INTRODUCTION
“We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.” — Mother Teresa
The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where he fasted for 40 days while being tempted by the devil. As followers of Christ, Lent provides us a 40-day period to prepare for Easter through spiritual disciplines like fasting, prayer, and penitence. This allows us to devote more time to God, reflect on his sacrificial love and mercy, and reassess the extent to which we open our hearts to receive this mercy.
This year, the Lenten season takes on an even greater significance because it coincides with the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si. Over the next five weeks, we will reflect on God’s creation and how God calls us to be good stewards of all God has lovingly made. This resource aims to inspire contemplation and cultivate a sense of wonder, gratitude and attentiveness to the marvels of God’s creation, so we can begin to discern the profound love story that God has written into the very fabric of the universe.
Sadly, when humans turn away from God, the whole of creation suffers the consequences, as evidenced by the current climate crisis affecting the most vulnerable and the natural world. Yet even in the face of our shortcomings, our merciful Creator continues to bless us with the splendor of the natural world, and through the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, has definitively demonstrated his unfailing love for all of creation
We should all be involved in the work of protecting and healing the earth. This work should begin in the family. We therefore invite Catholic families to use these reflections as a spiritual resource for Lent. This season, let us reflect on the wonder of God’s creation and ask ourselves: How does creation speak to me of God’s love?
Let us open our hearts to the wonder and wisdom of creation, allowing it to speak to us of God’s unfathomable love and grace, as beautifully expressed in the words of Job: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you: or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In God’s hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all humanity” [Job 12:7-10].
The prayer to recite at the beginning and at the end of each reflection
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.
(Source: Laudato SI)
WEEK 1: GIVING GLORY TO GOD AS OUR CREATOR
What is said in Laudato Si document:
“When we can see God reflected in all that exists our hearts are moved to praise the Lord for all God’s creatures and to worship God in union with them as St Francis did”( LS 87).
“What is more, Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness….Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise” (LS 12).
Reflection
Giving praise and worship to God as the Creator is a profound and sacred expression of faith that is deeply rooted in Scripture and Christian tradition.
The psalms are rich with calls for all elements of creation—sun, moon, stars, mountains, trees, animals, and humanity—to offer praise to the Lord who brought them into being. Psalm 19, for example, asks that: “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” [Ps. 19:1-4]. As creation itself is praising God as the Creator, it is teaching us then we who are made in God’s image have to join creation in praising God as the Creator.
Thomas Merton reminds us that God is speaking to us through the wonders and mysteries of the natural world. We should therefore treat the natural world as our original spiritula directors. He therefore writes: “How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters” (Thomas Merton, the Sign of Jonas, Harcourt Press, 1981, p. 321).
If we can accept the truth that God is speaking to us through nature, hopefully it will cause us to begin paying more attention to the world around us.
What is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
“Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge God as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,” says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy” (CC. 2096).
Action as a Catholic family during Lent
During the Lenten season, it is important for families to make time each day to pray together. By gathering as a family to pray, you allow God to be at the center of your lives and livelihood. When you pray as a family, do not forget to praise God as the Creator.
During this Lenten Season, you should listen more carefully to what God is saying to you through the Creation. In doing so, your hearts will be more fully opened to the wonder and mystery of God.
Prayer
Recite the prayer on page three.
WEEK 2: BE FAITHFUL TO YOUR SUNDAY OBLIGATION
What is said in Laudato Si document:
“On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with others and with the nature.
Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims “our eternal rest in God”.
In this way, Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. …
Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centred on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor” (LS237).
Reflection
The modern world has conditioned us to believe that we must remain perpetually busy. If we are not occupied with work, we are expected to stay active on social media. There is little room for rest.
However, rest is vital for our relationship with God, ourselves, and the natural world. When God was creating the world, God provided an example by resting on the seventh day. The Israelites were also commanded to observe a Sabbath rest each week. We must not neglect this need for rest, as it benefits both ourselves and God’s creation.
“Let me seek, then, the gift of silence, and rest, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer: where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is in all” — Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999).
What is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life. “Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church (LS 2177).
The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.” “The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day (LS 2180).
Action as a Catholic family during Lent
Make sure that all members of the family are faithful to their Sunday obligation
Prayer
Recite the prayer on page three.
WEEK 3: ADOPT A SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
What is said in Laudato Si document:
“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it. Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction” (LS 204)
Reflection:
According to Pope Francis, the “dissatisfied and frustrated human heart” lies at the core of the consumerist lifestyle that fuels the ecological crisis (Laudato Si, #52). To successfully adopt a simple lifestyle, we must delve deeply into our own hearts. We must pay particular attention to the emptiness we feel within.
As Laudato Si states, “the emptier a person’s heart, the more they feel compelled to buy, own, and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears” (LS 204).
In acknowledging the profound emptiness in our hearts, we must recognize that only God’s grace can truly satisfy the soul’s deepest longings. Too often, we are bombarded by media and advertising that falsely promise fulfillment through compulsive shopping, obsession with appearances and status, or the numbing effects of food, alcohol, and drugs. But these only drive us deeper into emptiness.
It is only by opening ourselves to the power of God’s love and allowing it to infuse our lives with meaning and purpose that we will find the strength to resist the siren song of consumerism. In doing so, we can live in harmony with God, neighbor, and nature.
What is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
“Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: “Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!” 26 God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced” (CC. 1432).
Action as a Catholic family during Lent
Consider three aspects of your family’s lifestyle that you would like to change during Lent in order to contribute to the healing of our planet.
Prayer
Recite the prayer on page three.
WEEK 4: RETURN TO THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST AND THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION
What is said in Laudato Si document:
“The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is taken up by God to become a means of mediating supernatural life. Through our worship of God, we are invited to embrace the world on a different plane. Water, oil, fire and colors are taken up in all their symbolic power and incorporated in our act of praise” LS 235).
“It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation…The Eucharist is itself an act of cosmic love: “Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world” [LS, 236].
Reflection
The Lenten season provides a sacred opportunity for Catholics to renew their devotion to the sacraments, most notably the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance.
The Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life, takes on profound meaning and significance during the Lenten season. As we reflect on Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, we are called to renew our devotion to this sacred sacrament that so intimately unites us with our Lord and Savior.
In the Holy Eucharist, the simple gifts of bread and wine, fruits of the earth and work of human hands, are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
As we receive this precious gift, we ourselves are mystically transformed, becoming living tabernacles, bearing Christ to the world. This sacred mystery is a reminder of the immense love God has for creation, as heaven reaches down to earth, and earth is lifted up to heaven.
As Pope Francis eloquently states in Laudato Si, all of creation is destined for divinization and ultimate union with the Creator. The sacraments, utilizing the natural substances of water, oil, bread and wine, become privileged encounters with the Divine, tangible signs of God’s grace and presence in our midst. As we approach the Eucharistic altar with reverence and awe this Lent, may we be ever more conformed to Christ, nourished by His Body and Blood, and strengthened to continue His saving mission in the world.
What is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
“At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord’s command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: “He took bread….” “He took the cup filled with wine….” The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine, fruit of the “work of human hands,” but above all as “fruit of the earth” and “of the vine” – gifts of the Creator. The Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who “brought out bread and wine,” a prefiguring of her own offering” (CC 333).
Action as a Catholic family during Lent
Make sure that you receive the sacrament of penance at least once during the Lent.
Prayer
Recite the prayer on page three.
WEEK 5: DISCOVER THE POWER OF HOPE
What is said by Pope Francis:
“To hope and act with creation, then, means above all to join forces and to walk together with all men and women of good will. In this way, we can help to rethink, “among other things, the question of human power, its meaning and its limits. Our power has frenetically increased in a few decades. (Message of Pope Francis for the 2024 Season of Creation).
Reflection:
As the two disciples journeyed towards Emmaus in the aftermath of Jesus’ death, we too find ourselves on a similar quest, seeking to reconcile our hope with the realities of a broken world.
In the aftermath of Jesus’ death, his disciples were depressed, unable to understand why their hopes had not been realized. However, they soon encountered the risen Christ, and their hope was restored as they recognized the one who had brought the promise of renewed relationship with God, others, and creation.As Christians, we may struggle to reconcile our hope for a brighter future with the constant reminders of brokenness in our society. The sad indicators of a broken natural order should remind us of our God-given obligation to care for God’s creation.
Rather than becoming overwhelmed, we can start with small, tangible steps – like planting trees in our neighborhoods. Just as a mustard seed grows into a sheltering tree, our seemingly insignificant actions, undertaken in communion with God’s grace, can have eternal significance, contributing to the rebirth of all things in Christ.
What is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” 84 “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” (CC 1817).
“The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity” (CC. 1818)
Action as a Catholic family during Lent
You should ask yourself: Who are the people in my family who desperately need to receive the gift of hope? Reach out to them to tell the reason for hope that is in the power of the Risen Christ.
Prayer
Recite the prayer on page three.
