Laudato Si’…the thundering words of this revolutionary encyclical have awakened the consciences of thousands of people, Catholics and lay people around the world… Don Mimmo writes in his song “Si sta a terra” that if the Earth could speak, scream, she would tell us that it no longer has the strength to stop the death men without conscience are causing!

We all heard this same heartbreaking cry when we met in the parish and chose the experience of the Circle, joining the Laudato Si ‘Movement.

United in this journey, we have experienced a small miracle. We were few at the beginning, some had in common only the attendance of the same church, the civic commitment in the city, the acquaintance with Don Mimmo and Don Peppino, our parish priests …

The moments experienced in the recent months, from Laudato Si ‘Week to the Season of Creation, have united us, changed us, enriched our lives. Every day we share news, hints, ideas, proposals to improve the quality of life in our territory, we are convinced that the lifestyle in solidarity with Mother Earth can be the beginning of the turning point; it can give our future a little hope.

Don Mimmo participates in our circle with love for everyone, with the joy of the parish priest who knows he has embraced the right pastoral path, who knows that ordinary catechesis must, yes, “must” be nourished by the teaching of Pope Francis’ encyclical, because the Church, all the churches must feel the responsibility of forming faithful and communities aware that faith is also respect and care for creation. Mother Earth, created by God before man, is generous and as a “mother” forgives us everything, patiently waits for her son to repent, take better care of her and, in the meantime, she continues to nourish him …

Don Mimmo writes about this mother’s lament, but he also writes that if he could listen to the voice of the few who love her, he would be happy, he would find the strength to resist a little longer, just long enough for all of us to be able to save her and save us …

A series of passages from the encyclical have been inspiring him, mixed with real life, in the journey made together. He tells us, like the pope, that there is hope: “Pope Francis calls us to develop  a “loving awareness” about this house  we share and to act on the basis of the values that are close to our hearts “. (LS 220).

The notes of this lovely song caress our thoughts, the sad and sweet melody seems to lull the Earth in an embrace, that tormented land, as it sings in its text in Neapolitan, inspired by the experience of these months of the Laudato Si ‘Movement, but above all from the will, from the need to leave a mark, an immediate message, that arrow of concentrated wisdom only artists know how to launch, striking and shaking the most sleeping consciences.

Don Mimmo, this priest in love with God, as he writes in another song, so pure in the soul of a believer and a shepherd, was immediately the protagonist in my thoughts, when we met for the first time in the Circle … I said to myself: “Here it is a man who will know how to read the events we will live together with the right key, he will give us the joy of being in communion to pray, the strength not to be disheartened, when our actions do not have the desired participation, there will be of help in the disclosure of our work, as an expert of  communication, but above all as a poet” …

This wonderful human being looks at the world through the lens of beauty. He knows that beauty is the only simple, vital, necessary way to go!

Tina for the  Laudato si’ Circle of Pomigliano