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One of my favorite activities with my young grandchildren is pushing them on the swings and asking them to just listen. When we hear something new, like the wind in the leaves, cars in the distance, a bird calling, airplanes overhead or people talking a few houses away we try to be the first to tell the other.
I knew the game had become a habit for my grandson when in the middle of brushing his teeth he excitedly whispered “Listen!”
I stood quietly and listened to the sounds coming from the backyard. “What is it?” I asked him, still in a whisper.
“Frogs!” he announced and proudly proceeded to tell me what kind when they “sing” and when they don’t.
Children and nature go together. Left undisturbed they will dig under rocks to find bugs and collect pinecones, shells, old bird nests, and anything that might look like a fossil. When we encourage that relationship, we are helping them to discover the connection humans have to the earth.
In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis invites us to “discover what each of us can do” as we build a better future together and develop an ecological spirituality that helps us “discover God in all things.”
Included in that spirituality is an awareness of the beauty and purpose of creation, and an understanding of how human behavior either cares for or damages God’s gift of creation.
This year, Laudato Si’ Week 2022, will be held May 22-29 – a global celebration marking the seventh anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on creation care.
Among the seven goals of Laudato Si’ Week are ecological education and ecological spirituality, both of which lend themselves to incorporation in the classroom and as a summer project for students.
RCL Benziger offers a wonderful free downloadable resource on Laudato Si’, which includes a summary of the encyclical in English and Spanish, notable quotes from each chapter, and pages with activities for children on a variety of Laudato Si’ themes – water, endangered animals, recycling, consumerism, building a world to give our children, dignity of all human people and gratitude.
Laudato Si’ calls us to always be thankful to a good and gracious God who gave us all of creation and the home we know as earth. With summer on the horizon and many children soon to be on a long hiatus from school, one suggested activity to consider is a gratitude journal, which you might expand to a gratitude and discovery journal which students may add to throughout summer vacation.
Invite children to look for the small, daily ways in which God blesses our lives. It is easy to be thankful for the big things; be thankful for God’s big or small gifts. Add reasons to be thankful each day in the journal.
Encourage children to observe the world around them. Children are born full of curiosity which makes them natural at discovery. Direct them to include any new discoveries about plants, animals, insects or how people interact with creation in their journal.
Encourage children to include questions in their journals. Learning often begins with a question that needs an answer. They may find their own answer before they begin school again, or they may bring that question to their new teacher and class.
Encourage children to include prayer for creation in their journals and in their daily prayers. One suggestion from RCL Benziger’s resource: Father, we praise you with all your creatures. They came forth from your all-powerful hand; They are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love. Praise be to you! (Excerpt from A Christian Prayer in Union with Creation, Laudato Si’)
About the AuthorMary Regina Clifford Morrell, mother of six and grandmother to nine, is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.
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