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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 6: Prayer)

2/20/2020

The Development & Peace 2016 campaign prayer sums up my understanding for our call as Secular Franciscans to serve justice, promote peace and care for the integrity of creation.

Loving God, You who created everything that is good; You who stretch out the heavens like a tent.
You have made us for each other.
You call us from our isolation into one community of love.
Your voice is sure and strong.
We come from many places, and yet we are woven together in Your Spirit.
Together, we hear the cry of the poor, bearing the weight of injustice.
Together, we see the pain of the Earth as her beauty is destroyed.
Together, we hear your voice most clearly:
Calling us to join in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in need;
Calling us to commit ourselves,
as Ruth to Naomi saying,
“Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay.”
O Lord, stretch the canvas of our hearts that we might make room for the suffering of all humanity, and of all creation.
Today, by your grace, we join our lives to those who labour in the fields – those who are weighed down by injustice and those who work to build the world according to your way.
Lead us in the way of discipleship – the way of love, of faith, of justice, and of peace – the way that has always been yours. Amen.
- Development & Peace 2016 Campaign Prayer

"Prayer"

So I hope by running through my ‘life’ Examen, you have a sense of the Examen prayer and how it can be used to move you from your time of contemplation into your time of action. The Examen is to:

begin with an attitude of gratitude,
review a period of time (normally the present day) in your life,
notice the things that jump out at you (notice what you notice),
reflect on those highlighted moments so you might come to an understanding of God’s personal message for you,
take this to heart & respond to God’s call (create a plan of action),
and finally rest so that you might give praise to God for the gift of His creation.

This JPIC Examen can be used to purposefully set aside a time each day to ask God for His help and guidance in your mission to care for His creation (human and non-human) and the most vulnerable among us. Together might we be strengthened in our common pursuit for ecological and social justice.

Offer your prayer for the earth and the vulnerable in our society……..

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 5: Reconciliation)

2/11/2020

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This is the fifth of a 6 part series on discernment. To view the previous postings scroll down.

"Reconciliation"

I ask for the grace to reconcile my relationship with God, creation and humanity, and to stand in solidarity through my actions. Each of us is to reconcile or to take action according to the cry that has reached our ears, the story that propels us into action. I personally have heard, loud and clear, the cry of the Earth. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

We might say as Secular Franciscans, “You must be the change that will praise God in the world.”

The cry loudest in my ears was from God’s creation. Global Catholic Climate Movement (among others) reported on the damage being done by the burning of fossil fuels in the world.

So in 2014, I made the leap, took money from my retirement fund and purchased a hybrid car. I would have bought an entirely electric car but unfortunately that was not possible at that time. I consider myself the Carpooling Queen and use my car to take as many people as I can to wherever I go thus building community and relishing many opportunities for encounter.

I am still investigating the possibility of installing solar panels on my home to provide electricity and converting to a heat pump so that I can use solar rather than gas for all energy needs. Another option for access to renewable energy, I am happy to report, has been provided by my City of New Westminster. The City has built a solar garden which I can invest in so that eventually accessible, renewable energy can be delivered to all its residents.

I will continue to vote for leaders who come up with plans that help all to access such renewable energy sources and petition government and corporations to encourage the action needed.

In 2015, Development & Peace ran a “Create a Climate of Change” campaign, and thousands of Canadians committed to reducing their carbon footprint and asked the Government of Canada to take action against climate change and to support communities in the Global South who are most affected by it. I signed on and brought D&P to my parish.

In 2016, D&P ran a campaign “At the Heart of the Action” which acknowledged there are many ways to respond to climate change, but agriculture must be at the heart of the solutions. Small family farmers feed the world with less than one-quarter of all farmland. D&P asked that we support an agricultural model that enables these stewards of the earth, here at home and around the world, to live in dignity and feed our communities in a way that respects our common home.

Small family farmers feed the world with less than one-quarter of all farmland.

So, here at home, I committed to be a distributor of community- supported-agricultural (CSA) shares from A Rocha, a Christian environmental stewardship organization that has a vegetable farm in South Surrey.

For twenty weeks, I drive out to south Surrey every Tuesday afternoon between June and October to pick up shares and deliver them to a drop zone in our parish priest’s backyard. The farm runs an agricultural internship program among other programs to teach young people from around the world how to sustainably grow organic vegetables. Those of us participating in CSA learn to eat seasonally and create community through connection.

Even closer to home, I had a man from my parish build garden boxes in my back yard so I might grow some of my own produce. My husband and I try to buy in season and local when possible and when not possible, we consider fair trade products.

One year I volunteered at the national conference of the Canadian Fair Trade Network here in Vancouver and met wonderful people committed to making change – to creating markets and connecting people who grow products in sustainable ways. We can all support them by our purchases. Personal action and advocacy help to create change.

In 2019, I took a permaculture course which looks at living for the good of all – living to thrive, to create bounty to share with all and to provide for future generations. I am learning to live my life immersed in the belief that God’s gift of creation is to be gently tended.

Action can be taken on both a personal level and a structural level. Vote. Write letters to policy makers. Do what you are called to do.

Prompt the change that brings God’s goodness into the world.

Living in community with all and for all, God calls us to use the Earth’s bounty to praise, reverence and serve Him. Pope Francis calls us to help heal a broken world, to embrace a culture of solidarity and encounter; to embrace a new sustainable path forward that puts God’s creation at the center.

Ask for the grace to reconcile your relationship with God,
creation and humanity.

What actions can I take to help repair my relationship with God, creation and humanity, and make choices consistent with my desire for reconciliation?

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 4: Conversion)

2/4/2020

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This is the fourth of a 6 part series on discernment. To view the previous postings scroll down.

"Conversion"
I came to acknowledge the ways in which I personally have chosen convenience (i.e., buying packaged foods preserved with palm oil rather than preparing meals from fresh whole foods), selfishness (i.e., buying the cheapest product as opposed to those that are traded fairly which would ensure the

livelihood of many as opposed to lining the pockets of a few) and greed (i.e., buying more than I need of food or clothing, and throwing away or wasting what I don’t use) over ecological and social justice.

I came to acknowledge the ways that my society’s structures, patterns and culture (i.e. wanting the best, the biggest, the most comfortable, etc.) impacted my life, the earth, and the lives of people on the margins.

I do pray for a conversion of heart.
I ask for the grace

to become someone who chooses to see

the world through the eyes of the marginalized and acts to contribute to a more socially and ecologically just society. I ask to be the hands and feet of the Lord so I might do God’s work in the Kingdom of justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

My need to reconcile with God and with Creation is becoming clear.

I suggest we all acknowledge the ways in which we have personally chosen convenience, selfishness and greed over ecological and social justice; and the ways that our societal structures, patterns and culture impact us, creation and humanity. Also look for “signs of God’s work, of the great ministry of reconciliation God has begun in Christ, for justice, peace and integrity of creation”.

Ask for the grace of conversion towards ecological and social justice and reconciliation.

Where have you fallen short in caring for creation and your brothers and sisters?
How do you ask for a conversion of heart?

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 6: Prayer)

JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 5: Reconciliation)

JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 4: Conversion)

Margaret Ross, ofs - Blogger

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