World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Many voices are raised to today throughout the world in prayer for our care of creation, including our common home the earth and all of its inhabitants. Below are prayers from across the campus. Please take a moment, alone or with friends, to make your own prayer, raising minds and hearts to God, especially for care of the world and of each other.

Creator God,
You who breathe life into the Universe
We ask that You keep us aware of Your creation on our campus.
We are grateful for the beauty of our environment and the life
that it engenders in us.
May we pause to embrace the beauty of all creation on the earth,
In the sky and in the goodness of each other.
Amen

Pope Francis’ apt characterization of the ‘throwaway culture’ addresses more than our purchasing habits and waste disposal. It fundamentally addresses how we treat our Earth and our collective selves. Today, 25% of the greenhouse gases in this world are committed by a country with 5% of the world’s population. Similarly, 25% of the world’s prison population is incarcerated by a country with 5% of the world’s population. In both cases, that country is the U.S.A.

Justice, equity, and sustainability, amongst others, are noble ideas whose finish line may be readily apparent in its definition, but utterly invisible in our day-to-day work. Nonetheless, we must not let the lack of a visible finish line prevent us from committing ourselves to a path of virtuous actions. A conscious vanguard is needed to help counteract the detrimental, long-term effects that the ‘throwaway culture’ has on the planet and its communities.

As we hope for larger international and national action for justice and sustainability, I hope that we can commit ourselves and engage our communities in actions for ‘Our Common Home’. I recognize those who continue to advance a sustainable future, but I pray that we as a society can bring more people into the conversation… that we can challenge ourselves and our families to adapt our ways… and that we can bring the subconscious elements of the ‘throwaway culture’ to the forefront of our minds.

This prayer is for the women of the world, for women of color, for poor women, for women workers and artists who go unacknowledged, for women who are oppressed in families, in positions of servitude, for women who are unloved, for women in our own communities who may live in apparent privilege but have lives of mental desperation or spiritual poverty.  I appeal to all leaders in spiritual traditions to address the condition of women everywhere.

The contributors, respectively, are Sister Dolores of Athletics; Riley Smith, our Sustainability Coordinator; and Professor Brenda Hillman of the MFA and English Departments.

Photos by Brother Charles & Noor Kanan