b'For decades, the center has offered hands-on learning in the nature preserve for collegeand high school groups as well as hikes and workshops for students and community organizations.learn how the ecosystem purifies the air,pollinates trees, provides cooling breezes,and how this purification beautifies natureand lifts the human spirit.Sister Jablonski and the rest of the centers staff alsoPHOTOS BY KATHLEEN NELSONhave advocated for sustainability and love of theEarth beyond Mount Saint John. They have servedas guiding forces for the Catholic Climate Covenantsince its founding in 2006, providing resources toCatholics responding to the Churchs call to care forcreation and the poor.So, by 2015, Pope Franciss encyclical on care for ourcommon home provided validation and inspirationfor MEECs mission. I couldnt get through it because I was crying,Sister Jablonski said. He wrote the way we scientistsspeak about the concerns of the planet. He addedthe depth and feeling and integrated the element ofjustice in responding to the cries of the Earth.Laudato S was intended as a call to action; MEECheard it as a challenge to redouble and reinvigorateits work. The center sought and was granted a Per-manent Conservation Easement, which has helpedsecure grant funding and will preserve the land inits natural state forever. Among the most recent and visible fruits of the Top left: Rain clings to branchesSister Jablonski likened the easement to theMarianists commitment to Laudato S is a solar array, in the moist bottomland woodsVow of Stability that Marianists hold dear. When which went online in June 2023. Built to supply 100 of the Marianist Nature Trail.Marianists profess perpetual vows, she said,percent of Mount Saint Johns energy needs, the array Above: The work of the bees inIts really important . to say Im in this for the seemed to integrate into the ecosystem by September, the labyrinth provides food forlong haul. when birds began to build nests beneath it. contemplation, even as late asWorking with Marianist Brother Jesse ONeill, she The following month, Pope Francis released an September.helped formulate a plan to highlight Marianist culture, emphatic follow-up, Laudate Deum, emphasizing,joining with the Marianist Social Justice Collaboratives Our responses have not been adequate.ecology team. From those conversations came the Which makes the Marianist Encounters Project allMarianist Encounters Project in 2022, which integrates the more urgent. People are sharing stories, Sisterthe Laudato S Action Plan, the Global Compact on Jablonski said. You start where you are. We cant allEducation, and the Marianist Characteristics ofdo everything, but everyone can do something.\x00Education, she said, to respond to the cries of theEarth, the cries of the poor, and the cries of youth. Kathleen Nelson is a writer/photographer from St. Louis.TO SUPPORT MEECS MISSION or learn more about its programs, services, outreach, and advocacy, visit meec.center.marianist.com/donate 15'