March 2024

Ecological Conversion = Conversion of Life (Part 1)

This reflection by Good Samaritan Sister Diana Law is in response to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On the care of our common home, which calls us to ecological conversion.

 

Marvel in the Moment

 

Teach us to see your face in every shimmering leaf

And every blade of grass.

Teach us to value every bird in the sky,

Unique in colour, shape and size.

Speak in our hearts of love and connectedness,

Of living in the womb of Yourself.

Whisper the Truths of meaning and wonder

As our hearts pulse in union with you.

Help us to hear You in the voice of the poor

And to see in your Face our own.

Give us your Words with your divine power

To advocate and supplicate for all.

Help us to live in the chaos of life

With gentleness, courage and care.

Lead us to the Truth of your Life in us,

Of our oneness in You and all.

As creation groans towards completion in You (Rom 8)

May your Energy empower us to care.

With the LIFE that you share, may our vision expand

‘til we see You in all and the Cosmos in You.

 

May we listen to Paul proclaiming out loud:

“All things in Christ” (Col 3:11), (Eph 4:6) and (Cor 1:15),

“Christ fills all things and in Christ, everything is connected” (Col 1:17),

“In Him, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

His words resound later in the Gospel of John:

“All things came into being through Him

“And without him there came to be

“Nothing that has come to be” (Jn 1:3).

Christ is the Alpha and Omega (Apoc 1:8),

The beginning, the end,

The Cosmic consummation,

And divinisation

Of you, me and all creation.

 

This reflection was originally published in the March 2024 edition of By The Way.

 

Diana Law

Good Samaritan Sister Diana Law is a member of the Gympie, Murgon, Cherbourg Outreach of the St Vincent de Paul Society. Previously, she taught with Jesuit priests at Jochi University, Tokyo, where she concentrated on inter-religious dialogue. Her doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Toward World Peace: A Meeting of the Catholic and Zen Buddhist Ways of Life’. She assisted in the opening of a refugee centre in Gose, Japan, and in the outreach to homeless people initiated by Sister Pauline Fitz-Walter SGS in Sydney. She is grateful for the interdependence of partners in ministry, Oblates and Sisters in the Good Samaritan way of life.

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