Regarding environmental damage and destruction, Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church wrote in 2003 that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs” [LS 9]. Our Week 31 Way to Care for Creation is to internalize part 1 of the Laudato Si Pledge - to pray for and with creation: “for creation” because so many areas need healing, and “with creation” because our lives are intimately interconnected with its gifts, its beauty, and its Maker.
To take the Laudato Si Pledge, visit the website managed by the Laudato Si Movement.