Our Faith & the Health of Our Earthly Home

Two Dominican Sisters of Peace, at the Chrystal Spring Center for Earth Learning in Plainville, MA have always been on the prophetic edge of issues (and living) since I first came to know them over 15 years ago.  The paragraph below is taken from a recent email of Chris Loughlin, one of those two Sisters.  I think it’ll help us to stay in touch with the deepest and broadest aspects of who we are and the time we’re living in. (Bob Short)

 Over 30 years ago, as Brain Swimme likes to remind us, the NY Times reported we are living Earth’s sixth spasm of extinction.  He always adds, the next day the story was on page 27, and then it didn’t appear at all.  For a long time we have known the Time in which we live.  We are waking up to the truth that human health has not been spared. While infectious diseases have been spreading around the globe for years, we are even now struggling to understand our health and the health of Earth are inseparable. The great explosion in human numbers and technological prowess is costly.  This may be the turning point where more and more will come to see we are one among all beings, interconnected in one living system.  The new origin story was hard for people to accept, we held on to old perceptions.  Our perceptions come from our assumptions, which is our faith.  If we can change our perceptions, our attitudes will change and then our actions.  Yes, your ‘great work’ has been about inviting folks into a change in ‘faith’, for our origin story no longer resonates with the sacred sciences.  We belong to a vast evolving universe.  Earth is home and hearth.

As Teilhard said – everything that rises mush converge. All cultures, traditions, human efforts now carrying out an intellectual choosing ~ the power of human imagination choosing Life.  May we both take a child’s picture and pin it to our heart and mind ~ every choice for the children of all species…