We must never forget that we are part of the Earth and nature itself. Nature isn’t some plaything, a stage on which we conduct our projects. We must see this world from within.
As I reflect and write in the lead‑up to Laudato Si’ Week (17–24 May 2026) with the theme, From Hope to Action, I am keenly aware that this celebration is nested within a world that feels increasingly unsettled — tilted even — by overlapping global crises.
I notice the autumn leaves deepening in colour, and yet the freshly spilled blood of innocent people cannot be ignored. There is hope in the promise of the first global conference focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels titled, Conference for the Just Transition away from Fossil Fuels (in Colombia, 24-29 April 2026), while at the same time so much human attention, wealth, and power are locked into what feels like an ‘oil war.’
Our dryland farming regions are lush again. Ancient mosses, newly plump, fill the cracks between the pavers. And yet our political and business leaders appear to be moving in a very different direction. Are we living through a season of self‑centredness and divisiveness? And if so, what season comes next?
It is lambing time back home – no shortage of wriggling tails or exuberant leaps. Still, I find myself asking: what future am I allowing to be shaped for the generations who will follow? Will play and joy become relics of the past?
My fragile sense of contributing, in some small way, to a cleaner energy future collapses when I am confronted with the murky and exploitative underside of renewable technologies. And yet I am also called to a prophetic stance of inclusion – to remain present, engaged, and honest.
I cannot choose only the comforting fragments and ignore the messy, brutal, or deadly realities. I cannot have the Easter eggs without the hot cross buns. Everything must be held together – no cherry‑picking allowed.
This Laudato Si’ Week feels like an invitation to hold these contradictions together, to recognise them as part of the single, mysterious process of becoming a new creation.
Teilhard de Chardin embodied this in the desert of Ordos when he offered Mass on the World. His eucharistic gifts were creation itself: its suffering and death, alongside all that was rising and flourishing that very day. Both suffering and flourishing were consecrated. All matter, all human activity, participates in the Paschal cycle.
Sr Mary-Ann Casanova PhD
Explore~Embrace~Embody Project Officer
View our recently updated Explore~Embrace~Embody Laudato Si’ Action Plan here.
Reference: Pope Francis, 2023, Laudate Deum. www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html