IHM EarthCare Update

Dreams and visioning have a particular significance for the EarthCARE committee. The dream of this committee was born of a profound desire to honor and protect our Common Home through Consciousness-Action-Concern for Earth. As committee members, we take up the challenge of putting our shared vision for our land and beyond into actions for the good of our planet. From our beginnings, we have shared our mission and our work with IHM Sisters, Associates, and friends.

Among the many projects initiated and nurtured by EarthCARE is our commitment to the Laudato Si Action Platform, launched in November 2021 to put into action Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si. Hard to believe, but we are now already in Year 4 of our commitment to this Platform. Year 4 involves:

• Continuation of Land Restoration
• STARS program at Marywood University, a collaboration designed to ignite the potential of young learners through innovative education and leadership activities.
• The Word The World The Wisdom
• Systematic composting
• In-person spiritual and educational programs
• Bird Buddies, weekly virtual educational blurb on bird species on our land
• Sunday films on ecological themes, such as “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” available on Netflix.

Our EarthCARE committee invites all to continue to live in the spirit of our Laudato Si Action Platform Commitment Statement:

The unconditional love of the Holy One embraces all creation.
This boundless and inclusive love summons us IHM Sisters
to live in radical interdependence and kinship with our
fragile and precious planet.
We align ourselves with the spirit of Laudato Si
and pledge our time, energy, and resources to collaborate with others
on a 7-year journey of education, advocacy, and action
for the sake of Earth, our Common Home.
We commit to restoring right relationship with the created world
and to using imagination, creativity, and fresh thinking
to bring about God’s dream
for the flourishing of our beautiful and wounded world.