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!

THE EVANGELICAL POPE: preaching & living an incarnated faith”

by Robert Mickens, in La Croix International, March 26, 2023

RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2 – May 27, 2023

Mickens wrote this article for March 25th, and he begins with a reference to a prominent Roman liturgy professor, regarding the Feast of the Annunciation:

“Danilo Sartor, a priest … who taught liturgy for many years in Rome, says it would be better to change [the name] to the ‘Feast of the Incarnation.’ … This would best ‘get to the heart of the mystery that is being celebrated.’” Mickens then reflects on the many ways Pope Francis incarnates his faith in the “messy reality of our lives and our world.” Here are some excerpts from the article, and the complete article is available at: https://international.la-croix.com/news/letter-from-rome/the-evangelical-pope-preaching-and-living-an-incarnated-faith/17512

“…. The incarnation is at the very core of what we believe as followers of Jesus the Christ. Believing in a God who becomes part of God’s own creation — and, even more, the implications of that — can seem not to be other-worldly and “sacral” enough for us. We prefer to skip over the entire earthly (fleshly) life of Christ in our creedal statements.”

“…. As Richard Rohr likes to point out, ‘Have you ever noticed the huge leap the creed makes between born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under Pontius Pilate? This leap is marked by the great comma, which he says should lead us to ask some serious questions: Did all the things Jesus said and did in those years not count for much? Were they nothing to believe in? Was it only his birth and death that mattered? Does the gap in some way explain Christianity’s often dismal record of imitating Jesus’ actual life and teaching?’”

“…. This is one of the reasons the 86-year-old pope continues to upset those Catholics who see their religion more as a form of private piety and devotion ... than a living, incarnate faith that poses communal, societal and ethical demands and obligations. Francis would say it is a faith that has to do with finding God and responding to God within the messy realities of our lives and our world, not in some lofty and idealized realm that is outside of such realities.

“ ‘Realities are greater than ideas,’ he says in Evangelii gaudium. This principle has to do with incarnation of the word and its being put into practice... The principle of reality, of a word already made flesh and constantly striving to take flesh anew, is essential to evangelization,’ he continues …. ‘At the same time, this principle impels us to put the word into practice, to perform works of justice and charity which make that word fruitful….’”

“…. Pope Francis believes it is a Church that incarnates the Word — the person and message of Jesus Christ — in today’s realities, not in ‘the realm of pure ideas’ of how we’d like things to be. Evidently, that unsettles some folks.”

366th Station — Stations of the Cross from Ukraine

RE-SOURCE: Session #1 — February 2, 2023

Lent 2023: Probing the mystery of the Incarnation through the lens of Jesus’ sufferings and ours

Tobie Tondi, SHCJ comments on looking at life and events through an incarnational lens: “We often try to make sense of our own suffering as well as that of others by viewing the events through the lens of Jesus’ sufferings. In these reflections (Stations of the Cross) young adult Ukrainians, on the one-year anniversary of the war in their country, have painted a collage of war images in their own country viewed through the lens of the last days of Jesus.”

On the first Friday of Lent, February 24th, Caritas Internationalis broadcast these stations of the cross. They are posted on YouTube so that people can continue to join in this prayer as we walk with Jesus throughout the Lenten season; the service in English is available here — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Phl17LY0M&t=113s

The written text of the service can be accessed as a PDF file at — https://www.caritas.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Way-of-the-Cross_ENGLISH.pdf

Here is the reflection offered for the second station:

Jesus puts the cross on his shoulders (Pavlo Loskutov, Economist)

Mom... Dad... Son... Daughter... Wake up... A full-scale invasion of our country has begun. The war... These were the words we heard from our relatives, friends and close ones in that early morning... Sirens and explosions are already heard in the cities. The son quickly packs his things, hugs and calms his parents, wife, children and goes to the armed forces to defend his country. He realizes that it will be his Way of the Cross with its trials and sufferings. But he accepts it and is ready to carry it for the sake of peace ... Each of us realizes that it will be a difficult Way of the Cross, where rage, contempt, pain, humiliation will reign. We stand together around the Cross. We hear the words of Jesus, where He speaks to us: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

Lord, we trust you and pray for your help and presence at the time when each of us takes up and carries our cross.

by Mark Henson

Oil on canvas, 108” x 48”

RE-SOURCE, Session #1, February 15, 2023

“The epic drama of life, death, war, peace, and the inalienable right to choose is depicted in a huge panorama. Refugees climb out of a war zone, a pioneer comes to a graffitti wall where the choices are scratched out. We all want to live in peace but many are attracted to values that are so dissimilar, war seems to be the only option for a humanity gone berserk. The pioneers and refugees make it to a new world of awakened consciousness.” https://www.markhensonart.com/mark-s-home-warehouse/original_art_products/new-pioneers

“My art is idea-driven, expressing a theme or philosophy. The paintings could be called allegorical art in the sense that I am telling a story with the image. Besides providing visual stimulation, my intention is to evoke powerful thoughts woven with sensitive emotions. We live in challenging times. I touch upon themes of spirituality, ecology, politics, and our erotic inclinations, both powerful and empathetic. Art should never flinch from showing us all aspects of reality and always be true to itself.”

Christianity is an incarnate faith and the world (and reality) as it actually is, and not as we would prefer it to be, is the setting in we which must live out our faith. “A Non-sectarian Christian Pope,” Robert Mickens, La Croix 1/21/23

“José Andrés and the Olla de Barro that Feeds the World” — a painting of the founder of World Central Kitchen

by Kadir Nelson, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2, 2023

“The portrait is described as showing ‘José and his team amid battle and flood, determined in their mission to feed those in need,” noting that the chef thought it was important “that the portrait was not just of him but also showed the community of brave and dedicated people that are the heart and backbone of World Central Kitchen.’ ... the ‘Olla de Barro’ in the title is a type of clay cooking pot which Andrés is depicted holding front and center in the work.” Mike Pomeranz, Food and Wine, November 2, 2022 https://www.foodandwine.com/jose-andres-national-portrait-gallery-revealed-6824796

For World Central Kitchen’s current outreach to Ukraine, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mORYT7xGtI4

José Andrés, world-famous chef and humanitarian, immigrated to the USA from Spain in 1991, and eventually opened a group of highly successful restaurants in the Washington, DC area. In 2010, responding to the extreme hunger caused by the earthquake in Haiti, he established World Central Kitchen as a means to feed hundreds of thousands of people. His method was to offer food disaster relief and use culinary training programs to empower communities and strengthen economies, a system he continued to develop in response to ongoing emergencies around the globe — hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD TODAY?

“A Non-sectarian Christian Pope,” by

Robert Mickens, Rome January 21, 2023

Read more at: https://international.la-croix.com/news/letterfrom-rome/a-non-sectarian-christian-pope/17203

“…. One cannot begin to understand or evaluate the pontificate of Pope Francis without stepping back and taking a broad view of the world today. Christianity is an incarnate faith and the world (and reality) as it actually is, and not as we would prefer it to be, is the setting in which we must live out our faith.

The world is currently going through perhaps its biggest upheaval in all of human history. We are in the midst of a tidal of wave of rapid foundational changes that are hard to keep up with. The digital revolution that began a few decades ago is nowhere near completion. And we are now just beginning to confront other dizzying technological advancements, such as in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Our current migration "crisis" is said to be the biggest mass movement of peoples ever. And the physical state of the planet and its natural resources appears to be more precarious than any other period.

Meanwhile, the steady implosion of the hierarchical/monarchical structure of the Christian Church, which began ever so slowly several hundred years ago, is gaining increasing momentum. Every denomination of Christianity is in deep institutional crisis. No branch springing from the trunk of the one — yet divided — Church of Christ has been spared. Surveys show consistently that people are turning away from institutional Christian religion for various reasons.

This is the world in which Francis must exercise his ministry as arguably the most identifiable and prominent Christian on earth. His plan has been to keep it simple and radically evangelical. Acutely aware that we are facing an extremely uncertain future, his message could be boiled down to this: wherever the world is heading, just make sure you take God with you. Yes, it’s that basic.

And the way to do that is by focusing on the bare essentials of our faith -- Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again. The pope offers the scriptures, especially the Beatitudes that are found in the synoptic Gospels, as the guide for living that faith practically ….”