EARTH DAY: A FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day and throughout April, we invite you to explore the issue of climate change.  Global climate change is one of the most challenging and complex issues the global family faces; it is fundamentally changing God’s creation, placing more burden on the poor, affecting food production, increasing incidence of disease, threatening entire coastal cultures and reducing drinking water supplies. As Catholics, we have a moral obligation to understand climate change, teach others, limit our own climate-changing emissions, advocate for effective policy and pray for our world. The prayer service and following resources will help guide us in those efforts.

The Center for Concern’s Educating for Justice website publishes print-ready resources promoting Catholic Social Teaching on issues of justice in society, specifically for educators. The prayer service below, for use by communities & classrooms for Earth Day, is adapted from the Educating for Justice website.

Prayer for Celebrating Earth Day

Come, let us praise God for the gift of Creation.

Creator God, we praise you for the grandeur of the universe.

We praise you for the gift of this Earth.

We praise you for the land, and we praise you for the seas.

We praise you for the great miracle of teeming life on our prolific planet.

We praise you for the cycle of growth and for the beauty of bursting blooms in the Spring time.

We praise you green growth of summer and for the holy harvest in the Fall.

We praise you for the infinity of different creatures on the land and in the sea,

each unique in its own way, each fitting into the complex ecosystems you have gifted us with, each dependent on each other and the whole.

We praise you, our Creator.

Grace us with a sense of our responsibilities to preserve and protect your precious gift, this Garden, this Earth. 

ALL:  We praise you, Creator God, and we offer you our hearts and hands for the preservation of your Creation.  Open us to appreciate the gifts of the earth, and guide our Marianist family to bring your justice and peace to our world.

Litany for a Changing World

Reader One: The Earth’s climate is changing and around the world we see the signs of the times. The seas are weeping and the land is in grief.

Response: God, give us the grace to help heal this world by our energy choices

and to reverse the effects of climate change.     (Repeat Response after each reader.)

Reader Two:  Everywhere on Earth, ice is changing. The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted over 80% since 1912. Most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Many people of our world rely on dwindling mountain snowmelt for their drinking water. 

Reader Three:  From the Arctic to Peru, massive ice fields, huge glaciers, and sea ice are disappearing, effecting animals and humans. In Antarctica, the sea ice has shrunk by a fifth, making it more difficult for penguins and birds to survive.  In Canada, winter ice now melts 2-3 weeks earlier, and polar bears are having difficulty finding food.

Reader Four: In Argentina and other countries, rising temperatures and water shortages have sparked massive wildfires in the last decade. In Utah, and other areas in western U.S., the

weather has been increasingly dry and local water sources are lower than normal.

Reader Five:  In poor countries in Africa, warmer weather has increased mosquitoes which carry malaria.

Poor countries and people in poverty have to bear the burden of climate change, as they live

in vulnerable areas and have few resources to cope with its effects.

ALL:   Jesus, as we celebrate Earth Day and the Easter Season promise, inspire, guide and transform our Marianist family.  Empower us all with new life that we might act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly in union with You, our vulnerable brothers and sisters, and all of Creation, AMEN.

Closing Prayer

The seas are weeping and the land is in grief. But we are called to be signs of hope in this world, to be co-creators with God of a global community where the earth is respected and cherished. 

We ask our Creator to give us discernment and to guide us as we become active members of the human family, working with our sisters and brothers to change the destructive trends that are causing global warming. We have been given a great gift, the richness of Creation, and as we celebrate the earth on this day, we pledge to protect this gift of God.  Hear us Creator, and be with us every day as we seek to restore and preserve your Creation.  Amen.   Factual Data from National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com

EARTH DAY RESOURCES

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change (CCCC) has prepared answers to challenging faith, economic and policy questions about climate change.  Doesn’t caring about environmental issues like climate change show a lack of trust in God's promises? Is the impact of global warming on the poor really going to be so much greater than what they're already dealing with? Don't scientists disagree about climate change? Wouldn’t the proposals to address climate change have drastic negative economic consequences both for the United States and the global economy? For answers to these and other questions, click here.

With other national Catholic partners, the Coalition seeks to contribute a distinctive and authentic catholic voice to the public debate highlighting the human and moral dimensions of climate change and encouraging the Catholic community to become involved in practical and public policy remedies. Their website is a great resource for education materials, updates, Church teaching and opportunities for action.  Visit CCCC here.

The National Council of Churches publishes an annual Earth Day Sunday resource to help congregations celebrate and protect God’s creation.  The 2008 resource, The Poverty of Climate Change, examines the plight of the world’s most poor and vulnerable as they confront climate-driven stresses such as drought, disease and loss of drinking water.  The packet features youth activities, sermon starters, resources for group study, action steps, and a prayer service. Download the packet here.

The Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC) is an environmental education community in the Catholic tradition. In Mary's hope-filled spirit, we preserve and act in communion with the land and educate other communities in sustainability through ecology-based simple living, social justice and spirituality.  MEEC’s director, Sr. Leanne Jablonski, FMI, published an article on our responsibility to the poor and God’s creation for the National Catholic Rural Life magazine.  Read the article here.  Browse other pages on the MEEC website starting here.