Happy Earth Day from the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois!
Here is an Earth Day Prayer adapted from the Green Church Project, Montréal, Canada:
Leader: Creator God, we pray for our brothers and sisters of the air: chickadees, cardinals,
blue jays, owls, crows, seagulls…
ALL: Give us a sign through them to decrease the pollution in the air we breathe.
Creator God, let us pray.
Leader: Creator God, we pray for our brothers and sisters of water: shellfish, algae, salmon, trout,
frogs…
All: Wake our compassion at the sight of their wounds so that we cease polluting the water.
Creator God, let us pray.
Leader: Creator God, we pray for our brothers and sisters of the earth: squirrels, deer, maples, the
pine trees, the tomato plants and the worms…
All: May their humility and and simplicity inspire us to live according to your will.
Creator God, let us pray.
Leader: Creator God, we pray for the world’s leaders and policymakers, for mayors, governors, and
presidents of companies.
ALL: May they hear the call from God through other creatures and make sustainable, wise decisions.
Creator God, let us pray.
Leader: Creator God, we pray for our community.
ALL: We ask you give us the courage to act regarding our environment and not to succumb to
the temptation of wasting.
Creator God, let us pray.
April 22, 2019 marks the 49th anniversary of Earth Day, a secular celebration that many faith communities have incorporated into their annual calendars for awareness and action. Today, we ask you to join the Earth Day Network's Protect Our Species campaign.
The Protect Our Species campaign goals are to:
1. Educate and raise awareness about the accelerating rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
2. Achieve major policy victories that protect broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats.
3.Build and activate a global movement that embraces nature and its values.
4. Encourage individual actions such as adopting plant based diet and stopping pesticide and herbicide use.
