“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “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”.[1]
This Earth Day, consider the words from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, which informs the Jesuits’ Universal Apostolic Preference to Care for our Common Home. As we pray for the beauty of Spring on the Marquette campus, let us also be inspired to join the work being done to care for creation on campus and in the community around us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Prayer in Springtime”
For flowers that bloom about our feet,
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet,
For song of bird, and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
For blue of stream and blue of sky,
For pleasant shade of branches high,
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
