Go Green for Lent 2023
We’d love to have you join Our Lady of Hope’s Social Justice and Peace Commission, the Jesuit Community, and other parishioners in taking environmentally friendly actions as part of a Lenten practice this year. Consider choosing one of the actions listed on our poster as your Lenten practice this year. Choose one or more to embrace and put a green dot on the poster outside of Mass this weekend – and each weekend throughout Lent. Below are the examples of some steps to choose from:
No TV (or streaming) one or more nights during Lent.
Give up one or more single use plastics – e.g. water bottle, straws, cutlery.
Walk, Bike, take Public Transportation, or Carpool to work one day each week.
Eat vegetarian for 2 nights each week.
Reduce Food Waste. Some resources are here: https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2020/02/24/lenten-food-waste-fast-week-1/
Buy only necessities! Buy produce at a winter farmers market. Participate in No Buy Lent.
Declutter one spot at home each day during Lent.
Turn phone off during evenings with family.
Pray: Do Earthbeat’s Lenten Daily Food Reflection
Almsgiving – Examples of charitable nonprofits whose missions serve people and the planet:
Increase Awareness of Injustice in Our Society. Selections of suggested reading:
- Massingale, SJ, Bryan N., “Racism is a Sickness of the Soul. Can Jesuit Spirituality Help Us Heal?” AmericaMagazine.org, November 20, 2017
- Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ) : Keynote, Fr. Bryan Massingale, Racial Justice Scholar Fordham University.
- Massingale, SJ, Bryan N, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, (New York: Orbis Books, Maryknoll, 2010)
- St. Jean, SJ, Patrick, The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations With Ignatius Loyola, (Vestal NY: Anamchara Books, 2021).
- Segura, Olga, Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2021).
- Works of Love: Ignatian Spirituality and Racial Justice Ignatian, Jesuitseastois.org
You may find these documentary films to be of interest:
13th: traces the mass incarceration of black men back to the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865 (streaming on NetFlix)
The Letter: tells the story of various frontline leaders’ journeys to Rome to discuss the encyclical Laudato Sí with Pope Francis (streaming on YouTube)
Have other suggestions? Send them in and we’ll keep adding to the resource list!
May our Lenten journeys be fruitful – for us as individuals and for us as a parish community.