Dare to Care Dec 3rd 2021

Laudato Si quote


66. The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality. They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself. According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted our mandate to “have dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), to “till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).

As a result, the originally harmonious relationship between human beings and nature became conflictual (cf. Gen 3:17-19). It is significant that the harmony which Saint Francis of Assisi experienced with all creatures was seen as a healing of that rupture. Saint Bonaventure held that, through universal reconciliation with every creature, Saint Francis in some way returned to the state of original innocence. This is a far cry from our situation today, where sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse, the abandonment of the most vulnerable, and attacks on nature.


Reflection:

  • In my Advent reflections, how do I see and experience harmony with all creatures?
  • Am I aware, as I look around God’s created world, of my relationship with God, with neighbor, and with the earth itself?
  • Am I part of the “healing of that rupture”? In what ways?

Justice for Immigrants

A “Rivers of Hope Pilgrimage” will take four virtual tours of rivers to learn from those who live there and those who minister there. Each river journey will focus on a different area SSNDs have as a concern: Dec 7 Rio Grande (Immigration); Jan 11 Mississippi (Climate Change); Feb 8 Missouri (Human Trafficking); March 21 Hudson (Economy, Education, and Racism). Creative and innovative approach to learning about these issues, and each session is just 90 minutes long. For more information and registration, click here. For a pdf flyer to share click here

Dismantling Racism

“Small children who have yet to learn the rules will describe people as they see them, not by the political designations of black, white, Asian, or Latino, until adults “correct” them to use the proper caste designations to make the irrational sound reasoned. Color is a fact. Race is a social construct. We think we ‘see’ race when we encounter certain physical differences among people…what we actually ‘see’…are the learned social meanings, the stereotypes, that have been linked to those physical features by the ideology of race and the historical legacy it has left us.” From Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (67).

For more about this powerful book click here

End Human Trafficking

Please read the post this week in the Advent Reflections which focuses this week on Child Labor and Human Trafficking. It can be accessed here.

Justice for Immigrants

Have you wondered what is happening for those refugees from Afghanistan? Like many issues, there was a lot of coverage and noise, and then it is off the radar for the latest breaking news. Catholic Charities USA offers links to programs working to resettle these families in dioceses across the country; for more information, click here. For information on a resettlement program in Canada, click here

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