Monthly Prayer Guide

Editorial page

This resource is a guide for our movement members to use collectively or individually every month. Each month, this prayer guide shares reflections and testimonies from different members of our global movement to inspire you to pray, contemplate, reflect, and act for creation. 

Let us embrace this extraordinary year as a time to Raise Hope—celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Laudato Si’ and the Laudato Si’ Movement, alongside 800 years of the Canticle of the Creatures. These remarkable milestones invite us to renew our commitment to caring for creation, cherishing our common home, and deepening the connections that unite us as one global family.

That the world might grow in compassion through more humble lifestyles.

May this intention move us to act with courage, love with purpose, and step forward—together—in hope for our common home.

Hear Creation’s Song

Monthly intention:

That the world might grow in compassion
through more humble lifestyles

Quote of the month:

“We need to grow in the conviction that a decrease in the pace of production and consumption can at times give rise to another form of progress and development.” LS 191

Prayer for the grace
of conversion

In my desire for reconciliation
with creation, I ask God for
forgiveness and the grace
of ecological conversion. I
acknowledge the ways in
which I personally have chosen
convenience, selfishness, and
greed over ecological and social
justice. I also acknowledge
the ways structures, patterns,
and cultures of sin impact
my life, the lives of people on
the margins and the earth.
Through my recognition of
where I have fallen short in
caring for creation and my
brothers and sisters, and
through God’s mercy, I pray for
a conversion of heart to amend
my ways. I seek through my
prayer and actions to reconcile
myself with God, creation and
humanity.

Excerpted from the
Ecological Examen
developed by the
Office of Justice and
Ecology of the Jesuit
Conference of Canada
and the United States
& Ignatian Solidarity
Network. www.ecologicalexamen.org.

Hear Creation’s Cry

Monthly reflection to deepen our eco-conversion

Metanoia as a Hope for Creation

Sr. Marylou, Laudato Si Animator, Corpus Christi,Texas, USA

Metanoia as a Hope for Creation by S. Marylou Rodriguez, CCVI
[Metanoia: Conversion or a shift in lifestyle stemming from a change of heart or deep spiritual renewal.]

I recently attended a conference of Catholic Chaplains where I heard from Father Ron Rolheiser about the crisis of today, rooted in the lack of metanoia. People are happy as long as their personal life is going well.  A person will break down in despair because of a breakup, divorce, loss of job, death of a loved one, and other unexpected circumstances.  As Catholics, we combine actions with our faith (James 2:14).  Even better with Laudato Si’, the late Pope Francis brings us to the whole systemic solution of what the world needs.  It is worth living beyond ourselves.  Seeing the value of interconnectedness can transform us.   

My eco-conversion is a process of discovering what is unknown until the value of respect for creation has become more grounded in me.  I consider myself work in progress.  I used to be frugal for economic sake.  It is not complete.  I did not know much about the impact of my daily choices that we call lifestyle such as bottled drinks, meat consumption, choices of clothes, plastic packaging in fruits and vegetables and merchandise, eating in restaurants and fast-food establishments that are polluting the environment and contributing to the climate crisis.  Feeling the heat in Texas makes it worse.  Feeling the heat, every day makes my actions real and urgent. 

I include children as part of the solution. I encouraged them about being “Eco-Saints”.  My eco-conversion continues with my involvement with my congregation’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), studying Laudato Si’ since 2018, chaplaincy, which is about caring for people in crisis, and continuous learning by engaging in various green movements such as Laudato Si’ Movement. I came across amazing people who have compassion for the excluded.  I have learned about Dr. Jane Goodall years before I learned about Laudato Si’ because of her love of nature who said, “The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” Robert Swan, a positively inspiring climate action leader trying to save Antarctica, said “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”  

Metanoia will be the way that the world can save itself from humanity’s destructive lifestyle and habits.  Throw-away mentality can be easily observed in how we use and dispose of our home appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, etc. This metanoia is about believing about a change that is beyond oneself.  

The critical situation of our fast-changing world with its never before un-reflected history moves the late Pope Francis to state that “the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history, nonetheless, there is a reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities (165).”  In this time of Jubilee Year of Hope and the Laudato Si’ 10th anniversary, it is the time to walk together as the late Pope Francis said in Synods of Bishops “we journey together, where no one walks alone.”