“As the Pope says, we are all connected, and so are we as a family. With God’s help we are committed to Laudato Si’,” says Linda Sheran. Together with her husband, José Luis, they have been married for 15 years and have three girls: Edna María (15), Ana Carolina (13) and Ximena (6). They live in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and in their community they are called the Laudato Si’ family.
When they came to know the Laudato Si’ Movement (Global Catholic Climate Movement at that time), they fell in love with the idea of becoming Laudato Si’ Animators.
First the mother with the eldest daughter, during Laudato Si’ Week; then the father with the youngest daughter, during the Season of Creation. All four members of the family were certified as Animators, with a luxury helper for their projects: little Ximena.
“I’ve always loved issues related to caring for the planet,” says Edna Maria, who didn’t hesitate to start the training when her mother suggested it. The young woman, who also loves gardening, came up with a final project on succulent plants to become certified.
For Linda, the experience was very enriching: “Plants in the house are our first contact with nature and what we feel responsible for. So in the plant exchange, people get involved and tell us how they take care of them. In this way we give them a little taste of what the movement is all about,” she says.
As a family, everyone participated, especially Ximena, who enjoys handing out plants to people in the community. “With the movement we discovered another dimension of the Church. We feel part of an integral Church that calls us to a formation that does not neglect any aspect,” says Linda.
But the concern for Laudato Si’ also arose in the father of the family, José Luis, who was always in charge of collecting organic waste for composting at home, “but then he saw it from the dimension of faith and care for the common home,” says his wife.
Together with their middle daughter, Ana Carolina, they underwent the Animators’ program and their commitment for the final project was the collection of signatures for the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition: “We did it in the Salvador del Mundo parish, we collected 106 signatures in two Masses,” the young woman mentioned.
For her, the most important thing is to learn and be formed. She is reading the encyclical and participates in every online event. Her dream is to be able to form her own Laudato Si’ Circle.
For her part, Edna Maria is “the voice of the family’s conscience,” as her mother says: “She is the one who talks to us about the carbon footprint, about reducing plastic consumption, about changing the little things of everyday life.”
Linda concludes her message by encouraging other parents: “Don’t limit your children. They have great abilities: God has given them His gifts, and it is our job to help them develop them. For us, the movement has been an opportunity for everyone to discover and get to know the good things they have, and to put them at the service of others.”
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Excellent article! Just the right length and quite inspiring! God bless them all!