The Office of Peace, Justice and Ecological Integrity of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth has put together a great resource for Christian communites and individuals (and others) to use during the coming Advent season. The Advent resource incorporates Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudate Deum, which follows up on the pontiff’s encyclical Laudato Si.

A Pilgrimage of Reconciliation with the World that Is Our Home

Advent 2023 with Laudate Deum

Pray for COP28, the climate summit in Dubai, November 30th– December 12th. Pope Francis will attend!

“I ask everyone to accompany this pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home and to help make it more beautiful.” (LD, 69)

Dec 3 First Sunday of Advent Plan to read Laudate Deum this Advent in a contemplative spirit.
Dec 4 Have you taken the Laudate Deum Action Pledge? A great practice for Advent.
Dec 5 “What would it mean to rediscover the biblical sense of the natural world groaning, hoping, waiting for liberation?” Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ
Dec 6 O good holy Nicholas, you who brought joy to children, put in my heart the spirit of childhood about which the Gospel speaks. Teach me how to sow happiness around me.
Dec 7 Hanukkah begins this evening at sundown. Pray for peace between Israel and Palestine.
Dec 8 Immaculate Conception “In Mary’s glorified body, together with the Risen Christ, part of creation has reached the fullness of its beauty.” (Laudato Si’, 241)
Dec 9 St. Juan Diego “Indigenous people are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed.” (Laudato Si’, 146) On this feast of the indigenous Juan Diego, learn something about the first peoples of your area. “To the powerful I can only repeat this question: ‘What would induce anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power, only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?’” (LD, 60)

Dec 10 Second Sunday of Advent – Death of Thomas Merton (1968) “I love the woods, particularly around the hermitage. Know every tree, every animal, every bird.” Take a walk in your neighborhood and meet the trees, animals, birds.
Dec 11 International Mountain Day Contemplate a mountain that you love. Why does it move you?
Dec 12 Our Lady of Guadalupe The earliest account of the apparition says, “The earth sparkled like the rainbow. The mesquites, nopales, and other different weeds, which grow there, appeared like emeralds, their foliage like turquoise, and their branches and thorns glistened like gold.” The presence of the Holy makes even thorns glisten like gold.
Dec 13 In the depths of winter, dream of spring! Plan now to plant trees and flowering bushes at your home or in a public space.
Dec 14 St. John of the Cross – John loved to pray looking out his window at the countryside. Spend some time in prayer today gazing at nature.
Dec 15 As you write your Christmas cards, pray for the recipients that they will join the pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home. Consider including a quote from Laudate Deum in your card.
Dec 16 Take a brisk walk today and think of climate refugees driven from their homelands; animals driven from their habitats by human greed. “Human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures.” (LD, 67)

Dec 17 Third Sunday of Advent Birthday of Pope Francis. Pray in thanksgiving for Pope Francis’s outstanding environmental leadership.
Dec 18 This week the Church prays the “O Antiphons.” What new names for the Holy found in nature well up in you? O Radiant Star! O Evergreen! O Red Holly Berry!
Dec 19 Pray for expectant parents and their children and the wisdom to preserve the beauty of creation for the next generations.
Dec 20 “Jesus of Nazareth was a creature of earth, a complex unit of minerals and fluids, an item in the carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen cycles, a moment in the biological evolution of this planet. Like all human beings, he carried within himself the signature of the supernovas and the geology and life history of the Earth.” Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ
Dec 21 Solstice Spend some time sitting in darkness tonight in solidarity with victims of war who have no electricity.
Dec 22 Read the great Advent dream of Isaiah 11. Notice how reconciliation with creation is part of that dream.
Dec 23 “This Christmas, may we also celebrate Mary: prophetic teenager, resilient woman, wise and courageous beyond her years.” Shelli M. Poe “The world sings of an infinite Love: How can we fail to care for it?” (LD, 65)

Dec 24 Fourth Sunday of Advent Place a bowl of soil near your manger scene. In this Earth the Word took flesh.
Dec 25 Christmas “The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter. He comes not from above, but from within, he comes that we might find him in this world of ours.” (Laudato Si’, 236)