The following is an excerpt from a piece that Sister Joan Brown, executive director of NMEP-IPL, wrote for The Gallup Independent.
“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” –Meister Eckhart
In this quote mystic, priest and Dominican theologian Meister Eckhart expresses a profound and mysterious truth. Nothing is ours and yet every breath, heartbeat, glass of water or morsel of food from each sunrise are given to each of us. But how can one say thank you?
Fall is the season of “Thank you.” We are entering the week of “Thank you.” We may glibly say these sacred words each day … if we remember, but, this time of year calls us to deeper reflection and renewal. Everywhere we turn, in each moment is a gift of Love. The Qur’an 2:115 is eloquent when it states “Everywhere you turn there is the face of God.” How amazing that God, the face of Love peers through each tree and in each child and touches our tongue in a drink of water. This leads me to wonder if mere words of thanks are enough. True thank you’s, I believe require reciprocity and invite us to multiply a gesture of love. Although we may not feel that what ever gesture we offer is adequate, we must act in reciprocity, it is the way of nature and God’s creation.
In fall the trees give leaves to the earth. The earth welcomes the leaves, as do grubs and earthworms who break down the fallen leaves into soil to nurture the tree to bud in spring and give us leaves, shade and even fruit again. The cycle is continual. Giving, thanking, receiving and giving back.
As humans we have gotten into a bad habit of merely taking. As the UN Climate meeting in Egypt ends this weekend we are reminded that the climate crisis we face is because we have dishonored the cycle of our Sister, Mother Earth, Our Home. Read full article
Sister Joan Brown: New BLM Rules on Methane Fall Short
/in Featured Articles, NEWS, NMIPL in the News, Permian Basin /by adminThe Interior Department has proposed rules to reduce methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on public lands, in the Biden administration’s latest move to aggressively tackle emissions of the climate-warming greenhouse gas.
The rules by the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management would impose strict monthly time and volume limits on flaring, the process of burning excess natural gas at a well, and require payment for flaring that exceeds those limits. Read more in this artice
Here is a comment from Sister Joan Brown
Join a Webinar on IRA resources for nonprofits/houses of worship
/in Cool Congregations, Featured Articles, NEWS /by adminIncluded in the IRA, are clean energy tax credits for wind and solar, EVs, efficiency upgrades, heat pumps, and much more for nonprofits, which includes houses of worship.
As people of faith and conscience, reducing the climate impact of our houses of worship is an opportunity to help bring about a just transition to a clean energy economy based on the values we all share: caring for one another and for our common home.
Federal agencies are still in the process of developing the guidance and programs for the Inflation Reduction Act. But join Interfaith Power & Light and the Environmental and Energy Study Insitute for this briefing on what benefits were included in the IRA for nonprofits and houses of worship, and learn when we can expect to see them become available.
Register here
for Webinar on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time
Sister Joan Brown: Fall is the season of thank you
/in Earth & Faith, Featured Articles, NEWS /by adminThe following is an excerpt from a piece that Sister Joan Brown, executive director of NMEP-IPL, wrote for The Gallup Independent.
“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” –Meister Eckhart
In this quote mystic, priest and Dominican theologian Meister Eckhart expresses a profound and mysterious truth. Nothing is ours and yet every breath, heartbeat, glass of water or morsel of food from each sunrise are given to each of us. But how can one say thank you?
Fall is the season of “Thank you.” We are entering the week of “Thank you.” We may glibly say these sacred words each day … if we remember, but, this time of year calls us to deeper reflection and renewal. Everywhere we turn, in each moment is a gift of Love. The Qur’an 2:115 is eloquent when it states “Everywhere you turn there is the face of God.” How amazing that God, the face of Love peers through each tree and in each child and touches our tongue in a drink of water. This leads me to wonder if mere words of thanks are enough. True thank you’s, I believe require reciprocity and invite us to multiply a gesture of love. Although we may not feel that what ever gesture we offer is adequate, we must act in reciprocity, it is the way of nature and God’s creation.
In fall the trees give leaves to the earth. The earth welcomes the leaves, as do grubs and earthworms who break down the fallen leaves into soil to nurture the tree to bud in spring and give us leaves, shade and even fruit again. The cycle is continual. Giving, thanking, receiving and giving back.
As humans we have gotten into a bad habit of merely taking. As the UN Climate meeting in Egypt ends this weekend we are reminded that the climate crisis we face is because we have dishonored the cycle of our Sister, Mother Earth, Our Home. Read full article