"All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace."
In 2015, Pope Francis sincerely asked people to undergo an "ecological
conversion" to recover the order of creation by "praying to protect
our creation." He also issued an encyclical letter entitled "Laudato
Si'" (Praise be to you, my Lord) on the environment and human ecology for
the cure of our common home.
His prayer intention for September 2020 is to "share the global resources
not through exploitation but through justice and respect".
Recognizing the fundamental cause of COVID-19 is climate change, we are advised
to pray for the recovery in a "Season of Creation" from Sept. 1 to
Oct. 4, 2020.
During this special period of "Season of Creation," there are various
initiatives: an online conference on "Corona, the climate crisis, and
human rights" organized by the Peace and Justice Committee of the Seoul
Archdiocese; response action for a day of blue sky in the world; concentrated
action throughout the country and pilgrimages on foot for climate action in the
Daejeon Diocese; running the Climate School and the Ecological Spirituality
School; and direct action for climate action by visiting a power plant at
Dangjin.
All of us have a dream to recover creation. Curing our common home has become
our common hope.
"The Butterfly Dream" is the most famous story in
"Zhuangzi." Zhuang Zhou dreamt of being a butterfly fluttering about.
Like a butterfly, he was happy and he did as he pleased. He didn't know that he
was Zhuang Zhou.
Soon he woke up and there he was. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who
dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou.
This story concerns the transformation of things. As the butterfly dreams, we
are nature, and nature is us. We are so closely interrelated that we affect one
another.
Day by day, we grow up with dreams, small or large, positive or negative. One
day, I had a dream of a butterfly with colorful wings like the rainbow. Some
words were there on the wings.
In the midst of all the forms of crisis, we still have hope and freedom to be a
butterfly that can reach the frontiers beyond all the obstacles.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2020/09/162_295460.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts for the Times/
Sept. 7(online), 8(offline), 2020
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