LSM’s Monthly Prayer Guide
This resource is a guide for our movement members to use collectively or individually every month. Each month this prayer guide brings reflections and testimonies from different members of our global movement to inspire you to pray, contemplate, reflect, and act for creation. This month’s edition was prepared by Suzana Moreira from Brazil, with the support of Christina Leaño from the USA, and the strategic work by Guada Corigliano from Argentina, design work by Marco Vargas from Ecuador, as well as work from others of the Communications team spread across the Americas and translators spread across the world.
If you prefer, you can download this resource in PDF format by clicking here.
How to use this prayer guide for an encounter
This year we are making some changes to this guide so it can better support you and your community. Here are a few tips for you to use this guide as the structure of an encounter:
- Read the full guide to familiarize yourself with the content and plan how you will use it in the encounter.
- Hold the encounter through the three steps: Hear Creation’s Song, Creation’s Cry, and Creation’s Call, making sure to prioritize time for common prayer, contemplative silence, and personal and shared reflection.
- After the encounter, remember to thank the participants and start planning for the next one, as well as continue to pray throughout the month with the month’s intention and prayer.
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Hear Creation’s Song
For a hope-full and peace-full year
“Yet we are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness” (LS 53).
Diaethria clymena, or Butterfly 88 as it is commonly known in Brazil. Photo taken at the Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve (REGUA), Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro. This species usually inhabits the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biome of Brazil. (Photo credit: André Alves)
A Laudate Deum prayer (by Catherine Gorman, CAFOD)
Laudate Deum,
O God we praise you,
for the world sings
of your infinite love.
Forgive us our failure
to agree a way forward
to protect this earth
and our children’s future.
For the way the powerful
shelter behind their wealth,
while the poorest people are disregarded,
and the earth is at breaking point.
Guide our leaders
to set aside their own interests
in the interest of us all
and grant us all the courage
to turn our concern into change.
Strengthen our faith,
and let us never lose hope
so together we may rise up
responding to the urgent call
of your people and all creation.
Amen.
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Hear Creation’s Cry
Monthly reflection to deepen our eco-conversiony
The changing times we are living
Suzana Moreira, Manager of Eco-Conversion Programs, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
LSM is starting 2024 with a big change: we have a new Executive Director, Susana Réfega, from Portugal! What a huge surprise it was for me to find out that the person coming to join us in this journey of ecological conversion shares my name and my native language!
When my parents found out that they were pregnant with me, they knew that they wanted to choose a name from the Bible for me. They chose a name that appears twice, first in chapter 13 of the book of Daniel, and second in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8: Suzana (though the spelling varies across countries and translations).
I grew up moving around cities because my father was transferred several times in his job, and I also grew up reading those Bible passages and being deeply inspired by the example of those Susanas who were committed to following the will of God in their lives. This became a guiding light for me as I moved around to cities, always changing schools, houses, friends, countries, and languages, needing to constantly adapt to changes. Those Susanas taught me the importance of being true to yourself and following Jesus no matter what.
Looking at the year ahead trying to be hope-full and peace-full seems very challenging amidst the changing times we are living in. In 2023, we saw the effects of the climate crisis like never before and how the world keeps changing because of it. We also saw how COP28 took place influenced by big oil companies and without enough bold decisions yet. We saw the ongoing war in Ukraine, between Israel and Palestine, in Congo, and other countries with ongoing conflicts. How is it possible to think about hope and peace as we go into 2024? The story of Susana, our new Executive Director, can inspire us. Just like those Susanas in the Bible, her story can be a guiding light for us as we face the challenges of the changing times we are living in.
After several years of dedicating herself to her ecological conversion both at a personal and professional level, she understood that she still needed to listen to “a renewed call from God.” In her own words: “A call to continue my personal, professional, and spiritual journey of ecological conversion. A call for a discernment of where God is calling me today.” You can read more about her journey here.
No matter where we are in the process of our commitment to care for our common home, it is always time to stop and listen once again to how God is calling us through the cries of the Earth and the cries of the most vulnerable. Hope and peace should not be abstract concepts or superficial feelings to us, but rather concrete motivations built upon our actions of commitment to follow God’s will.
In her motivation letter, Susana recalled the words of Pope Francis in the World Youth Day vigil: “O segredo do caminho está um pouco nisto: na constância em caminhar” (The secret of the journey is a bit like this: to keep on journeying). The more we witness the lack of peace and struggle for hope, the more we are called to build them. May we keep journeying forth to create an ever more hope-full and peace-full common home!
Questions for reflection
- How do you feel when big changes happen in your life? Who do you turn to for guidance? How can you support others going through changes?
- Consider the different stages of the cycle of life of a butterfly. Think about what it takes for the caterpillar to transform into its full beauty. How does this creature speak to you and your community as an example of how to deal with changes?
- Reflect on the Laudato Si’ quote of the month and think about the changes happening around you. What are the cries of the Earth and the cries of the most vulnerable where you live? How is God calling you to be his instrument for a world of peace, beauty, and fullness where you are?
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Hearing Creation’s Call
This month’s call to action: Plan the year ahead!
We have big plans for 2024 and many opportunities to increasingly commit to our process of eco-conversion and actions for our common home. We invite you to reflect on how you will give life to Laudato Si’ this year, keeping in mind LSM’s global programs and campaigns:
- January-June: Local encounters to prepare for 2025
- August-December: National encounters to prepare for 2025
- January 27: Global Encounter online with Susana Réfega
- February 2: Season of Creation theme launch
- February 14: Beginning of Lent
- March: Laudato Si’ Animators Program
- 19-26 (TBD) May: Laudato Si’ Week
- June: Season of Creation Celebration Guide launch
- 1 September – 4 October: Season of Creation
- 11-22 November: COP29 in Azerbaijan
- 1 December: Beginning of Advent
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We will be using this prayer, Laudate Deum, at our first official Zoom meeting for the LSM Texas Chapter this Wednesday. Thank you for providing us with wonderful inspiration.
Thank you for this beautiful sharing!
May God bless us all throughout this new year 2024!
Thanks for these reflections, prayers and suggestions for this year. They will help me personally and professionally in spreading the good news of Gospel justice!