Contemporary Icons of Threatened and Endangered Species
Artist Angela Manno has applied the traditional processes of icon painting to contemporary environmental concerns in this collection entitled ENDANGERED SPECIES. Manno says:
“Most of the fauna and flora depicted are threatened or critically endangered. The extinction rate is currently hundreds, perhaps thousands of times higher than the natural rate, causing what is considered to be the sixth mass extinction. Based on these statistics, biologist E.O. Wilson estimates that if current trends continue, half of Earth's animal and plant species will be extinct by the end of this century.
It is clear that the Western mind is divorced from Nature, the primary condition that has led to the current ecological catastrophe. I feel that the only way back - indeed our own survival - depends on nothing less than a re-enchantment with the Earth as a living reality. It is for this reason that I have chosen to depict non-human species in a traditionally religious form: the icon.
These contemporary icons represent the confluence of my search for a form of expression that merges my art, scientific understanding and mystical sensibilities with the current zeitgeist which is turning more and more towards ecology, given the concern over the biosphere and climate disruption.”
To read more about her approach and enjoy the full collection, visit https://angelamanno.com/iconography
Poor access to improved water and sanitation in NIGERIA remains a major contributing factor to high morbidity and mortality rates among children under five.
“Give me a drink.”
WATER is a transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen & oxygen, H 2 O, freezing at 32°F or 0°C & boiling at 212°F or 100°C, that in a more or less impure state constitutes rain, oceans, lakes, rivers, etc... it contains 11.188 percent hydrogen & 88.812 percent oxygen, by weight. Water is essential for all life.
The balance between water demand & availability reached a critical level in many areas of the UNITED KINGDOM last summer, arising from the drought conditions but exacerbated by unsustainable over-abstraction.
John 4:5
The drinking water system in the UNITED STATES is broken in all kinds of ways. Chronic underinvestment has left water infrastructure outdated and on the verge of collapse in many places across the country.
Groundwater quality is generally good throughout GHANA, but gold mining belts in the north & southwest are contaminated by heavy metals, & naturally high fluoride contaminates drinking water in northern Ghana, posing health risks.
CHAD has the third-lowest level of access to safe water & the lowest level of access to adequate sanitation in all of Africa.
WORLD WATER DAY
March 22
“...access to safe drinkable water is a basic & universal human right ... essential to human survival ... Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity. This debt can be paid partly by an increase in funding to provide clean water & sanitary services among the poor.” Laudato Si’ 30
How might we help to “give living water”?
John 4:10
In KENYA, a Maryknoll priest has set up irrigation projects to help farmers grow better crops. He has also assisted in digging boreholes and wells to bring clean water to the slum areas around Nairobi & provide water for local schools run by Kenyan Sisters. Maryknolll Office for Global Concerns (MOGC)
The Maryknoll Sisters in PANAMA, are pressing for action on a growing threat, hidden from the local people, to drain an essential, large fresh water lake in order to expand the Panama Canal & facilitate mega-ship traffic. MOGC
COMMUNITIES ALL OVER THE WORLD
have been organizing themselves to resist water privatization – in France, United States, Brazil, Honduras, Argentina, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt and many other countries. One of the most well-known struggles involving water happened in Bolivia in 2000 when dozens of people died while protesting against water privatization in the city of Cochabamba. That protest became known as the “Water War.” MOGC
PEACEABLE KINGDOM — 1
Two centuries ago , a Quaker minister by the name of Edward Hicks, painted at least 100 variations on the theme of the “peaceable Kingdom” between 1820 and 1829 (top). It is his depiction of the idyllic time of peace and harmony foreseen in Isaiah 11: 6-9:
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
In our own time, other artists have offered their interpretation of this longed-for vision of peace:
John August Swanson 1994; he says, “For me, it speaks both to the desire of people to find a place of peace in this world and to the need for peace within us. It also symbolizes our responsibility to protect and care for all of creation. (middle)
Jan Wall—2019; she gathers only the animals of the Sierra Madre Mountains, California, at a bountiful table. (bottom)
The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
PEACEABLE KINGDOM — 2
In the medium of joyous words, theologian Elizabeth Johnson also depicts, for post-modern humans, the peace and harmony intended by the Creator for all of creation in her most recent book, Come, Have Breakfast, pp. 46-47, 2024.
"Midway through the third Eucharistic Prayer of the Catholic liturgy, the presider declares, 'all creation rightly gives you praise.' .... What an expansive sense of the loving Creator would result if at the start of every gathering for christian prayer or liturgy the people called upon the ongoing praise of all creation which we humans now join. How magnificent to realize that the living God to whom we pray is also receiving the praise of the squirrel, the eagle, the trout, the firefly, the cactus, and the coral reef. We singers sharing the journey of life together. What desperately needed, responsible, self-sacrificing care of Earth and its species would flow as a result of such prayer.
The benefit can be mutual. At a time when prayer does not come easily to postmodern humans, becoming aware of nature's praise may actually allow these other creatures to help us pray. The more we attend to them, the more they can lift our hearts to God, borne on their praise.
O let everything that breathes praise God! Psalm 150:6
Yo-Yo Ma Plays
Music to Buffalo Herd in Glacier National Park, Montana
Internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma … took his cello to a meadow on the Blackfeet Nation to play for bison in celebration of the tribe’s work to reestablish a free roaming herd. Yo-Yo Ma plays on top of a hill in the middle of the Blackfeet Nation’s buffalo pasture. The vast golden prairie and the mountains of Glacier National Park loom in the distance. Some locals listen, but he’s here to play for the bison grazing at the bottom of the hill.
As Ma unloaded from a pickup truck, he said he’s traveled the country to bring his music to places like this as part of his “Our Common Nature” project. Ma added:
“More and more every music I play is trying to figure out what is human nature, what is nature and how the two combine.”
To read more about this project and listen to the music go to the Montana Public Radio site: https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2024-08-05/yo-yo-ma-plays-to-buffalo-herd-on-blackfeet-nation
LAUDATO SI’ ACTION PLATFORM / LSAP
If you are old enough, do you remember how you ushered in the Millennium Year?
I was with the community in Newtown, Wales, gathered round a candle which each household had been given to light at midnight and pray together the universal prayer that united people of all faiths and none. What hopes we had for our world! What longings!
Now we are ushering in 2025. Surely our hopes and longings have grown and intensified as we reflect on what we have witnessed and experienced, some more some less, this quarter of a century. There is no need for me to list what troubles us in the wounded world today. Every day seems to bring reports of more disasters and emergencies and urgent appeals for aid. But in this Jubilee Year of 2025 our Christian hope is being intensified.
One of the ways we in the Society are living that hope is through our active membership of the Laudate Si Action Platform. In 2015 Pope Francis spoke powerfully to the suffering world in his encyclical letter: Laudato Si: On care for our common home. Inspired by this encyclical, the Laudato Si Action Platform was set up to equip the Church to achieve real and lasting solutions to the ecological crisis: “concrete actions to protect our common home.” A small group in the European province then worked together to recommend to their 2021 Province Chapter that the province should not only join the Platform, but make a recommendation to the 2022 General Chapter that the whole Society should register membership. The 2022 General Chapter Enactments committed us to this.
Over time, all three provinces have registered separately and submitted their annual plans, focussing on which of the seven key Goals proposed by the Platform can be taken up by their members. Currently a small team in each province oversees and encourages active participation. The Platform invites us to evaluate and then renew our Plans each year. In this process it is possible to add further Goals. It is the hope of those in the province teams that we can give this witness as One Society. Common to us all at present are the Goals of Sustainable Lifestyle and Ecological Education.
24 December 2024
an initiative of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
WHERE DO WE STAND?
Goatscaping Brings Hope in Restoring Native Ecosystem
Linda Tarney, American Associate
What is an eco-friendly solution to invasive species and weeds growing on difficult terrain?
The answer is goatscaping or target grazing. There are environmental, economical, biological reasons for using goats in place of landscaping machinery and herbicides to remove invasive species to support the growth of native plants. Environmentally, goats require water, shade, and predator protection to graze, not fossil fuels.
Goats do not give off pollutants like carbon. Their droppings are a natural fertilizer for the soil while their hooves aerate the soil. With goatscaping the use of herbicides that may harm other organisms is not necessary. By eating the leaves and woody stems of the invasive plants, the goats allow more light and air to get to the native plants and grasses, enhancing their growth. Also, as they eat these invasive plants, they sterilize the seeds and plant-reproductive material during digestion, eventually breaking the re-growth cycle of the invasive plants.
Goats preserve the habitats of the wildlife in a grazing area by eating around bird nests, avoiding leaves and twigs having cocoons and chrysalises, and letting small creatures (turtles, toads, and small mammals) move out of their way. Economically, goatscaping is a viable option, and cost effective compared to labor, equipment, and chemical expenses of traditional methods of invasive plant removal.
Lastly, goats are biological. Compared to chemical solutions, goats produce no toxins or pollutants. Boer goats, Kiko goats, and Nigerian Dwarf goats all well suited for target grazing. Goats are natural browsers preferring broad leaved and woody stemmed plants. These ruminates will eat invasive plants like buckthorn, multi flora rose, bittersweet, English ivy, kudzu, honey suckle, burning nettle, poison ivy, or poison sumac. The grazing of goats is a testament to God creating plants and animals to coexist. Goats eat around goldenrod saving it for the pollinators. They will not eat milkweed which is the only food Monarch caterpillars eat. Goats eat most invasive plants up to 7 feet high leaving the lower portions still in the ground. This protects the goats from worms and other parasites found on the plants closer to the ground. These remaining stems will need to be pulled out manually. As goats will eat non-invasive plants like blueberries, these plants need to be protected during goatscaping. These ruminates do stay clear of Rhododendron which is highly toxic to them. Being prey, they need to be protected and herded by dogs, donkeys, or people or a fencing system.
In NY, you can rent a goat from https://www.letsgoatbuffalo.com/ These adorable grazers bring hope to recreating native ecosystems by their natural browsing. By reducing the growth of invasive species of plants, creating fertile soil, and providing more light and air for the growth of native plants, goats can once again bring to life a natural habitat for many of God’s creatures to coexist together.
“A PLANETARY PERSPECTIVE” for EARTH DAY, April 22, 2023
RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2 – May 27, 2023
The famous photo “Earthrise” was taken from outer space, and now astronaut Ron Garan has made it his mission to let others see the world from a planetary perspective. What he says is so much like what Teilhard de Chardin expressed in his work. Incarnational spirituality fosters an awareness of the inherent value of each being, the fragility and preciousness of our earthly home, and the presence of the divine here with us. As we humans expand our scientific understanding of the universe, we can better understand the Christ mystery as Sacred Presence. Michelle Dugan, Associate
“The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed .... By virtue of Creation, and still more the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Do I know how to see?
“When we see our planet from the perspective of space, certain things become undeniably clear. We keep trying to deal with issues such as global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss, as standalone issues, when in reality, they’re just symptoms of the underlying root problem. And the problem is that we don’t see ourselves as planetary .... But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie. We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process .... A lot of astronauts who go to space come back and they feel that there has been some sort of transformation. And a term was coined back in the ‘80s called the overview effect. And the overview effect describes the shift that astronauts have when they see the planet hanging in the blackness of space. There’s this light bulb that pops up where they realize how interconnected and interdependent we all are .... I wake up every morning in my bed, but I also wake up on a planet. In the long term, I’m very optimistic, because I do see quite clearly a blossoming unity spreading across our planet, a blossoming awareness of our interdependent nature. That awareness will eventually reach critical mass and when it reaches critical mass, then we’ll be able to solve the problems facing our planet.
I’m Ron Garan, I’m a former NASA astronaut and former combat fighter pilot and the author of “Floating in Darkness, A Journey of Evolution.”
View Garan’s complete talk on Big Think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJGCAWTgbn0 Read the transcript of his talk: https://bigthink.com/life/overview-effect/
Earthrise, taken from Apollo 8, 1968
Laudato Si’ Week — May 21-28, 2023
A Review of Laudato Si’ by Terri MacKenzie,
SHCJ
RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2 — May 27, 2023
This is the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis’ letter to the whole world on the care of creation, an occasion for rejoicing in the progress being made to bring LS to life. Communities around the world are asked to view the film “The Letter.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rps9bs85BII&t=6s
Because our mission is to help others believe that God lives and acts in the world, the better we understand that world, the deeper can be our response to our call.
Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home enriches readers’ understanding of the “wholeness” of creation and of our place within this sacred communion of subjects.
The entire document contains strong messaging about creation and practical steps needed to care for our “beautiful mother.” The Introduction — just 16 paragraphs — deserves special attention because it provides a solid grounding for the rest. It highlights the spirit of St. Francis — a favorite of the pope who took his name, but also one of Cornelia’s favorite saints. It emphasizes that caring for the poor and caring for Earth’s life systems are inseparable.
Almost every page of the document contains phrases that merit consideration and/or contemplation. Some samplings:
… the earth herself [note: not “itself”], burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor….
… we ourselves are dust of the earth; our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
… we are called to accept the world as a sacrament of communion….
… Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and joy.
… Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the suffering of the excluded.
… God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement.
…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.
May 21 - 28, Laudato Si’ Week, is a good time to review the entire document. For Laudato Si’ Reflection Resource: https://ecospiritualityresources.com/?s=laudato+si
Son of God, Jesus, through you all things were made. You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother, you became part of this earth, and you gazed upon this world with human eyes. Today you are alive in every creature in your risen glory. Praise be to you!
“THEOLOGY
& THE EARTH: Human Beings in the Community of Creation”
RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2 – May 27, 2023
Elizabeth A. Johnson CSJ is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theology at Fordham University, a Jesuit institution in New York City, and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, NY.
Johnson was the featured speaker at a special event to launch a new endowed fund at Fordham Univesity to advance the inter-disciplinary study of our relationship with earth; she spoke, along with two panelists, on March 21, 2023.
Here are some excerpts from her presentation and a link to the audio track of her whole talk — https://vimeo.com/818886458?share=copy
“The time is now for the study of theology and earth .... We humans need to re-think our relationship with nature and all its creatures, change that we are masters of the universe to realize that we are siblings and kin to all creatures in a community of creation loved by God.”
1) the community of creation: “Evolution can explain how species came to be, but there’s more to it; the world is gift of a generous creator .... But creation is ongoing; the living God continuously creates.”
“We humans are an intrinsic part of the evolutionary network of this planet. Why is our blood red, like the blood of other mammals? Because of iron. There is but one biosphere, one community of life, of creation — everything is connected to everything else and we flourish and wither together.”
2) a powerful obstacle for grasping that we’re part of it: “The ‘hierarchy of being’ has been toxic for us. Greek philosophy saw the world composed of matter and spirit, with divinity as pure spirit, and philosophy used this schema to create the hierarchy of being. This model structures the world as a pyramid with humans at the pinnacle. Theology grew on this framework. Today feminist thinkers see the hierarchy as turned in on itself — men have more spirit than women so women by nature are subordinate to men. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans began explorations and saw themselves as having the right to exploit, assign to people of color souls of lesser qualities, closer to animals than to humans. Europeans thought they had the right to transport these people — [we have] racism and slavery to this day. How deeply the hierarchy has made its way into Christian thought and spirituality; unbridled exploitation of natural world can be traced to ongoing influence of the hierarchy of being.”
3) remedies to remove the obstacle: “We need to be converted to the earth as one, beloved community of creation .... All creatures are moving forward with us toward a common point of arrival which is God. [In Laudato Si’ we read that] God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we should feel the soil drying out into desert .... the loss of a species should strike us as if our own body is dying .... eternal life will be a shared experience of wonder in which each creature resplendently transfigured will take its place.”
