In 1998 the Ursuline Community of Bruno made a “Corporate Stance of Reverencing Creation.” This opened its members to a greater awareness of their relationship with creation.
II am a member of that community and served as missionary in Brazil from 1987 until 2014. I returned to Canada at the end of July 2014 and Laudato Si’ was published on Pentecost, May 24, 2015. Beginning in February 2016, two Sisters in my community and I began a monthly study of the six chapters of Laudato Si’ on Care for our Common Home.
The first chapter painted the portrait of climate change, water loss, pollution, the depletion in the biodiversity of plants and animals, and the declining quality of human life, and their interconnectedness. This gifted me with a greater appreciation of creation as more profound than just a place for exercizing and being grateful for the sun and fresh air.
Each of the chapters awakened my awareness of the various aspects of our common home and the dangers it is facing, and how it is calling us to action. For example, are we wasting water or re-using it? Are we composting leftover food to benefit fields and gardens?
A greater knowledge of the inter-connectedness of everything moved us to change our attitudes toward creation and to reconsider our attitudes toward poverty and its causes, whether in our neighborhoods or the world.
Awareness is the lens to seeing and responding to all of God’s creation and all humanity in kindness and love.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Ursulines of Bruno’s Corporate Stance of Reverencing Creation, we arranged to plant a tree in the front yard of Trinity Manor, Saskatoon, where most of the community members reside. Laudato Si’ has affirmed our past actions and calls us forth to keep caring.
Sr. Louise Hinz, OSU
This text is taken from the Summer 2020 issue of the ad vitam webzine “Laudato Si’: Caring for Creation and future generations”.