50th Anniversary of Earth Day

The Great Human Family today celebrates Earth Day, on its fiftieth anniversary. It is about making known and recognizing the unique value that the earth represents for humanity, since it is our common home (Laudato Si’ 1, 1).

The Carmelite NGO invites everyone to join today in celebration. You will find in this place, a presentation video and a video of the Eucharistic Liturgy to celebrate this Earth Day communally and from home. You can find here the message of his homily at the mass presided by Fr. Hariawan Adji, O. Carm., From the Grotto of Lourdes in the House of Mercy in Malang, Indonesia.

We also invite you to make a celebratory action from home by means of a liturgical gesture, or a prayer or a symbol, and share it on your social media, and send it to us with a short explanatory text. We will post it on our news site.

Thank you very much and remember the Earth Day with serenity, even more so today, in the midst of the pandemic.

“Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.

Saint Francis of Assisi.

• … Our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.
• This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her…
• … The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom  :22).
• We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7).
• Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 1-2

Earth, our home, seen from the moon (NASA)