Young Family
Caring for Creation Journal:
A journal is a wonderful way to pray. With your family, pray the reflection and allow each family member to answer the questions.
Ways to Be a Good Steward
Journal Reflection
How can I be careful about what I buy (or do not buy)?
How can I find ways to recycle and reuse?
How can I find ways to create less trash?
How can I find ways to use less energy?
How can I find ways to speak out and become an advocate for the environment?
2. What could you do as part of a team or community to be a good steward of creation?
Called to Be Stewards of Creation, Center for Ministry Development, 2008
Ways to Be a Good Steward
- Being careful about the things we buy (or do not buy)
- Such as avoiding buying products with excess packaging
- Finding ways to recycle and reuse
- Helping your family recycle plastics, papers and bottles
- Choosing ways to create less trash
- Washing dishes after a picnic instead of using paper and plastic products
- Committing to use less energy
- Walking, taking public transportation or sharing a ride instead of riding or driving alone
- Speaking out
- Becoming an advocate for creation by writing letters, organizing communities, participating in rallies and voting for leaders who are committed to taking care of creation
Journal Reflection
- What can you do to be a good steward personally in your life?
How can I be careful about what I buy (or do not buy)?
How can I find ways to recycle and reuse?
How can I find ways to create less trash?
How can I find ways to use less energy?
How can I find ways to speak out and become an advocate for the environment?
2. What could you do as part of a team or community to be a good steward of creation?
Called to Be Stewards of Creation, Center for Ministry Development, 2008
Caring for Creation--
|
|
What Out Church Teaches
“We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.”
(http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm)
Genesis 2:15 proclaims: “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.”
St. Francis of Assisi once wrote: “If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
Did you know that Pope Benedict XVI ordered the first-ever electric popemobile? Vatican City was the first country in the whole world to become a carbon-neutral state. Our pope has written very pointedly about the importance of protecting creation:
“Today the great gift of God’s Creation is exposed to serious dangers and lifestyles which can degrade it…we must pledge ourselves to take care of creation and to share its resources in solidarity.”
(Sacramentum Caritatis, 2007)
Pope Benedict gives us another reason to care for creation—to be in solidarity with the poor. In his World Day of Peace Message in December of 2007, Pope Benedict taught:
“If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations.”
The pope reminds us that the poor suffer more from climate change than the rest of us. When we care for God’s creation, we stand in solidarity with those who are victims of environmental abuse, even though they aren’t the ones responsible for hurting our earth. We also stand in solidarity with those who aren’t yet born—the future generations who deserve a world of clean air and water.
Center for Ministry Development
