Humanity is living through a climate crisis. Scientists and environmentalists are fervently sounding the alarm and revealing the staggering data which reveals that we are breaking our vow to be “stewards of creation.” We even struggle to grasp what a divine respect of creation could mean. If we start “In the beginning,” we know the world is exactly as God intended it to be – beautiful, good, and perfect. We also know that we were made to enjoy God’s goodness and to do so we may make use of all the resources our earth offers us. To speak of creation in this way sounds idealistic or utopian, but if we trust what God’s intentions were for creation this is conceivable and attainable. Humans, though, are not just stewards of creation – we are also co-creators with God. The question then becomes, what do we do with this freedom to co-create with what we have been given? Looking at the climate crisis it becomes clear we have not always chosen death over life.

Peter Maurin, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, wrestled with these questions and modeled how to take responsibility for creation. In his article, “Peter Maurin’s Green Revolution,” Francis J. Sicius details Maurin’s vision of a Green Revolution based on “cult, culture, and cultivation” (9). Cult is defined as a shared belief in God as the Divine Creator; culture is understood as a community ritual practice that finds root in that belief; and cultivation is a local economy developed in respect to the natural environment. In his contemplation about the natural world, Maurin began working at a summer camp near Mt. Trempor in upstate New York. He used his free time to read, write and travel back and forth to New York City. It was during this time that Maurin met Dorothy Day, his spiritual soulmate, and began imagining a Catholic community rooted in sustainable farms. 

While the Catholic Worker movement emerged as an urban Catholic production born from the abuse of the working poor, in January of 1936 Dorothy Day announced that the Catholic worker would make a serious attempt to find a farm (11). Maurin believed that this farm would be a living example of a “sustainable human society” (11). These farms were called “Agronomic Universities,” meaning that they would be places that people from all different backgrounds, working class to the comfortable, could live, work and share in both resources and ritual together. They would respect the land through subsistence farming, not harmful for-profit farming. Maurin wrote in a short essay entitled, “Regard for the Soil” that, “It is in fact impossible for any culture to be sound and healthy without a proper regard for the soil, no matter how many urban dwellers think that their food comes from groceries and delicatessens or their milk from tin cans.” It is with these beliefs that Maurin dedicated himself to remaking society through respect and mutual care for the earth. 

Maurin, a lay man who speaks from his experience as a man of faith, has a lot to teach the institutional Church about how to live in communion with creation. The Church is always grappling with issues of morality, and in our increasingly industrialized and global world, the church has paid attention to consumerism, wealth disparities, the onset of nuclear war, the rise of new technologies, and so much more, yet often the environmental repercussions are overlooked and unaddressed. Thankfully, Pope Francis has reoriented the Church’s gaze toward returning to the earth with humility and care. In Laudato si, Francis writes: “[T]he ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience” (217). In today’s reading from Paul to the Romans, Paul writes “that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Pope Francis and St. Paul both give witness to the power of our human freedom and our responsibility to love the earth into fullness. This is our invitation.

We are called to sow, to toil, and work in the vineyard of the Lord to bring justice into the world. We are called to live as Peter Maurin did and bring a spirituality of the earth that gives praise and glory to the wonders of creation. We are asked to be renewed disciples of Jesus and commit ourselves to love creation as we love ourselves.

The way we prepare and consume food can feel very rushed at times. Whether it is a quick breakfast, a hurried lunch, or a thrown together dinner, intake of nutrients can feel more important than the method of cooking and eating. For this contemplative exercise, you are invited to choose one night of the week to prepare a meal roughly 90 percent plant based. The preparation method should be simple and uncomplicated. 

While doing this exercise, practice mindfulness. Wash and dry all of your produce with attention and focus. Take care as you cut, dice, mix, and saute. In each moment, contemplate the journey of each of the foods you have chosen. Think about the soil that was tilled, the people who picked the crops, consider whether that was done by hand or by machine. Recall how you chose and bought each item for your meal. Then, imagine how this food will enrich your life. Recognize that you and this meal are part of God’s natural creation and express gratitude to God for the blessing of this food. Be open to the graces that may come with eating this meal and listen to God’s response to your prayer through eating. 

Dr. Mary E. McGann, R.S.C.J., is an associate professor of liturgical studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, who has written extensively on the intersection of liturgy and environmental spirituality. In her writings, as well the courses she teaches to graduate students, McGann has connected the practice of liturgy to the practice of living in reverence to the environment. McGann clearly advocates for a deepened sense of food through spiritual reflection. 

McGann writes in the article “6 ways a plant-based diet can help us meet Pope Francis’ ‘Laudato Si’ challenge” (2022) in America magazine, “Thus, the call to embrace a plant-rich diet is an invitation not only to a more sustainable diet but a more compassionate one. Food choices that honor the well-being of all sentient animals can build a world where greater consciousness of interspecies care and reciprocity abounds.” Most recently, McGann encourages Christians to integrate their knowledge of the earth into their liturgical understanding and spirituality. In her latest book, The Meal That Reconnects: Eucharistic Eating and the Global Food Crisis (Liturgical Press, 2020), McGann connects the growing food and health crisis that grips the world with the need for Catholics to understand the Eucharist as a just and healing food. 

The Catholic Worker farms, part of the Catholic Worker Movement, have experienced substantial growth in recent years. This is due to a renewed interest in sustainable farming and environmental activism by young Catholics. Catholic Worker farms have found success in recruiting young people throughout the West, Midwest, and Southern United States. These farms all practice farming to some degree and are dedicated to the poor, as well as living sustainably on the land they inhabit. For a complete list of the farms in the U.S. and abroad, and to learn about their contextual missions and methods, click this link.

In 1973, Peter Tompkins and Chris Bird wrote a controversial book entitled The Secret Life of Plants. The book summarized studies on plant sentience completed by scientists during the 20th century. In 1979, the acclaimed artist, Stevie Wonder, released the song “The Secret Life of Plants” on the album entitled Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants.” This song is a reflection of the interconnectedness we share with plants and how our survival depends on one another. Listen and pray with it, perhaps while you are cooking!