Our responsibility to care for our Earth and for the poor we can bring others to Christ and lead them to His holy Church.
Listed below are ten practical ways we can help our world and fellow man in the spirit of Laudato Si :
1. Be just slightly less comfortable. We are a society that loves comfort. But that comfort is expensive and energy wasting. So, be just slightly less comfortable, and you can save big on energy bills and environmental resources.
2. Recycle. We all know we should, but many don’t. Look into your town’s recycling center and services, and make plans to do it. Many towns will do curbside pickup on trash days of recycling materials, so there is less an excuse not to jump on the recycling bandwagon.
3. Buy used. When possible, buy used items. It will save you money, and you will reuse something that someone didn’t need anymore, reducing the resources you need and consume.
4. Fix rather than replace. Rather than chucking a broken toy or appliance, first figure out if there is a way to fix it. Most of us do this simply to save money, but it is a small way to preserve resources and consume less.
5. Be content without more, even if you have the means for better. And if you have the means for better, use the excess to bless others. This one is very difficult for many of us, myself included. Who doesn’t love to have nice things? But truly, we don’t need the bigger TV. We don’t need rooms full of toys. But our neighbor may need food; a child might need clothes; a local organization might need money or hand-me-downs. Bless your community with charitable giving.
6. Discern needs from wants. This goes along with being content. We don’t need lots of artwork or knick-knacks, or even lots of vacations (and souvenirs to remember it by). Do we need a larger home, or is it simply something we want? Minimalism is “in” these days, so embrace it; it’s one of the few modern trends we as Catholics can and probably should get behind.
7. Have children use the backside of printed paper, and use both sides of a page when drawing/coloring. This is a simple but effective way to teach children about limited resources and using them wisely.
8. Be kind to foreigners and immigrants. When you encounter someone who speaks English poorly, be patient, even offer assistance. Don’t mock accents or hinge your charity on how someone came to this country or whether they are a contributing member of society. We need to show love to one another, regardless of our background.
9. Get out of debt and avoid debt when possible. This comes as part of responsible ownership of resources. If we constantly need more, and use debt to get it, we lie to ourselves about the limits of our own resources. Having debt is not necessarily shameful, but we should be cautious about it, and aim to avoid it. And in doing so, we will help our neighbors to use their own resources prudently by now contributing to the keeping up with the Joneses.
110. Unplug. One aspect of Laudato Si is the concern of how technology is unplugging us from real relationships and providing us a shield to hide behind. If you find yourself logging into social media several times a day, playing games, etc, take a break. If it is a big temptation, as habits often are, have your spouse change your password. You will marvel at how life comes together in peace and how much closer you can get to God if you decide to reduce internet use to the tool it is meant to be as, not the time-wasting and life-wasting venture it has become.
We all can do our part to make the world we live in a better place. We can all love one another and the earth God gave us, and show Him how much we value and respect His gifts. (Collected)
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