Care for Creation
“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”
(Pope Francis, Laudato Si` 217).
St. Benedict in his Rule teaches us that we go together towards Christ’s love. We are all interconnected with one another and with all of creation. The journey is communal. Therefore, our community has joined with people from all over the world in a commitment to care for our common home. Pope Francis has called all Catholics and people of good will to journey together on the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, “an initiative of the Vatican inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. It equips the Church to achieve real and lasting solutions to the ecological crisis.”* Read more about our commitment below and join us on this journey.
*“Laudato Si’ Action Platform,” Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, 2021, https://laudatosiactionplatform.org/.
We made our initial Statement of Commitment
to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform in July 2021.
Seeking God in everyone and everything, we, the Sisters of St. Benedict of Beech Grove, IN, commit to journey with the global Catholic community toward integral ecology as active participants in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
We join with the human family to listen with the ear of our heart to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, reflecting on the signs of the times and discerning our role in caring for our common home.
As monastic women, we commit to
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a deepening of our connection to creation through individual and communal prayer
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an ongoing conversion “marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little.” (LS 222)
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a collaboration with both Church and civic groups to advocate for ecological justice and foster a culture of integral ecology
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This commitment is made in faith, hope, and love, knowing that we are participating in God’s work of transformation.
Sisters of St. Benedict, Inc.
July 2021
To assist us on the Laudato Si’ Action Platform journey, the Church’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development has proposed a process of discernment and action where we first assess our current actions and reflect on our charism in light of the encyclical Laudato Si’.
This initial process culminated in the writing and sharing of our Laudato Si’ Action Platform Reflection in July 2022.
Laudato Si’ Action Platform Reflection
Next, based on what we learned in the reflection process, we discerned and created our Laudato Si’ Action Plan for this first year of our commitment to the Platform. This Plan contains behaviors and actions that we hope will move us toward integral ecology. Each year, we will review our progress on our Action Plan and prepare a new Action Plan for the coming year.