Season of Creation Daily Day 19: How do we maintain hope?

a girl in the snow

Photo used with permission | BKress

by Peter McLoughlin

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a girl in the snow

Photo used with permission | BKress

Take a moment to reflect on the photo.


"We are changing all the time. You become what you love.
You’re always asked to sort of stretch a little bit more. But actually, we’re made for that.
There’s a song that wants to sing itself through us. And we’ve just got to be available. Maybe the song that is to be sung through us is a most beautiful requiem for an irreplaceable planet, or maybe it’s a song of joyous rebirth as we create a new culture that doesn’t destroy its world. But in any case, there’s absolutely no excuse for our making our passionate love for our world dependent on what we think of its degree of health, whether we think it’s going to go on forever. Those are just thoughts anyway.
But this moment we’re alive. So you can just dial up the magic anytime."

 — Joanna Macy in an interview with Krista Tippett on On Being. Macy is author of Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy.


Two perspectives from Pope Francis' Letter, Laudato Si' : 
"The deterioration of the environment and of society disproportionately affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest..." 
and
"May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope. Our faith calls us to hope."

 


  How do we face our climate crisis and, at the same time, maintain and model hope?


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Editor's note: Season of Creation Daily is inspired by the Care for Our Common Home Ministry, Paulist Center Boston. To receive daily reflections by email, sign up here.

This story appears in the Season of Creation Daily feature series. View the full series.

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