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 Anne Doutriaux, Cécile Lhote, Brother Mathieu Boulanger and Stéphane Leleu from France, with the help of Laura Madrigal-Estebas from Ireland, Veronica Coraddu from Italy and Irene del Pozo from Spain; 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 Communications team members 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.
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Hear Creation’s Song
For just political decisions and climate awareness in electoral processes
“It is necessary to be honest and recognize that the most effective solutions will not come from individual efforts alone, but above all from major political decisions on the national and international level” (LD 69).
Prayer to stop and listen (Lent Europe 2024)
Lord,
our lives are full of noise and never-ending activities.
Too often, we want to “keep doing” and never stop.
Too often, we want to speak and never listen.
Help us, so that we may take the time to stop,
Help us to open our eyes, our ears,
So that we can see what matters without being distracted by the latest news,
So that we can explore the complexity of this world without following the first “good solution” stated by the ones who speak the loudest.
So that we can hear the voices nobody wants to hear, the voices of the little ones, the humble ones, the forgotten ones, the voice of your Creation.
Help us, so that we can open our hearts to turn what is happening to the Earth into our own personal suffering.
May we speak against what should be denounced
May we open a dialogue where everyone has a space to express themselves.
Support us, so that we dare take the risk to give to the world what lies deep inside us and is our own personal contribution.
Guide us, so that we may open paths
where we can walk together
and share the light you give us.
Help us to stop and listen, so that we may hear the gentle sound of the seed
that grows in the soil
without anyone being aware of it, except you,
and becomes a seed of hope each day.
Amen.
Anne Doutriaux, France Programs Coordinator
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Hear Creation’s Cry
Monthly reflection to deepen our eco-conversiony
Hope in the steps of an ant
Cécile Lhote, Laudato Si’ Animator, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France.
What a breath of fresh air it was to read Laudato Si’!
Cécile Lhote, Laudato Si’ Animator
Something began to take shape in my life: a growing interest in “taking care” of living things, nourished by readings, films and discussions.
In August 2022, I received an offer (heaven sent?) inviting me to take the LSM animator training course. Animator? Me?!
But I said yes, and every day, I tell myself that I was right to have taken the bold step of trusting.
Because I immediately realized how much LSM was rooted in prayer, highlighting the very strong link between respect for the living and our Christian faith.
The Lord guides our steps!
The training, which was top-notch, enabled me to make progress, get informed, become more aware of what’s at stake, and realize that I have a responsibility, in my own way.
I implemented my “keystone” project: an evening gathering to present the movie The Letter to some fifteen people involved in our parish, the idea being that they would help circulate and promote its message in their Church services.
It’s slowly but surely taking hold.
I was delighted to see Aurélie, from our small team of five that started in 2017, join the LSM training and commit to becoming an animator as well.
With her and my husband, I took a second step:
Participating in a circle of silence at the foot of the TotalEnergies tower at La Défense near Paris (February, then November 2023) to silently shout our profound disagreement with the Eacop project in Tanzania.
It’s not easy to expose oneself in this way, to… be an activist for real.
What touched me then, was the gentleness of this action, humble, small, powerless? But what a moment of interiority, of communion, of letting go in prayer, of joy and hope—all at once!
Then, supported by the LSM animators’ WhatsApp group, we dared to propose a circle of silence, to pray for COP 28 last December, with strong messages on our backs, in our town’s market square. Sixteen people were present, silently questioning passers-by.
Ties are forged, impulses are combined, and the seed sprouts.
The path is growing with other small steps taken alone, in teams or more widely: the Climate Fresco, a letter to our bishop on the issue of ethical investments, the implementation of the “Green Church” approach in our parish, a meditative walk in and for Creation during the dedicated month of September, the “Ma petite Planète” challenge, “The Week” experience, World Clean up day in September, a letter to our MP asking her to go further in climate-related measures…
I see how all this calls me, moves me, transforms me, and I say:
Thank you, Lord!
Credit Fabien Coisy | In November 2023, and again in January 2024, floods hit the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, destroying crops, homes and working tools. With climate disruption, intense climatic episodes are multiplying: in other parts of France, it’s drought that has persisted for years. Every tenth of a degree of climate change counts in limiting these impacts.
Questions for reflection
- Do you recognize what were the first “ant” steps that you gave in the care for creation? Take some time to recognize those small first steps you gave when you started your own journey of ecological conversion and thank God in the process.
- Like the Laudate Deum quote of the month reminds us, individual efforts alone are not enough to bring everlasting changes for the care of our common home. Just like ants in an anthill, each small ant step is fundamental to creating the big motions needed for the survival of all ants. As we increasingly face the need to elect better officials who can help create the needed political decisions for climate justice, reflect on how your small steps can help set in motion better political decisions and climate awareness in the electoral processes in your city and country.
- We often look at the urgency of the climate crisis and are eager to immediately act with big and bold actions, without discerning or reflecting much on how to go about it. However, sometimes creating space for silence and prayer can be much more revolutionary than we think, helping create the much-needed space for discernment and reflection, for us to stop and listen. Think about concrete ways in which you can incorporate silence and prayer as bold action in your efforts to care for our common home.
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Hearing Creation’s Call
This month’s call to action: Participate in the local LSM encounters
In our synodal road to 2025, we are preparing local encounters from February to June connecting LSM members in close geographic areas like Laudato Si’ Circles.
After thorough deliberation with the Global Membership Council and the Secretariat, our Board has decided to emphasize the significance of these encounters. As a result, we are transitioning the in-person global Encounter in Assisi to an online format, enabling broader participation worldwide.
Visit the website for more information
Coming soon: LSA On Demand Program
A new edition of the Laudato Si’ Animators Program is coming this April! Get ready to help us by promoting the new course based on engaging our communities in ecological spirituality, sustainable lifestyles and advocacy for climate and ecological justice.
The course is a five-week online training based on 3 pillars: ecological conversion,
sustainability and prophetic advocacy. Meet the team and join a global community of prayer and action. Animators work to bring Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ to life and care for our common home.
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