1. Does the Earth have a Prayer?
Love of creation has deep roots in our Catholic spiritual traditions.
Apdatpted from Joan Brown, O.S.F.
Excerpts from

2. One night when I was 6 years old, while walking outdoors before bed, I gazed at the sky and found myself wrapped in the vast mantle of stars, the Milky Way. Standing in awe, my body felt both small and large. In that instant I felt God.

3. What is the meaning of life?
What is my purpose here? My answer is that I am stardust created in love by the divine mystery.
Take a breath and take a moment to consider our beautiful home on earth.

4. What a pretty blue planet!

5. A sand storm leaves North Africa and the Canary Islands

7. s, mobile phones, fast food, microwave meals, and endless trips to shopping centres capture our energy. We find ourselves wondering about the meaning of it all. We do not have time to be concerned about water, global warming, and sustainable living. Yet the environmental crisis is really a moral and spiritual crisis as well, a crisis of the soul, as the late Pope John Paul II reminded us.

8. “Our Catholic and Christian spiritual tradition—its saints, sacraments and practices—can help us to find a way through this new challenge. In fact, the ecological crisis may very well lead us into a deeper relationship with God and help awaken us to the true meaning of life, which is loving all that exists.”

9. Night arrives over Europe and Northern Africa

11. Iceland

13. The Swiss Alps

15. The Black Sea

17. The Red Sea

19. Talk to your brother and sister
How would I live if I allowed earth to “govern” me? St. Francis invites us truly to understand ecology which means “home.” Living in my home charges me to be a good steward.

20. Spiritual practice makes perfect
But it is our practices—spiritual and otherwise—that will make a difference in the way we care for creation.

21. Even submerged in darkness it is a beautiful sight!

28. Healing the planet will require the spiritual practice of deep listening. Last year, Pope Benedict XVI said, “We can’t simply do whatever we want with this earth that has been entrusted to us... We have to respect the inner laws of creation, of this earth, we have to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive. Existence itself, our earth, speaks to us, and we have to learn to listen.”

29. Isn’t it Magnificent?
Now, so that we can continue to benefit from this beauty for generations…
Make the time for yourself to sense the wonder in this world as often as you can.
Talk about it often, especially with others; so that each and every one of us can be aware of the precious gift that we are walking on!

30. AMEN