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 and Adrian Tambuyat from the Philippines, Marky Ma from Hongkong, with the support of Suzana Moreira, from Brazil, 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:
- 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.
Hear Creation’s Song
To contemplate the mystery of creation and to live Christmas more simply.
“Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise.” (LS 12)
A rural landscape in the northern metropolis of Hong Kong, which includes wetlands in the Deep Bay. Photo Courtesy of: https://www.wwf.org.hk/
Prayer of the month
Advent Prayer
Dear God, our Creator,
You revealed your love to us and creation once and for all through the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. By the grace of Your Creator Spirit, teach us to celebrate our faith in the Incarnation that took place in creation.
Dear Jesus, Savior of creation, we ask that You may be born in us once again as we seek to cultivate hope for our common home. As Your followers, teach us to care for the dignity of all human beings and all creation, now and in the future.
In a season too often marked by overconsumption and excess, let us give thanks and honor the goodness of all your gifts in the natural world. Help us to contemplate the mystery of creation as we celebrate the mystery of incarnation.
We pray for today’s victims of global warming, both human and nonhuman. We pray for more ambition in the energy transition, in this country and globally. We pray for our governments to negotiate a global and fair phase-out of fossil fuels.
And, finally, we pray for the courage to be prophets of our time, calling upon our leaders to bear fruits of ecological justice.
Come Emmanuel! Make us ever more hopeful people for a hopeful planet. Let us be part of Your light of hope to the world. Amen.
Hear Creation’s Cry
Monthly reflection to deepen our eco-conversion
Ecological conversion towards the love of Christ: An intellectual, spiritual and moral journey
Marky Ma, LSM Animator of Animators, Hong Kong. Convenor of ecological care group- Hong Kong Diocesan Commission for Integral Human Development
My ecological conversion path began with undergraduate and master’s studies in climate change and sustainability. During my study, I became more involved with addressing the climate crisis, and yet it seemed to me that science and politics alone couldn’t solve this wicked problem, and it had to be something more fundamental. Hence, I wanted to find new ways and a different type of wisdom to grasp what was going on with our planet. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance (I was not a Catholic at the time), I began reading Laudato Si’ and Thomas Berry’s writings from a secular perspective. Their literature was the start of both my Catholic and ecological conversions. The conversions began with a more intellectual movement, and I was increasingly seeing that climate change is a serious ethical and moral issue.
I was baptized and confirmed in 2021, during my completion of the master’s degree. Now I realize how my faith and my commitment to environmental stewardship are inextricably linked and complementary. I’ve realized that caring for our world is more than a scientific or political concern; it’s also a spiritual one, a way to move towards communion with God. My faith has helped me grasp the interdependence of all living things and the need of protecting God’s creation for future generations. While preparing for the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, I was able to profoundly feel and experience God’s love for me, and my spiritual connection was at its strongest in nature. I feel a sense of calm and tranquility that I have never experienced before. This shifts my perspective from a cognitive dimension of ecological conversion to a more spiritual one.
This spiritual relationship with God enables me to reconsider: what is genuinely good? A conflict between selfishness and self-transcendence. This is a moral conversion that I am still working on, but it has encouraged me to take action in my own life, such as gradually adopting a more simple lifestyle (despite living in one of the world’s largest cities, I was able to relocate to a small residential island last month). Beyond the individual level, I also believe we must push for ecological justice in our communities. This impulse arose when I saw a documentary about how the underprivileged in Hong Kong are suffering as temperatures rise due to climate change. At that point, I realized that as Catholics, we must fight for human dignity and climate justice as a collective unity. As a result, I actively use my PhD studies as research opportunities to collaborate with many local projects within the Catholic Church in Hong Kong to promote sustainability and the message of environmental care.
And here is a passage in the Book of Micah that serves as the chorus for a very beautiful hymn and inspires me greatly during my ecological conversion journey:
“This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: that you act justly, that you love tenderly, and that you walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).”
This verse always reminds me of the significance of leading a life of integrity and compassion.
Air pollution in Hong Kong as seen from afar. Photo courtesy of Dickson Lee via South China Morning Post.
Questions for reflection
- How do Marky’s conversions relate to your own journey of ecological conversion and commitment to Christ?
- The more we commit to caring for creation, the more we are called to change our personal lifestyles and act collectively for structural change. How do you feel called to cultivate more collective action where you live?
- Advent is a great time for us to contemplate our lives and our expectations for the coming of the Lord. As Marky has shared, our faith helps us understand the interdependence of all things. How do you plan to spend this Advent and Christmas season to grow deeper into this contemplation with creation?
Hearing Creation’s Call
This month’s call to action: Download the Advent Calendar
Advent is here! It’s a time to embark on a journey of preparation for our encounter with God, Jesus Christ, who comes to meet us in the bosom of Creation: it is the Good News! We want to anticipate the hope that the Child God will bring us and deepen our contemplation of this mystery.
Prepare for the arrival of Christ in creation with a Laudato Si’ Advent calendar. The calendar offers verses to prompt deeper reflection, questions to meditate on, and prayers for each Sunday in Advent.
Coming up: LS Anniversary Contemplation Vigil.
The Laudato Si’ Movement, together with the World Community for Christian Meditation, Contemplative Outreach, the Taizé Community, the Office of the Franciscan Minors for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, and the Assisi Center, invite you to participate in a 10-hour contemplative vigil to honor the role of contemplation in caring for our common home.
Mark your calendars for January 25th and stay tuned to register and be a part of this special moment of celebration!