Laudato Si’ Encounter
Monthly intention
Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe for our actions during Advent and Christmas
Monthly Reflection
Eco-conversion Story
Hearing Creation’s Cry
Hearing Creation’s Song
Take Action
LSM Core Values: Living in hope
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Monthly intention
December 2023
We pray that this Advent and Christmas season may lead us to more impactful action for our common home, as a way for us to live in hope.
“One can only hope for binding forms of energy transition that meet three conditions: that they be efficient, obligatory and readily monitored” (LD 59).
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Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe for our actions during Advent and Christmas
O Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of Creation and Heavenly Protector, we implore you for the care of our common home. You, who are witness to the wonder of nature, guide us in our responsibility to be good stewards of this divine gift.
Intercede before God so that we may live in harmony with the earth, respecting every creature and preserving the beauty of creation. Inspire in us love for nature and the wisdom to care for it with responsibility and gratitude.
Blessed Virgin, we entrust to you our efforts to protect the environment and promote social justice. Help us to be conscious of our actions and make decisions that favor sustainability and balance in our common home.
May your example of humility and service motivate us to take care not only of our physical home, but also of our brothers and sisters who share this world. Through your intercession, we trust that we will be able to preserve the beauty and diversity of creation for future generations.
We ask you Tonantzin; Mother of all creation, teach us the way of hope and of living in love as brothers and sisters in union with creation. Our Lady and child, we ask you for the native peoples so that in their wisdom they may continue to care for our common home with love and tenderness, and may we learn from them to be one with the earth.
I believe in you, Mary, how sweetly you know to ask your Son to convert me and to repent for my sins against creation and against the poorest of the poor. Grant me the humility to recognize my faults and to remedy their damage. Take my petition to your most holy son Jesus.
Amen
Prayer shared by LSM Mexico
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Monthly Reflection
“Gaudete” Sunday
Reflection on the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent.
By Alirio Cáceres Aguirre. Permanent Deacon of the Archdiocese of Bogota, Colombia. Chemical Engineer, Educator and Theologian. Laudato Si’ Movement’s Advocacy Assistant for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the wisdom of our Church, home and school of communion, the third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete” (“rejoice”). St. Paul invites us through his message to the community of Thessalonica to “rejoice always”, for the Lord will fulfill his promises.
The penitential journey of preparation for the coming of the Redeemer, represented by the color purple, has a break that encourages us because the longed-for event is approaching. This joy is symbolized by the liturgical color pink, which is used only twice a year. The other moment is the IV Sunday of Lent, called “Laetare” (Rejoice). In both cases, the announcement is that the waiting is about to end and the great celebration is already in sight.
We know that when COP28 is over, we will have to continue our journey together. That is what Synod means. If all expectations are not fulfilled, we cannot give up the dream that God “will bring forth justice and hymns before all peoples” as Isaiah prophesies.
The Spirit that anoints us as Christians has inspired the Pope to recover the “Joy of the Gospel”. His magisterium as a “bridge-builder” is based on mercy reflected in praise (Laudato Si’, Laudate Deum) and the joy of loving (Amoris Laetitia, Evangelii Gaudium) to live and live together as brothers (Fratelli Tuttti) in harmony with this “common home” that we must turn into the beloved “common home” of the family created by God in his infinite love.
This overflow of Love so moved St. Francis of Assisi that it led him to represent artistically, 800 years ago, the scene of the birth, and thus celebrate the Mystery of the Incarnation vitally linked to the Eucharist. The life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus allows us to see the world in a Paschal way, with the gaze of integral ecology (LS111, 96, 36, 135).
In the manger is synthesized that style of humble life and in brotherhood that makes us be reborn as humanity. Therefore, let us live hope with awareness, coherence and incidence. Totally consecrated to the God of Peace. Peace with God implies Peace with all His creation (St. John Paul II).
Mary, our Mother, Teacher, Missionary of Love without measure, invites us to sing the Magnificat with synodal choreography. She, so young, proclaims “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” to her elderly cousin Elizabeth. Christmas is a time of intergenerational dialogue so that we may walk singing “Laudato Si'”. And may our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope (LS 244).
For many more “Sundays of Joy”, let us be witnesses of the light to continue to put into “movement” the praise of the Creator and to summon all people of good will to write with their behavior, a beautiful letter of commitment as custodians of life. Laudate Deum! on our knees before the manger, caring for our sister water and rediscovering the deep meaning of baptism that immerses us in Divine Love and makes us be reborn to announce the Good News to all creation.
Questions for reflection
- Bible Study:
According to the first reading, Isaiah 61:1-2a.10-11:
- Let us make a list of the types of people mentioned by the prophet
- For each one, let us write down the Good News that we must announce to them from the Integral Ecology perspective.
- After reading and commenting on these messages, we will try to give a contemporary meaning to the expression “Year of the Lord’s Grace” in the perspective of the mission that we must undertake after COP28.
Note: One option is to explore other biblical quotations that help us understand what Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah (Leviticus 25:1-22; Deuteronomy 15:1-18).
2. Ecological Catechesis:
The Christian Prayer in union with creation in Laudato Si’ 246 is a profound theological synthesis that grounds our mission as missionary disciples of the Gospel.
- Let us first read it silently
- Let’s hear it from the voice of different people who read it slowly out loud.
- Let’s discuss it in small groups
Let us conclude: What is the foundation of our Joy as a Christian community?
3. Pastoral Imagination:
At Christmas time we are accustomed to give gifts. The Christ Child is the greatest gift for humanity. With that inspiration we are going to do an exercise of ingenuity and creativity, to “offer gifts of integral ecology” in our territories.
- Let us carefully study paragraphs 62 to 68 of Laudate Deum
- Then let us recall the seven objectives of the Laudato Si’ Action
- Even if they seem like unusual ideas, let us try to imagine what would be the best Christmas gift we could give to the creatures that inhabit our territory, based on Laudate Deum and the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. For example, to the river, the sea, the trees, the children, the migrants, the sick, people in power, pets, etc. What would they like to receive as a gift?
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Eco-conversion Story
Angela Salinas, Head of Laudato Si’ Circles Bolivia Chapter, Deputy Legal Director of the “Green Ideas: Generating Change Together” Organization.
In 2020 I came to know the encyclical Laudato Si’, and it has been a journey of profound deconstruction of my core values. There is a before and after from getting to know Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’, and this journey to become a Laudato Si’ Animator has given a meaning to my life that was previously filled with uncertainty and confusion.
Absorbing Laudato Si’ as a part of myself helped me to avoid drifting away from the Church. Like so many young people who question and doubt the teachings of the church, I did too, but as time went by I realized how fundamental faith is in our lives, and I took up my faith again with great strength thanks to my brother Christian. Thanks to him and the Pastoral Universitaria Arquidiocesana PUNA I came to know the Encyclical Laudato Si’ and I became a new person.
The teachings of Pope Francis’ encyclical deeply touched my heart and the immense love for creation that I had felt since I was a child. As I studied in depth the climate catastrophes not only in my country, but around the world, I discovered my life’s mission – a mission that God had set me on and led me to discover how I should serve my brothers and sisters. I found myself filled with passion for the care of our common home, for the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
So I feel unfathomable gratitude when I look back and see Laudato Si’ and God’s mission for me. That is why I am encouraged and grateful to work with the Church for the sake of God’s creation.
“Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue” Pope Francis (LS 217).
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Hearing Creation’s Cry
Amazonia in Bolivia. For almost two months now, forest fires have been destroying the fauna and flora of the Bolivian Amazon and affecting the Indigenous communities that live there. Every year thousands of hectares of our forests disappear. This is the cry of Bolivia at the moment.
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Hearing Creation’s Song
Mallasa landfill, La Paz Bolivia. Ten years ago there were tons of solid waste in this area. Today it is a green area–an example of what can be done for our common home if we all work together.
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Take Action
This Advent, we unite in prayer for COP28
An important call for this Advent is that it will coincide with the celebration of COP28 in Dubai, where leaders from around the world, including Pope Francis, will gather to make crucial decisions for the future of our planet. Your prayer for the success of this conference and the actions that result from it is vitally important.
We invite you to discover our 2023 Advent Calendar, a weekly guide designed to prepare you in the best way to welcome the Christ Child at Christmas.
You will find key liturgical dates, as well as the most important COP28 events and the Pope’s visit to Dubai. In addition, each week, we will provide you with a profound reflection, a question to meditate on, a concrete action to take and a beautiful song to lift up your Christmas prayers.
Download the 2023 Advent Calendar now
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LSM Core Values: Living in hope
Learn more about each of the 10 core values that ground LSM’s mission and identity
Read the theological reflection here
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