In Unity We Speak Out

I am writing during “Laudato Si’ Week”, the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter: “On Care for Our Common Home”.  This particular encyclical made me proud to be Catholic (instead of a confusing mixture of semi-lapsed, semi-faithful) and grateful to have a Pope, if only to give us someone as a world-recognized spokesperson with a huge audience to hear, and perhaps listen to, the critical message of our time.

The Pope’s words are inspiring, poignant, and wise, and it is good to have a week to focus on their relevance, reverence, and renewed calls for action. But I want just as powerful women to have an equal say in words just as memorable, in calls just as mighty.

Therefore, along with the Pope, here are some women we do not hear from nearly enough:

Pope Francis: The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence 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 ideal is not only to pass from exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things.

White Buffalo Calf Woman’s Prayer:

Earth, Teach Me

Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.

Earth teach me suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory.

Earth teach me humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning.

Earth teach me caring ~ as mothers nurture their young.

Earth teach me courage ~ as the tree that stands alone.

Earth teach me limitation ~ as the ant that crawls on the ground.

Earth teach me freedom ~ as the eagle that soars in the sky.

Earth teach me acceptance ~ as the leaves that die each fall.

Earth teach me renewal ~ as the seed that rises in the spring.

Earth teach me to forget myself ~ as melted snow forgets its life.

Earth teach me to remember kindness ~ as dry fields weep with rain.

Pope Francis: I call on the world to dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet…to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Joy Harjo, first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States:

Remember the earth whose skin you are:
 red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
 tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, 
listen to them. They are alive poems.

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.

Pope Francis:  …if we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder … our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters…
So long as we are in touch with “wonder and awe” we recognize a continuing revelation of the divine in the smallest and largest forms within nature. Hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Joanna Macy, author of Active Hope:  To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe – to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it – is a wonder beyond words. If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear…If our praying is to be real, then our prayers should be compatible with the world in which we live. Christianity has been an indoor religion. The windows of our churches are stained, and while beautiful, they prevent worshippers from seeing and praying in communion with creation.

Ellie: And so, we celebrate Laudato Si’. We celebrate men who are so often the proclaimers, the heard, the empowered.  And we, even more fervently, celebrate the women and all genders who speak to us in their own powerful voices which are often not heard and not heeded.  We need all these diverse voices to be equal in power to wake us up so that we forever celebrate, cherish, and consecrate the earth and its creatures with gratitude and love.