JPIC Newsletter December 2022

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Newsletter Laudato Si’ Retreats Invite Sisters and Affiliates across Religious Congregations to Embrace Integral Ecology.

Throughout 2022, Lorraine St-Hilaire, SNJM (Manitoba) presented several virtual retreats titled “A Call to Universal Communion,” for a variety of religious congregations. In March, she provided the retreat to the Holy Cross Sisters.

In July the retreat, offered in French, was attended by over 100 participants from religious congregations across Canada, including many SNJM’s. In October, Lorraine offered this same retreat to over 100 English-speaking SNJM Sisters and Affiliates. In this retreat, Sister Lorraine drew from the original Laudato Si’ document of Pope Francis as well as

Lorraine St-Hilaire, SNJM

other resources and made connections to our 2016 and 2021 General Chapter Acts with illustrations from contemporary situations.

In introducing her retreat, Lorraine explained that developing

a sense of oneness with Earth and all creatures on the planet is fundamental. “[It is] how I find my vision and my life, slowly, very slowly being transformed by Laudato Si’.”

Lorraine stressed that it is through contemplation and focused listening to the voices of the marginalized that we are led to “deepen our consciousness of and capacity to live our oneness and interdependence with the whole Earth community.” (2021 Chapter Acts) When commenting on her experience of the retreat, Agnes Hoy, SNJM (Brazil) wrote: “Laudato Si’ speaks to all of us. The way Lorraine presented the retreat helped to deepen the spirituality of honouring Creation in all its elements…I appreciated the inclusion of the indigenous peoples’ spirituality as we have much to learn from them.”

Some spoke of what actions the retreat led them to take.

Laurentina Motseki, SNJM (Lesotho) reported, “We decided to talk with taxi drivers

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For many, like Winnipeg Affiliate Katherine Kelly, the optional group sharing at the end of each session contribu­ ted to the developing of insight. “The time to be with

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others of the same mind and heart, to get to know each other and share on common ground made the experience deeper.”

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who bring the students to Mabathoana High School and St. Bernadette’s nursery every morning [about their litter] and after meeting with them, they accepted our sharing and the place is always clean.” Margaret Schroth, an SNJM friend from California, wrote, “I belong to a St. Ignatius group in the San Francisco Bay Area. The second year group is studying Laudato Si’ and this will help us with further stu­dies.”

Claudette Bastien, SNJM (Quebec), shared “Throughout the retreat, I went to meditate in a park near my home. I deepened my connection with nature, especially with the majesty of the tree. Now, on my walks, I take time to look at and admire the beauty of the vegetation around me. Mary Ellen Robinson, SNJM (Wapato, WA) commented, “This retreat helped lay the groundwork for our evolving governance work, bringing together participants from every part of the Congregation. I met new people in each of my nine breakout groups.”

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Francoise Bernard, SNJM (Brazil) shared “The retreat was for me an invitation to discover the beautiful history of our earth and the living beings that inhabit it. It allowed me to enter into this vital cycle of the evolution of the earth and my responsibility to ‘take care of all these elements that constitute it’. I leave with a new breath to deepen the themes of the retreat and to be attentive to the beauty of creation.”

started networking after receiving training to bring the principles of Laudato Si’ to life and through the partnership of the Canadian Religious Conference and the SNJM’s in Quebec. Emma Bezaire, SNJM (Windsor) spoke for many when, in her evaluation, she said, “I cannot thank [Sister Lorraine and the Laudato Si’ Animators] enough for bringing this to us….

With a good balance of input, reflection, music, questions…, Lorraine’s presentations and handouts were/are filled with information to ponder and to act upon.”

These retreats were a powerful support for responding to our 2021 General Chapter commitment: “to live integral ecology as a way of life.” At the end of the retreat, as she sent participants forth, Lorraine’s final challenge was one for all of us to ponder:

“How will you nurture that sense of belonging to the whole Earth community?

These retreats were a collabo­ rative effort of the group of SNJM Laudato Si’ Animators ­Sisters and Associates from North and South America who

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To the cosmos?”

1 Artist John Paul de Quay, for The Journey to 2030. Laudato Si’ goals adapted from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

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How Do I Start or Continue My Pathway to Embrace Integral Ecology as a Way of Life?

Lorraine St-Hilaire, SNJM offers all of us some entry points to consider how each of us, in our own way, can begin or continue to nurture that sense of belonging to the whole Earth community and to the cosmos. As you ponder the following possibilities, may you find a pathway that leads you to embrace integral ecology as a way of life: Contemplation - Elizabeth Johnson writes: “Contemplation is a way of seeing that leads to communion.” Jesus contemplated the “birds of the air” and the “lilies of the fields” (LS 96-98 and 226). He was totally present to nature and to the persons he encountered.

Developing a relationship with Water my Sister, Brother Wind and Sister Breath, Sister Mother Earth! Canadian scientist, David Suzuki responded this way to his reading of Laudato Si’: “If we treat the earth only as a resource, we will plunder it, but if we see it as family member, we will treat it very differently.” With Francis of Assisi, may we “fall in love” (LS 11) with Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and with the poor and most vulnerable; all are family embraced by God’s love and imbued with the presence of the Risen Christ (LS 77 and 83).

I learn about the ME to WE movement, awakening empathy in young people as they face issues of climate change, endemic poverty, systemic racism and more.

As we share in community, I learn from others and am drawn into “integral ecology as a way of life” (2021 Chapter Act). Integral ecology gives a focus to our investments, donations, and joint projects as our eyes are open to the interconnection of all things. “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (LS 139). Therefore, we need to find integral solutions.

Reading many authors who support a vision of the world as sacred and a spirituality of oneness nourishes my reflections.

Listening to Indigenous voices and learning from their spirituality. We belong to a community of life! “The universe unfolds in God who fills it completely” (LS 233).

Watching the news, I become more attuned to the person who says, “My body is burning” before a forest fire. I become more aware of food insecurity in remote areas of our world.

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Congregational Guiding Committee for Laudato Si’ and Integral Ecology Meets On November 9, the ad hoc committee to help support and coordinate ongoing SNJM action in the area of Integral Ecology met for the first time.

A central question for them was how to encourage continuing action toward “embracing Integral Ecology as a way of life” (2021 Chapter Act) and to do this in a realistic and practical way. In discussion, committee members recognized that many actions have already happened, initiated at Congregational, Province and local levels, and by individual Sisters, Affiliates and Partners.

The committee hopes to use the resources of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform and to follow the platform’s “See-Judge-Act” methodology. The Platform asks Congregations to assess, then reflect, and finally to plan. For our Congregation, a starting point may be to look at what has already happened, to celebrate this, and to identify what might be next steps for common action, for ourselves and the world.

A first task of the committee will be to become more familiar with the Laudato Si’ Action Platform and its resources. Last March, the gathered SNJM leadership teams made the decision that it was time to enroll on this platform, which means making a commitment to a multi-year journey toward environmental sustainability. By registering, we make public our commitment to participate with others; it is an act of solidarity, encouraging others who have made a similar pledge.

The committee - Sr. Mamokotjo (Francina) Mokoteli, LES, Affiliate Julie Tétreault, QC , Sr. Lorraine St-Hilaire, MB, Sr. Linda Riggers, US-ON, Affiliate Nancy Gast, US-ON, Sr. Susan Wells, CLT - will meet again in December, and hopes to involve many of you in both examining and celebrating how we are embracing Integral Ecology as a way of life.

Good News from COP 27 : The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), closed with a breakthrough agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. To learn more, go to: https://unfccc.int/cop27

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