For over fifty years, I have recycled cans, bottles, and paper and I have composted food scraps. While I did not take up this ecological mission because of my faith, it is now sustained and driven by faith.

In the 1970s, I developed an environmental conscience even though I had not heard of Catholic Social Teaching.   By the 1980s, I had started a compost bin in the backyard.  I became known at parish events as the one who would collect all the aluminum cans.  I washed plastic utensils so they could be used again.  Over the next decades, through adult faith formation classes at my parish, I realized that my recycling efforts were part of Catholic Social Teaching: Option for the Poor and Care for Creation to name just two.

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. After becoming aware of climate change, and related issues such as methane gas escaping from the covered landfill at Shoreline Park in Mountain View, the Pope’s words resonated with me.  He stressed how interrelated we are. I became aware of which neighborhoods and countries are more adversely affected by our waste. The “out of sight and out of mind” solution of our recycling efforts made me uncomfortable.  I realized that my habits of consumption and waste impacted all lives and the life of the planet. The commandment to love our neighbor took on a new and tangible meaning for me: caring for our world.

Laudato Si’ is a prophetic call to read the signs of the times, to act with courage, and to support life.  In the last decade, it has become evident that the earth is changing at an alarming rate.  I now have grandchildren, and I am grieved at the state of the world we are leaving for them and future generations.  In my spiritual life, I am amid an ecological conversion that Pope Francis urges for all of us. Through prayer, I examine my conscience to find additional ways to change myself and my habits.    

Fortunately, I found others in my parish who shared my concerns, and we formed a Green Team. One project is helping manage waste at parish events. I also joined the Stewards of Our Common Home, the diocesan committee working to promote the teaching of Laudato Si’ and the goals of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. It’s comforting to know that we are not alone in this journey but part of a church that speaks to the critical importance of environmental concerns that call for a moral response.

I have a statue of St. Francis, patron of ecology, in my garden.  From September 1, the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation, to October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Churches pay special attention to gratitude to our God for our beautiful world. During this annual Season of Creation Pope Francis invites us all to give our attention in prayer and action to the conditions of life on earth and the earth itself.  The theme this year is “To Hope and Act with Creation.”  I need this message. Am I sometimes discouraged by the slow pace of conversion and change in our consumption and waste habits?  Yes.  This is why I need the boost this year: it is a message to act with hope.    

My hope is sustained by faith and charity, by prayer and action.  My hope is nurtured by the work of the Laudato Si Action Platform. It is supported by the diocesan values released with our new Pastoral Plan to care for the poor and vulnerable and care for the Earth as God’s sacred creation and our common home. Faith, hope, and charity: I find that working and living the call of Laudato Si’ engages all three virtues.