Wednesday

1

Thursday

2

A prayer in union with creation

Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand;
they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!
Son of God, Jesus, through you all things were made.
You were formed in Mary’s womb and you became part of this earth,
You gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!
Holy Spirit, by your light you guide this world towards the Father’s love
and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you! Triune Lord,
wondrous community of infinite love,
teach us to contemplate you in the beauty of the universe,
for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is.
God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.  The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen.

Friday

3

Consider:

A significant part of our environmental problem is that we have lost the understanding that the earth is the Lord’s, and with it the biblical sense that there is a life-giving triangle of relationships between God, the earth and humanity: that we humans are part of Nature and dependent on Nature for our wellbeing, but that we also have responsibility under God to care for God’s creation on God’s behalf.

Saturday

4

Psalm 8

¹ Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
⁹ Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Reflection

How remarkable the creativity of the world about us!   Nature never repeats itself, not in the animal or in the plant world; not in the snowflakes or the raindrops; not in its geological structures or in any of its daily displays throughout the observable world. These are all voices of the Earth – spirit voices seeking from us understanding and response.

Our primary response from the human world is admiration – admiration that is also adoration, since each living being presents to us some unique aspect of the divine mystery whence all things emerge into being. How glorious to us the sunrise and sunset, the clouds drifting across the sky! How divine the song of the wood thrush!

As Brian Swimme has expressed it, “The universe shivers with wonder in the depths of the human.”

In understanding the vast web of interrelations between all natural phenomena – the flow of energy whereby each reality sustains and is sustained by all other realities in the entire world – we come to true wisdom.

Thomas Berry, January 1990,
in the Foreword of To Honour the Earth by Dorothy MacLean
Taken from http://www.bne.catholic.edu.au

Sunday

5

Prayer of creation

O Lord our God, Creator of the cosmos and the universe,
We bless you for all the creation.
We have not truly kept all things which are in the earth, in the water or even in the sky;
For all that we request your mercy O Lord.

We often take creation like our own property and we do everything what we want;
God, forgive us for that.
Today, the earth and all creation has become men’s affair, in which God, the creator is ignored;
O Lord our God, have mercy and repair our errors.

Those mistakes we have done to nature because of our poor management have caused serious consequences in the life of the entire humanity, such as desertification, global warming, floods, in short, serious natural disasters.

Our world needs to be renewed and that is not possible without God, the creator,
That is why; we should beseech his mercy and his grace on all creation.
Give us guidance, O, Lord our Creator.
Give us power to restore the creation according to your only will
We ask this in the name of Jesus-Christ, in whom all was created.
Amen!

Rev. Dr Simon K. Dossou
Director for Theology, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
All Africa Conference of Churches

Monday

6

Prayerfully consider how to nurture biodiversity on church land by creating safe habitat for indigenous species and to support local communities by sharing land resources for local food production during this year.

Tuesday

7

Wednesday

8

Loving Father, you have given us matchless skill in the realm of science and technology. Help us to understand that you alone are the source of all truth and understanding.  Let us never be blinded by the lure of the marketplace or tempted to put at risk the lives and health of our fellow-humans. Watch over our motives, dear Father, that we may ever give prime place to the furtherance of your kingdom. This we ask in the Name of your Son, who died that we might live.

Thursday\

9

“Love, which, in concert with Abstinence, established Faith, and which, along with Patience, builds up Chastity, is like the columns that sustain the four corners of a house. For it was that same Love which planted a glorious garden redolent with precious herbs and noble flowers–roses and lilies–which breathed forth a wondrous fragrance, that garden on which the true Solomon was accustomed to feast his eyes.”

St Hildegard of Bingen,
letter to the Monk Guibert, 1176

Friday

10

God of all Creation
Teach me to be mindful of your creation and to treasure it.
Search me O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts,
See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting life.

Daisy Mtemba
St Michael & All Angels Eco-quiet morning

Saturday

11

Sunday

12

God of wisdom,
You show us your love in the rising sun and waning tide,
You grace Earth with life in all its variety.
Everything has meaning, is blessing;
everyone is charged with care
for the smallest creature to the ocean’s depth.
Grant us wisdom
to know your ways of love and gentle kindness.
Give us the mind to learn what we do not know
but long to understand
so that we may honour and nurture
all that makes us one with you.
Amen

Monday

13

“What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scriptures, I learned in woods and fields. I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks. “

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Tuesday

14

Evolution – A New Creation

My Franciscan colleague, theologian and scientist Ilia Delio, applies the process of evolution to human spiritual growth:

If being the image of God is at the heart of evolution in Christ, then the spiritual life is essential to Christian evolution. A dynamic interior spirit must be at the heart of change. Change is not what happens outside us; rather, change must first take root within us. . . . Just as the world of nature has an inner freedom to be itself, so too Christian life, if it is truly an evolutionary life in Christ, must be rooted in freedom.

. . . We live in a dynamic and unfolding universe; ours is an open system of life. In light of an evolving universe where change is integral to the emergence of new life, we should welcome change as the very sign of life. To resist change is ultimately to resist Christ; it is to prevent evolution toward unity of life in the universe. To be a Christian is to be “on the way,” announcing the good news of the risen Christ through spiritual attitudes of poverty of being, humility, compassion, openness of heart and mind. . . .

[We need] a new understanding of Christ, a new way of doing theology, and a renewed sense of Christian life. The vernacular theology of the mystics is the most viable way that Christ can be raised from the dead and become “God for us”—through participation, dialogue, and engagement with the world. Teilhard [de Chardin’s] spiritual vision, cantered on and rooted in Christ, emphasizes “global responsibility, action and choice in shaping the future of humanity on our planet. He affirms that life is a task to be done, a work to be achieved, and celebrates life as a most precious and wonderful gift to be loved and experienced as a sign of the Spirit who sustains us all.” . . .

[We] are to seek the hidden God in our world by seeking the hidden God in our lives—living Christ by doing Christ.

From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations
www.cac.org

Wednesday

15

Thursday

16

Dear Lord, help us to take care of the fragile earth. Help us to prevent the destruction of wildlife and to save those who suffer.

Help us to always do our best and use the things we are given in the right way. Help us to help the world become a good and safe place to live. May we always be ready to help those in need, whoever they are and wherever they may be.

Friday

17

All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flow’r that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them everyone.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

Cecil Frances Alexander wrote this hymn in 1848. The hymn has been adapted into various arrangements, including the lovely version sung by the National Taiwan University Chorus below.  The hymn’s lyrics elaborate on the description of God as “maker of heaven and earth” in the Apostles’ Creed. It may also have been inspired by Psalm 104:24-25

Listen: All Things Bright and Beautiful (John Rutter) – National Taiwan University Chorus

Saturday

18

Sovereign of the universe, wellspring of life, fountain of redemption, we praise you. With sun and moon, winds and rain, light and darkness, we glorify you. With rivers and seas, wild beasts and cattle, and all humanity, we magnify you.  In the resurrection of your Son, you have revealed the destiny of all creation – life in your mercy. Glory, glory, glory, to you, our God.

Sunday

19

Lord, we would lift our eyes to the majesty of your creation; we yearn to protect and share the beauties of this earth. But we confess our inability to raise our sights to you; we confess our weakness in wrestling with the cares and injustices of this world. Grant us the faith to see beyond ourselves to your enduring.

Monday

20

Psalm of the Cosmos

Loving God, loving God,
all creation calls you blessed,
and so do we, and so do we.

Loving God,
all your creation calls you blessed.
Your spirit imprints the whole universe with life and mystery.
Yes, all creation proclaims your love.
We now join this chorus of praise.

Loving God,
all of nature calls you blessed,
and so do we.

For you have woven an intimate tapestry
and call it life
and called it good.

In love you have formed a universe
so diverse yet so related,
and into its web you call us forth
to walk the land and swim the sea
with all our natural brothers and sisters.

To the stars
we seem no more than blades of grass.
Yet to you, each of us,
as each blade of grass and each star,
is an irreplaceable treasure,
an essential companion on this journey of love.

Loving God, as you lure the whole world into salvation,
guide us with your Spirit
that we might not be only pilgrims on the earth,
but pilgrims with the earth,
journeying home to you.

Open our hearts to understand
the intimate relationship that you have with all creation.
Only with this faith can we hope
for tomorrow’s children.
Amen. Alleluia!

Loving God, loving God,
all creation calls you blessed,
and so do we, and so do we.

Source unknown

Tuesday

21

Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti of Pope Francis
on the Fraternity and Social Friendship

Chapter Three – Envisaging and engendering an open world

The rights of peoples

124.      Nowadays, a firm belief in the common destination of the earth’s goods requires that this principle also be applied to nations, their territories and their resources. Seen from the standpoint not only of the legitimacy of private property and the rights of its citizens, but also of the first principle of the common destination of goods, we can then say that each country also belongs to the foreigner, inasmuch as a territory’s goods must not be denied to a needy person coming from elsewhere. As the Bishops of the United States have taught, there are fundamental rights that “precede any society because they flow from the dignity granted to each person as created by God”.[104]

125.      This presupposes a different way of understanding relations and exchanges between countries. If every human being possesses an inalienable dignity, if all people are my brothers and sisters, and if the world truly belongs to everyone, then it matters little whether my neighbour was born in my country or elsewhere. My own country also shares responsibility for his or her development, although it can fulfil that responsibility in a variety of ways. It can offer a generous welcome to those in urgent need, or work to improve living conditions in their native lands by refusing to exploit those countries or to drain them of natural resources, backing corrupt systems that hinder the dignified development of their peoples. What applies to nations is true also for different regions within each country, since there too great inequalities often exist. At times, the inability to recognize equal human dignity leads the more developed regions in some countries to think that they can jettison the “dead weight” of poorer regions and so increase their level of consumption.

Prayerfully consider how this affects our Country

Wednesday

22

”Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land’s inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”

Wendell Berry

Thursday

23

“It is a kind of theological folly to suppose that God has made the entire world just for human beings, or to suppose that God is interested in only one of the millions of species that inhabit God’s good earth.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

Friday

24

Saturday

25

World Environmental Education Day (26 January)

The day originated in 1972 with the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden .

The main goal of World Environmental Education Day is to identify environmental issues both globally and locally and to raise awareness about the need for participation in order to   conserve and protect the environment, mitigating the various levels of impact caused by the “triple planetary crisis” of the three main environmental issues that humanity is currently facing of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

It is essential to acknowledging the interdependence of humans and the environment, taking action to secure a more sustainable future.  There are so many obstacles to overcome on order to reach sustainability with the environmental impact of consumer society –the cost of online purchases to the environment; planned obsolescence and electronic waste, and Environmental crimes just to name a few.

Today is the day to:

• Learn about environmental issues: Learn about the causes and effects of climate change, the importance of renewable energy, and the role of water in life on Earth. 
• Educate others about the importance of sustainability and biodiversity. 
• Take action by planting indigenous plants in your garden that will supply bees and butterflies with their need and take a serious look at your own environmental footprint.

Sunday

26

God of revealing light, every dawn tells us how intricately your world is knit: Bare twigs snare the sun and clouds, the shifting winds weave a favourable atmosphere, moisture sifts through in mist or snow, and slowly penetrates the waiting soil. Cleanse our hearts as we repent of human pollution and violence; help your people preserve this life-giving air.

Monday

27

International Day of Clean Energy (26 January)

The International Day of Clean Energy was declared by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on 26 January 2024 to commemorate the founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2009. The UN General Assembly adopted the day to: 

• Raise awareness about clean energy 
• Call for action to transition to clean energy 
• Mobilize society to use clean energy 
• Advocate for clean and renewable energy sources 
• Unite governments, businesses, and individuals to transition to more sustainable energy systems 

The day is a call to action to transition to clean energy for the benefit of people and the planet. Clean energy is essential to the fight against climate change. Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and heat creates a large portion of the greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat. 

The science is clear: to limit climate change, we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels and invest in alternative sources of energy that are clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable. Renewable energy sources – which are available in abundance all around us, provided by the sun, wind, water, waste, and heat from the Earth – are replenished by nature and emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air.

To this end, The UN have developed the “Energy Plan of Action Towards 2025” which is a framework for collective action to support the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The plan was launched on May 4, 2022, and includes the following goals:

• Energy access: Provide electricity to 500 million more people and clean cooking solutions to 1 billion more people
• Renewable energy: Increase the global capacity for renewables by 100% and double annual investment in clean energy
• Coal power: No new coal power plans after 2021
• Jobs: Create 30 million jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy 

The plan’s objectives include: Accelerating action, Catalysing partnerships and scaling up Energy Compacts, Growing momentum, Informing the global agenda, and Tracking and sharing results. 

As of 2024, South Africa’s renewable energy sector is growing, with a number of new projects and initiatives, but despite this is sadly lagging behind international efforts.

The “Energy Plan of Action Towards 2025 ” ties in nicely with the overriding environmental theme of the UN for 2025 which is “For people and planet” which outlines the strategy of how UNEP will strengthen the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda during the period 2022‒2025.

Pray for accelerated progress of renewable energy in South Africa.

Tuesday

28

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Romans 8.18-21

Wednesday

29

Today pray for:

• The loss of the lungs of our planet through deforestation in the Amazon,
• The devastating effects of acidification of seawater and depleted fishing grounds
• The impacts of air pollution and destructive mining and energy extraction and transportation practices.

Thursday

30

”The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the community and the community includes the soil, waters, fauna, and flora, as well as people. ”

Aldo Leopold

Friday

31