1. LAUDATO SI’ – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

2. The Franciscan Vision LAUDATO SI’

3. …that attractive and compelling figure whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected Bishop of Rome. (10)

4. Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically. (10)

5. Francis was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony - with God, - with others, - with nature - and with himself. (10)

6. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between - concern for nature, - justice for the poor, - commitment to society, - and interior peace. (10)

7. Not naive romanticism… If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder,

8. if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters (11)

9. Saint Francis - no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical - a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled. (11)

10. Seeking an ecological spirituality grounded in the convictions of our faith…

11. since the teachings of the Gospel have direct consequences for our way of thinking, feeling and living…

12. More than in ideas or concepts, I am interested in a spirituality that can motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world. (216)

13. The goal - become painfully aware, turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and so discover what each of us can do about it. (19)

14. God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement. (89)

15. Creation as Gift We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. (67)

16. Creation can only be understood as a gift from the outstretched hand of the Father of all…

17. and as a reality illuminated by the love which calls us together into universal communion. (76)

18. God is intimately present to each being…

19. His divine presence, which ensures the subsistence and growth of each being, continues the work of creation. (80)

20. Creation ex amore: God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things…

21. Every creature is thus the object of the Father’s tenderness, who gives it its place in the world…

22. Even the fleeting life of the least of beings is the object of his love, and in its few seconds of existence, God enfolds it with his affection. (77).

23. We are called to recognise that other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eyes. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory.(69)

24. We are part of nature, included in it, and thus in constant interaction with it. (139)

25. We are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion…

26. As believers, we do not look at the world from without but from within, conscious of the bonds with which the Father has linked us to all beings. (220)

28. Creation as Revelation Saint Francis invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness...

29. Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise. (12)

30. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us…

31. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. (84)

32. God has written a precious book, whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe...

33. No creature is excluded from this manifestation of God…

34. From panoramic vistas to the tiniest living form, nature is a constant source of wonder and awe. It is also a continuing revelation of the divine…

35. Alongside revelation properly so-called, contained in sacred Scripture, there is a divine manifestation in the blaze of the sun and the fall of night. (85)

36. Each of the various creatures reflects in its own way a ray of God’s infinite wisdom and goodness. (69)

37. Saint Bonaventure - The reflection of the Trinity was there to be recognized in creation “when that book was open to man and our eyes had not yet become darkened”. (239)

38. Nature is filled with words of love! (225)

39. For the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice. (85)

41. Nature as a whole not only manifests God but is also a locus of his presence… A Place of Sacred Encounter

42. The Spirit of life dwells in every living creature and calls us to enter into relationship with him. (88)

43. Encountering God does not mean fleeing from this world or turning our back on nature. (235)

44. The life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities. (216)

45. Accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbours on a global scale. (9)

46. The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely…

47. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face…

48. Saint Bonaventure teaches us that “contemplation deepens the more we feel the working of God’s grace within our hearts, and the better we learn to encounter God in creatures outside ourselves”. (233)

49. The divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet. (9)

50. From the beginning of the world, but particularly through the incarnation, the mystery of Christ is at work in a hidden manner in the natural world as a whole… (99)

51. The Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation.(235)

52. The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is taken up by Christ to become a means of mediating supernatural life…

53. Celebrating the sacraments we embrace the world on a different plane. (235)

54. In the Eucharist, the Lord chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter…

55. In the Eucharist, fullness is already achieved… The Eucharist is itself an act of cosmic love. (236)

56. In the bread of the Eucharist, creation is projected towards divinization.

57. The risen One is mysteriously holding the creatures of this world to himself and directing them towards fullness as their final end…

58. The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence. (100)

59. The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us…

60. Rather, all creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God…

61. Human beings, endowed with intelligence and love, and drawn by the fullness of Christ, are called to lead all creatures back to their Creator. (83)

63. “Everything is Connected” Universal Fraternity It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. (138)

64. God wills the interdependence of creatures, no creature is self-sufficient. (86)

65. Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself. (66)

66. When these relationships are neglected, when justice no longer dwells in the land, the Bible tells us that life itself is endangered. (70)

67. Saint Francis reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us (1)

68. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her…

69. The earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor. (2)

70. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth. Our very bodies are made up of her elements…

71. We breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters. (2)

72. To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God. (8)

73. A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach…

74. so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. (49)

75. When we fail to acknowledge the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself. (117)

76. One cannot care for the rest of nature if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings. (91)

77. It is no coincidence that, in his canticle, Saint Francis goes on to say: “Praised be you my Lord, through those who give pardon for your love” (91)

78. We should be particularly indignant at the enormous inequalities in our midst…

79. We continue to tolerate some considering themselves more worthy than others… more human than others. (90)

80. Whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless…

81. before the interests of a deified market, which becomes the only rule. (56)

82. Whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor. (50)

83. Purchasing is always a moral, and not simply an economic act. (206)

84. We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Everything is connected. (139)

86. A Bold Cultural Revolution Acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face! (15)

87. The ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems require that we look for solutions not only in technology…

88. but in a change of humanity! (9)

89. The spiritual crisis of modernity - we cannot presume to heal our relationship with nature and the environment without healing all fundamental human relationships. (119)

90. Christian spirituality offers an alternative understanding of the quality of life, a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle…

91. capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption. (222)

92. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. (204)

93. We need to slow down and look at reality in a different way. (114)

94. - replace consumption with sacrifice, - greed with generosity, - wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, - learning to give, not simply to give up…

95. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs.

96. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion. (9)

97. The ecological crisis is a summons to profound interior conversion, an ecological conversion…

98. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is an essential aspect of our Christian experience. (217)

99. Inner peace is closely related to care for ecology and for the common good because it is reflected in a balanced lifestyle…

100. together with a capacity for wonder which takes us to a deeper understanding of life. (225)

101. In Saint Francis we see that a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion. (218)

102. The harmony which Saint Francis experienced with all creatures was seen as a healing of the rupture…

103. Saint Bonaventure held that, through universal reconciliation with every creature, Saint Francis in some way returned to the state of original innocence. (66)

104. We are called to help nurture that sublime fraternity with all creation which Saint Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied. (221)