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Senior Campus, Xavier College, Melbourne. 2011
Social Justice Week
A just climate?
Week 5: Aug 22 – 26 2011
YEAR 12
Prayer & reflection booklet
Senior Campus, Xavier College, Melbourne. 2011
What is Social Justice Week?
It is a special week each year where we try to live simply and think about how we can share what we
have with others in need. This year the focus is on Climate Justice.
Please begin each of your Year 12 lessons during Social Justice Week with one of the prayers or
reflections below. You are encouraged to get one of your students to lead the prayer or reflection.
Some prayers on climate justice
(Each new prayer starts with the first line in bold)
Creator God,
We give thanks for the magnificence of your creation and for entrusting us with the privilege
of caring for it.
We give thanks for the sun, which brings us daylight and warmth.
We give thanks for the moon and the stars, which give us hope in moments of darkness.
We give thanks for air, which gives life to all creatures.
We give thanks for water, which cleanses and rejuvenates.
We give thanks for plants, which bring colour to the world and fruit for nourishment.
We give thanks for all living creatures, which bring diversity and order to your creation.
We give thanks for your creation – Earth, which sustains and keeps us. Amen
Loving God,
We confess that we have not cared for your creation with the nurturing love that you
require of us.
We confess that we have allowed our greed to blind us from the environmental degradation
our actions have caused.
We confess that we have forgotten that we are all interconnected and that all of our actions
impact those who are most vulnerable in our world. Amen
Creator God,
Send forth your Spirit to inspire us to care for your creation as you had intended with a
selfsacrificing and nurturing love.
Send forth your Spirit to empower us to work together as one global community, to restore
your creation. Amen
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God of justice,
Open our eyes, to see the destruction that we have caused environmentally and to
reconnect with the majesty of your creation.
Open our ears, to hear the cry of people in poverty who are already suffering and will
continue to suffer water and food shortages and who will be displaced by climate change.
Open our minds to work together as a global community to fi nd creative and just solutions
that protect the people who are most vulnerable in our world and all of creation for future
generations.
Open our hearts and give us the courage and perseverance required to work for justice for
those most affected by climate change. Amen
Christ our Lord,
when we remember the sacrifice you made for the world,
remind us that we are called to care for the world and its people,
and challenge us to see how our actions change the world.
Be with us as we act to make a difference. Amen
Christ our Lord, whom we remember in the bread,
remind us of those who are hungry,
and challenge to us to see how our actions change the world.
Christ, whom we remember in the wine,
remind us of those who are thirsty,
and challenge us to see how our actions change the world. Amen
Christ our Lord, as we remember your perfect sacrifice,
inspire us to follow your example
and to work with you to restore a broken world.
Motivate us to take action,
and grant wisdom and courage to the world's leaders
that they can negotiate a fair deal for the world's poor in Copenhagen.
Remind us that you are with us,
and that when we live lives of service,
we live them in your name. Amen.
A prayer with symbols:
WATER: Protect fresh water resources
Protect oceans, coral reefs, coastal areas and small islands.
AIR: Protect the atmosphere by combating climate change and transboundary air pollution.
SOIL: Conserve biological diversity.
Combat deforestation and desertification
Protect land resources from nitrogen overload
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Senior Campus, Xavier College, Melbourne. 2011
Let us pray,
God of the sun and the moon
Of the mountains, deserts and plains
God of the mighty oceans, of rivers, lakes and streams
God of all creatures that live in seas and fly in the air
Of every living thing that grows and moves on this sacred Earth.
We are formed by Christ into Your People
Called to bring the world into Your marvelous light
As the Body of Christ, we are messengers of ecological vocation
We are entrusted with caring for this Earth which You have created.
Help us to love and respect it
To repair what we have damaged
To care for what You have made good and holy
Give us the wisdom and the passion to change our minds, our hearts and our ways.
Let us be mustard seeds in our world
Bringing about ecological conversion which grows and
Spreads to every corner of the Earth
For our sake now and for every generation which is to come
We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen
Dear Lord, The earth is Yours and we are in Your hands. You are the Creator and the
Sustainer of all things, and we acknowledge our own finite understanding, ability, and
impact. So we begin our consideration of climate justice on our knees in prayer to You who
created the planets and the stars, whose eye is on the sparrow, and who cares for each of
us as Your children (Col. 1:15-20, I Cor. 10:26, Ps. 24:1, Neh. 9:6).
We pray Lord, that in Your grace, You would grant us the wisdom to act with prudence and
foresight, to protect the earth and Your children for generations to come (Matt. 24:45-46).
We pray for those who are likely to be most hurt by climate change, both now and in the
future. God, grant that we might love our neighbors by controlling our global warming
pollution and by generously aiding those who will need to adapt to a changing climate (Mark
12:30-31, Luke 6:31, Matt. 25:40, 45).
We pray, as Your Son did, for the unity of those who believe in You (John 17:20-26). We
pray that our concern and attention to the issue of climate change would not cause spiritual
division in your body, but that You would grant humility and a teachable spirit to all of us
(Phil 2:1-11).
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We pray, Lord, that in our public and private lives You draw us and all people to Yourself, to
will and to work for Your good pleasure and not for the accolades or attention of men.
Especially we pray that You guard our hearts against the temptation to self‐righteousness,
pride, and political power (Deut 8:17-20).
We pray that our engagement on issues of climate change would not be a distraction from
sharing the gospel and living out transformed lives of faithful discipleship. Do not allow the
current climate debate to divert us from other issues that Christians are compelled to
address: the tragedy of abortion, the defense of marriage and strong families, the
promotion of religious freedom at home and abroad, and care for the poor and persecuted,
the weak and handicapped, the widow, orphan, and prisoner. We pray instead that our
faithfulness to Your Word, and its demands on our lives and our culture, would be the
wellspring of our action, and that Your Holy Spirit would guide us to lives that wholly reflect
Your love for the world (Acts 20:27).
We pray that You would grant us the power to live out our beliefs in our personal lives; that
You would cause us to be faithful stewards of Your resources under our care; and that we
would always look first to our own responsibility to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with You (Micah 6:8).
We pray for our political leaders, that You would give them courage, insight, and wisdom to
work together for the common good. We pray that partisan divisions would not stand in the
way of a prudent response to global warming, and that leaders would understand the
urgency of the problem and their responsibility as Your servants to do what is good (Romans
12:4).
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Some reflective material on climate justice
(Each new reflection starts with the first line in bold)
“The richest countries of the world have a responsibility to help the poorest. This is not just charity, but a
moral obligation. The world’s wealthiest countries have emitted more than their fair share of greenhouse
gases. Resultant floods, droughts and other climate change impacts continue to fall disproportionately on
the world’s poorest people and countries, many of which are in Africa. Rich countries must therefore help
poorer countries in two ways. They must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions so that the effects of
climate change suffered by Africa’s poor do not get worse. They also have an obligation to help poor
countries adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, which cannot be avoided.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The Eucharist is one of the most central and transformative prayers of Christianity; it
presents the things of Earth through which God is made present:
Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,
Which earth has given and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life.
The Roman Missal
Christian tradition is clear in its admonition against the misuse of creation and the
creatures:
The high, the low all of creation,
God gives to humankind to use.
If this privilege is misused,
God’s Justice permits creation to punish humanity.
Hildegard of Bingen
We find ourselves ethically destitute just when, for the first time, we are faced with
ultimacy, the irreversible closing down of the earth’s functioning in its major life systems.
Our ethical traditions know how to deal with suicide, homicide and even genocide, but
these traditions collapse entirely when confronted with biocide, the killing of the life
systems of the earth, and geocide, the devastation of the earth itself.
Thomas Berry, 1996
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“Today the great gift of God’s Creation is exposed to serious dangers and lifestyles which
can degrade it. Environmental pollution is making particularly unsustainable the lives of the
poor of the world…we must pledge ourselves to take care of creation and to share its
resources in solidarity.”
Benedict XVI
“The world is not something indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit.
Rather, it is part of God’s good plan, in which all of us are called to be sons and daughters in
the one Son of God, Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:4-12). The justified concern about threats to the
environment present in so many parts of the world is reinforced by Christian hope, which
commits us to working responsibly for the protection of creation. The relationship between
the Eucharist and the cosmos helps us to see the unity of God’s plan and to grasp the
profound relationship between creation and the ‘new creation’ inaugurated in the
resurrection of Christ, the new Adam.”
Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 2007, no. 92
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