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Urgency of Care of Creation in this season – from a Northern Irish Perspective

‘Join the flow of justice to abate global boiling and to protect our common home’.

This weekend marks the end of the Season of Creation, 2023, which started on September 1st and ends on October 4th – the feast of St Francis of Assisi. The Season of Creation is an international celebration of God’s handiwork, an open invitation to the entire people of God – to see what God has made, know what is good and demand for it to be protected.  Each year a theme from scripture is selected – this year it is from the prophet Amos which says, ‘let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”  We are all invited to join the river of justice and respond positively to the seasonal reminder to protect God’s handiwork.

Injustice manifests itself today in whatever damages the sustainability of our beautiful world that God has created. The people who are most affected by this injustice are the marginalised and those who live in the poorer parts of the world – those trying to live decent lives, despite threats and challenges to their very existence.  Their cries for help need to be heard urgently and we must take action to protect them. In his groundbreaking encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis includes the environment among the poorest and says, ‘the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor.  Our earth is under constant threat because of how we misuse and abuse God’s creation sometimes unintentionally. So, there is an urgent need to protect all nature in the name of the common good. Justice for the earth is about having a more inclusive understanding of what supports and protects our environment and the actions needed to safeguard it.

António Guterres, secretary – general of the United Nations, recently gave a stark warning about the need to revive our protection efforts. On hearing that July 2023 was the hottest month on record, he said; that the era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”.  Summer temperatures have been stoked by the burning of fossil fuels which spurred violent weather. We, in the richer nations of the world are mainly responsible for the increased temperatures – which experts have said aided the bush fires this summer causing many deaths and destruction of the natural world.

 

The Season of Creation urges everyone to join the river of justice on behalf of all Creation and to converge our individual identities and faith communities, in this greater movement for justice – after all the power of a mighty river is dependent on the many tributaries which join it.   Since a never-failing stream needs every drop of water, so too the work to protect our common home requires each one of us to act so that our combined actions make a significant difference.  Together we can do much – there is time.

Let the Season of Creation 2023 give us the enthusiasm to redouble our efforts to protect creation.  Join the river of justice and peace with others so that hope is created and ‘change can happen’.  After a summer of heightened global temperatures causing extensive bush fires in many places, floods nearer home and intensifying the eutrophication of Lough Neagh on our own doorstep! could we look with new eyes on what we can do? Has the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ slogan passed its ‘sell by date’? Do we need to take on board a stronger and more emphatic buzz-line such as ‘Cut-out, Cut-down, Cherish and Conserve’? We too can join the flow of justice for the protection of our earth.

Anna Byrne

new beginnings winter 2022/2023

Daughters of Charity

Where we are

We are women who have responded to the Call of Christ to live out our baptismal commitment by reaching out in His name to the people at the margins of our society. With the help and collaboration of many others we contribute to the provision of Child and Family Services, Pre-Schools, Education, Specialised Services for Young People, Services for People with Intellectual Disability, Health Care Services, Services for Older People, Services in Parishes, Family Resource Centres, Services for People who are Homeless, Vincentian Partnership Programmes, Mission Outreaches, Marian Services, Services to the wider Community and Provincial Administration.


MINISTRIES

The Daughters of Charity have provided services to persons with intellectual disability in Ireland for over a century. Today these services are based in Dublin, Limerick and Tipperary and include community-based residential services...

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MISSIONS

The Daughters of Charity are present in 21 African Countries. The Irish Sisters have worked in Nigeria and Ethiopia since the early 1960’s and now the young Nigerian Sisters have branched out to Ghana and Burkina Faso giving us contacts in all these mission areas...

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  • “When you leave prayer and Holy Mass to serve those in need, you are losing nothing, because serving those in need is going to God and you should see God in them.”

    St Vincent
  • “Say little, do much”

    St Vincent
  • “Good works are often spoiled by moving too quickly.”

    St Vincent
  • “If we want to please our good God, we must not look so much to what we want to do, but to what He wants us to do.”

    St Louise
  • “Do not believe that things will always be as they are now.”

    St Louise
  • “You are well aware that changes are always difficult, and that it takes time to learn new ways of serving skilfully and well.”

    St Louise
  • “If God is the centre of your life, no words will be needed. Your mere presence will touch their hearts.”

    St Vincent
  • “God makes use of the humblest instruments for the extraordinary operation of His grace.”

    St Vincent
  • “Charity is not charity if not accompanied by justice.”

    St Vincent
  • “The least esteemed by men are perhaps the best loved by God.”

    St Louise
  • “The greater the work the more important it is to establish it on a solid foundation. Thus it will not only be more perfect, it will also be more lasting.”

    St Louise
  • “Speak to God with great simplicity and familiarity, God only wants our hearts.”

    St Louise

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