Last week, on the same day that the Synod began in Rome, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis published his new apostolic exhortation, “Laudate Deum”.  Echoing and building on his landmark 2015 encyclical Laudato si’, the Holy Father reminds us of the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for a concerted response from Christians everywhere, and indeed from “all people of good will.”  His words on the spiritual foundation for our commitment to ecological conversion speak to our Thanksgiving celebrations last weekend: 

“Jesus was able to invite others to be attentive to the beauty that there is in the world, because he himself was in constant touch with nature, lending it an attraction full of fondness and wonder. As he made his way throughout the land, he often stopped to contemplate the beauty sown by his Father and invited his disciples to perceive a divine message in things. (…) 

The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence.  If the universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely… there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face. The world sings of an infinite Love: how can we fail to care for it?” (LD: 64, 65)    

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