet, Stewards of Creation"
How do we do
this? In the first instance we will take a look
at ourselves and then we look to find a way to live in harmony with the
earth
and all living things.
The Pope says
in "Caritas in Veritae"
"The
natural environment is more than a raw material to be
manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator
containing a
"grammar" which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its
reckless
exploitation."
During
September we would like to take you on a journey that will once again
restore
our vision of the earth, to awaken us again to its glories, its
beauties and
mysteries and to remind ourselves of how we can
for now, for us
and for all future generations.
While we ignore
the possibility of climate change, the developing world is already
feeling the effects of the changing seasons. No longer able to rely on
the rains, their time for planting is shortened
and the time for harvesting does not come in cycle.
Our brothers and sisters of the two thirds of the world still trying to
develop and feed
and water their people suffer as a result of our way of life. All
development efforts over the last years will be lost as
the climate dominates all the human effort.
Can we adapt?
How do we adapt?
What does Christ
ask us to do, and be, for the sake of the
planet and all its people?
Further biblical
references
Stewards of His
creation. (Genesis 2: 19-20)
The covenant
that God made with Noah after the flood, of
which the rainbow is a constant reminder. (Genesis
9:12)
The lure of
wealth and power. (Matthew 6: 19-21; Luke 9:
1-6, Ephesians 1: 9-12; Colossians 1: 16-17)
Mary the Mother
of Life challenges us to abandon the pathway
of death and return to the way of life. (Luke
1: 52)
'Choose
life and then you and your descendants will live' (Deuteronomy
30: 19-20)
St. Peter's Catholic Community