For the Care of All
Sister Roxanne Schares,
General Superior
The year 2020 will not easily be forgotten with the global crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Great efforts continue to be made to restore and protect our health, our livelihoods, our very wellbeing. The experience of the pandemic has made us more aware of the webs of life in which we exist and of how very vulnerable and interconnected and interdependent we all are.
We are coming to realize, “We cannot pretend to be healthy in a world that is sick. The wounds inflicted on our mother earth are wounds that also bleed in us.” (Pope Francis, Letter to the President of Colombia, World Environment Day, 5 June 2020) Embracing the truth of our common health, our common
humanity and home impels us to take prophetic action directed toward life, with a new vision that encompasses every aspect of the global crisis and our world reality. (cf. Laudato Si’, 137)
The special Laudato Si’ anniversary year, 24 May 2020 – 24 May 2021, is particularly relevant in these times, for it provides an opportunity for us to transform the present suffering and struggle into a new way of living together. It calls for living an integral ecology and shaping a new paradigm, based on bonds of communion, bonds of compassionate care and solidarity, of peace and sustainability. Indeed, before us is the possibility of a true Kairos experience, a moment of grace and “Jubilee” for Earth and all humanity, for all creation.
Caring for Earth, our common home, and for all humanity and the whole of creation is part of living the Gospel. Everyone has a role. All gifts, talents, and actions, no matter how great or small, are worthwhile and needed. In this issue of In Mission, we see how School Sisters of Notre Dame in various countries
engage in education and advocacy, in collaboration and partnership with others for the dignity of life and the care of all creation. (cf. Directional Statement Love Gives Everything) These concrete expressions of love and care help create a future with hope.
Our faith in God and our love of God must be made real in our lives, that is, be translated into life and into action. Loving God demands that we participate in God’s life, loving and caring for all God loves, for all God has made.
