Celebrating Summer, Nature, and Our Common Home – Part 2

by OLH Staff | Sep 1, 2023 | Environment, Family Fun, Spiritual Life, Universal Apostolic Preferences

Celebrating Summer, Nature, and Our Common Home – Part 2

Back in July we wrote about the moving film, The Letter, and how it served as a call to action in many ways. Particularly, at the start of summer in Maine, we were called to notice God’s beautiful creation all around us. That sparked an idea. We invited parishioners – and friends – to make photos of places and activities where they felt God’s presence. You can read more in our July 7th post!

Congratulations to Jim and Mary, who’s names were pulled from a hat for the gift card. They submitted photos of a delicious meatless meal – and the recipe. Pictured here is a photo from Jon that brings a smile to fans of listening to baseball at camp.

If you are on Facebook, we’ve shared all the photos there. Really — watch The Letter!! It will move you to action. And, keep noticing the beauty of – and our responsibility to care for – God’s creation.

Celebrating Summer and Our Common Home

by OLH Staff | Jul 7, 2023 | Environment, Family Fun, Universal Apostolic Preferences

Celebrating Summer and Our Common Home

Kick-off summer by watching The Letter in the comfort of your own home! That’s right, the film is available on YouTube. Whether you watch from your tablet or laptop or smart TV, you’ll want to settle in for this film. The stories are beautifully told with amazing cinematography. We’ve watched it solo and in groups, and like many beautiful films there’s an added experience of watching with others. Through our group showings in the parish hall, a combined audience of nearly 40 people felt the power of the stories – and the calls to action, some suggested by each audience.

So, we decided to take the message of caring for God’s creation into our summer activities intentionally. To pay attention to the movements in our hearts when we are spending time outdoors. And to add some added fun, we thought some photos would be fun to add to the mix – specifically, your photos!! To encourage participation, we’ll have a gift card that will be drawn among all entrants.
We live in a beautiful place!

One way to celebrate that is with a bit of fun this summer. So, let’s snap some action photos (with those phones or cameras) of our care for God’s creation:
– working in the garden
– doing a good deed for someone
– a snapshot of a beautiful place in Maine you’ve visited
– a photo of where you’ve found God in nature
– even a photo of you watching The Letter
– photo of you recycling
– photo of a meatless meal (extra points for the recipe, too)

Create your own ideas!!

Email photos to ourladyofhope@portlanddiocese.org If you play at all track what you’ve done. You can drop off at the office, put in the collection basket or by mail by August 20th. Be sure your name and contact info is there. We’ll draw from all submissions for a $100 LL Bean gift card at noon on August 22, 2023.