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Essay 8: Eco-Spirituality in a Latin American Context |
- 6 -
its growing human population. Every day we learn about destruction
and pollution, and public indifference to the slaughter of the sacred.
But green is the color of Hope, and we must be sustained by this
virtue, necessary to carry on our mission. Only with Hope, and our
Faith to guide us, we can hold on to our values and pray for the
spiritual strength to resist the attacks against our Mother Earth.
Permit me to finish with a prayer, reproduced in Sacred Spaces, a
publication of Canadian Coalition for Ecology, Ethics and Religion
(Jakowska, 1993).
Lord, you gave us this planet on which we live with all it contains
as a common inheritance to share with other creatures and other
human beings.
Help us understand the mysteries of nature in order to respect
your Creation and to use your creatures according to your laws.
Help us use your gifts wisely and justly, thinking not only of
ourselves but also of other people in other parts of the world who
have the right to share them.
Do not permit that through our greed and negligence the Earth
becomes poorer in forests and rivers, in plants and animals, and
other wonders of nature that glorify you with their presence.
Help us love your Creation in every form of matter and in every
form of life, but especially in our human brothers and sisters.
Help us serve one another as other creatures do according to
your will, using wisely what we may use of your gifts and sharing
them with all the living creatures of our planet.
Help us preserve our environment clean and healthy for all and
make the right decisions to restore what has been destroyed,
So that we may serve you better in harmony and peace with
nature. Amen.
(see references next page)