This year, the Laudato Si’ Movement invited you to make a Lenten commitment and deepen it throughout each week with the proposed theme and prayer. As the Lenten season draws to an end, we invite you to look back at each week of our Laudato Si’ Lent 2022 and reflect on the different voices we were invited to listen to. 

Listening is a key aspect highlighted by Pope Francis for us to live out our synodality, meaning, for us to be the People of God who walk together on the same journey of the Church’s mission. Our weekly themes and prayers this Lent sought to help you develop the capacity to listen and be in communion with our diversity, listening to the voice of the indigenous, the voice of the poor, the voice of the youth, and the voice of biodiversity. 

As we live our last days of Lent and the Triduum, we invite you to reflect: How has your Lenten commitment transformed your journey of ecological conversion with the help of the weekly themes?

After two years of presiding over the Way of the Cross at St. Peter’s Basilica to an empty St. Peter’s Square, this week the Holy Pope will finally resume the tradition of holding the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum with the faithful. The journey to get here has been marked by agony, uncertainty, and many deaths. The unpredictability of the pandemic and the current horrors of war that we are living have impacted us all.

Our lifestyle has had to change out of obligation to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and our mindset has had to switch its focus to look at parts of the globe we do not usually think about. The spirit of synodality is what summons us to walk together despite the hardships we face and to listen to all of those who suffer most along the way. When we see Pope Francis at the Colosseum once again on Friday, let us keep in our minds and hearts the call and responsibility of listening to the different voices in our Church and in the world, and that it may inspire our actions to care for our earth and for the most vulnerable.

The more we listen and strive to walk together, the more we are able to address the crises that we are living through. As Pope Francis says in Laudato Si’: “The gravity of the ecological crisis demands that we all look to the common good, embarking on a path of dialogue which demands patience, self-discipline and generosity, always keeping in mind that ‘realities are greater than ideas’” (LS 201).

ACT NOW FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: Sign the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition

After you sign the petition, go a step further and make a donation today to support campaigns such as the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition, and Laudato Si Movement’s movement-building programs and advocacy plans. 

Connect to the different members and regions that are part of our LSM family by praying with the recordings of the Way of the Cross we have live-streamed throughout this Lent.

 

The Pope’s intention for the Way of the Cross 2022: For families, in celebration of the 5 years anniversary of Amoris Laetitia

Prayer to the Holy Family

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love;
to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again experience
violence, rejection and division;
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Graciously hear our prayer.
Amen.

You can join Pope Francis’ Way of the Cross here at 7:15pm UTC (3:15pm New York/ 2:15pm Houston/ 8:15pm London / 9:15pm Rome)