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 Cheryl Dugan, LSM Asia Pacific secretariat, and Fr. Martin Everi MSC from Kiribati, with the support of Mariel Caldas, from Argentina, and the strategic work by Guada García 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:
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- 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 us to spend more time with Creation, to contemplate this beautiful gift from God
“Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise.” (LS 12)
A breathtaking sunset over the serene shores of Fiji, a testament to the enduring beauty of God’s creation and the divine grace that sustains them.
Prayer of the month: Hope for Creation Prayer (written by Ben Thurley)
For every good gift in creation, for all of creation’s diversity and dignity and glory:
We give you thanks.
For threatened species and habitats, for all creatures on the brink:
We ask your grace and protection.
For seeking to live without limits, and failing to see how our lives affect all in the community of creation:
We ask your forgiveness and correction.
For the beauty and diversity of the family of faith:
We give you thanks.
For all those who struggle and are weary, who suffer and are oppressed:
We ask your grace and protection.
For the indifference or ignorance or busyness that stops us responding with mercy and justice to our brothers and sisters in need:
We ask your forgiveness and correction.
For every opportunity to do good, to share abundantly, and to live more in tune with your whole-hearted hospitality:
We give you thanks.
When we are worn down, tired out, or broken apart by the weight of our own struggles and failures:
We ask your grace and protection.
For the times we do not heed your call to walk the road of discipleship with your Son, Jesus:
We ask your forgiveness and correction.
Lord Jesus Christ, God our Loving Father, Holy Spirit, through grace you have given us eternal comfort and hope. Comfort our hearts and strengthen them in every good work and every good word.
Amen.
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Hear Creation’s Cry
Monthly reflection to deepen our eco-conversion
From Awareness to Action: My Ecological Conversion Story
Fr. Martin Everi MSC, Laudato Si’ Animator-Kiribati and Fiji
In 1984, during a geography class, I first heard about global warming and its harmful impacts on low lying islands like Kiribati, my home island country. Sr. Nora Hanrahan, a Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (FDNSC) introduced the topic to us. The effects of climate change in Kiribati, such as sea-level rise and coastal erosion, struck me deeply, since our beautiful islands are no more than 3 meters above sea level.
This awareness stayed with me. During my seminary days, I chose to write a thesis on environmental issues in the Pacific and their implications on the mission of the Church. My thesis at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram in Bangalore, India covered mining in Banaba and Nauru, nuclear testing in Marshall Islands and Christmas Island (Kiribati) and nuclear waste transportation across the Pacific Ocean.
My interest in ecological issues, especially global warming, led to my dissertation titled “Kamaiuira (Save Us): Global Warming and Its Implications on the Mission of the Church in Kiribati” at the Institute of Consecrated Life in Asia, affiliated with the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, in 2009. The title reflects the cry of the people of Kiribati and our low-lying islands due to the destructive impacts of climate change.
After completing my doctoral studies, I began sharing about the climate crisis with my community in the Philippines. After that, I went to Fiji where I spoke about climate change at the University of the South Pacific. I also spoke to novices from various religious congregations and conducted a workshop for religious major superiors of the Pacific region at the Pacific Regional Seminary. I was later invited to voice the concerns of the Pacific people at a climate change conference organized by the Bishops’ Conference of Asia and Misereor in Bangkok, Thailand, and at the Climate Justice Conference in Rome in 2011.
From 2015 to 2023, I was back in Kiribati where I served at St. Joseph’s Parish in Bikenibeu, Tarawa. In 2021, during the Season of Creation, I launched the Laudato Si’ Youth Climate Action, focusing on planting mangroves. We kicked off this project on October 4, the feast day of St. Francis, with a mass at St. Vincent de Paul Community, attended by over a hundred youth. After the 7 AM mass, the youth participated in a general cleanup along the causeway and planted around 2,000 mangrove trees.
This initiative continued during the Season of Creation in 2022 and early 2023. Over the last three years, the youth have planted more than 7,000 mangroves.
I am currently assigned in Fiji. At the moment , I have temporarily returned to Tarawa, Kiribati for the celebration of the installation of our new bishop. While in Kiribati, I plan to re-engage in the mangrove planting with the youth from St. Joseph’s Parish in Biikenibeu. Through these efforts, I aim to inspire the next generation to become stewards of our common home and protect our low-lying islands for future generations.
Each tree planted, each youth engaged, is more than a response to the crisis; it is a joyful act of praise for the beauty of our shared home. Our low-lying islands are not merely points on a map but homes to communities deeply rooted in culture and tradition. May we all find inspiration in the wonders of Creation and commit ourselves to its preservation.
The Tebunginako village in Abaiang, Kiribati is now covered in water due to rising sea levels and its residents relocated to safer inland areas. The small islands in the Pacific are experiencing severe impacts of climate change, including coastal inundation and soil infertility from seawater intrusion.
Questions for reflection
- Based on the reflection of Fr. Martin Everi’s story, what personal experiences have influenced your awareness of environmental issues, and how have they motivated you to act?
- How can you and your community of faith work together to address environmental challenges and promote ecological sustainability? Does Fr. Martin’s story inspire any new ideas?
- Fr. Martin shares how his ecological work “is a joyful act of praise for the beauty of our shared home.” How might you see your activities for our common home as a “joyful act of praise”?
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Hearing Creation’s Call
This month’s call to action: Join a national encounter
The Encounters process is still happening! This is an important and inspiring process to reflect on the fruits of our movement and dream about the future. See how you can prepare or participate in a national encounter. If local, community and national encounters on the road to 2025 have not yet taken place in your country, we invite you to be on the lookout to participate as soon as possible. How can you prepare? By reviewing the new resources available for organizing encounters, available on our website.
Coming up: Plan how you’ll participate in the Season of Creation in one month!
During the upcoming Season of Creation, celebrated from September 1 to October 4th, we have a unique opportunity to take action for creation. Plan ahead with free resources available here! Taking action, especially on such crucial issues as caring for our common home, generates hope in our communities. When we act, we are not only doing something positive for creation, but we also inspire others to follow suit.
Explore these resources and plan your Season of Creation event
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