Fran Deasy sent ECI this report:
Laudato Si’ Week 16 – 25 May 2021 was celebrated locally in the Church of Our Lady & St. John, Carrigaline by a group of people working together on Care for the Earth from the Eco-Congregations of St. Mary’s Church of Ireland and the Church of Our Lady & St. John, Carrigaline. To prepare for the week, the Transition Year students from Carrigaline Community School created posters which beautifully expressed the themes of the week of having hope and taking action “for we know that things can change” (Laudato Si’ 13). A different poster each day featured in a week long display in the sanctuary of the Church of Our Lady & St. John and on the sign board outside the church.
Laudato Si’ means ‘Praise Be to You’ and it is an urgent call by Pope Francis to build a more just and sustainable world, where all people live with dignity. It asks us all to listen to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” and to do what we can to make a difference.
Daily posts during the week onto Carrigaline Parish Facebook pages helped to create awareness and to provide support for people in order to be committed to making that personal difference.
Each day we highlighted support for change such as the ‘Pledge Your Garden for Pollinators’ from the All Ireland Pollinator Plan, Trócaire’s 100 Ways to Implement Laudato Si’ and events for National Biodiversity week 2021.
Several grass lawns on the church grounds were re-designated as no-mow areas so that native flowering plants can be allowed to grow to support pollinators, and to mark and celebrate the week a silver birch tree will planted near the Parish Centre of Our Lady & St. John by Fr. Pat Fogarty PP.
To quote from the All Ireland Pollinator Plan “If Ireland was truly green, it would be such a beacon of hope” Rev. Elaine Murray.
Finally on Pentecost Sunday at the end of the week people leaving after Mass were offered a choice of plants and vegetable seedlings to take home, grown by members of the two local Eco Congregations.These included sunflower seeds sown in homemade recycled newspaper pots which had been harvested last autumn by the pupils from Scoil Mhuire na nGrást, Belgooly.The seeds were given out to new homes around the parish, as were the homegrown sunflowers, tomato plants, oxeye daisies, cucumbers and sacred basil seedlings.
We hope that during the week we were able to share with others some of the inspiration of Laudato Si’ and pass on our hope and prayer that “we and all creatures belong to our common home and that it’s our responsibility preserve it for future generations”.
