In 2002, following shoulder surgery and a lengthy and painful recovery process, I was graced with a Sabbatical year. From Sangre de Cristo Renewal Center to Sophia Center at Holy Names University to Celtic spirituality studies in Ireland highlighted a remarkable spiritual journey.  It is this journey that I wish to share as I initiate a bold and necessary look into our future. I am talking about the future of the Earth, our home in the Universe.  My studies have led me to see that the Earth is in a serious crisis.  We all hear about it perhaps even on a regular basis but like other similar situations we feel helpless in the face of a problem this size.  Pope John Paul wrote 15 years ago that humanity stands at the edge of an abyss; we are doing incalculable damage to the Earth; unless we change, we will suffer untold disaster. He speaks of an 'ecological vocation' to which each person is called.

    I would like to bring some healing to this crisis situation by bringing people to a deeper understanding of the beauty and wonder the Earth offers and the role they can play in restoring the Earth. We need to take creative steps in moving away from the edge of the abyss. We must bring reconciliation to the level of the Earth if we are to hand to future generations a planet as beautiful and full as the Earth that was handed to us. We must learn and teach our proper place within the family of Creation.

    St. Thomas Aquinas said if we want to learn about God, there are two great books to consult: the Bible and God’s work of Creation. The medieval mystics (Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen) understood and wrote about this in a uniquely intuitive fashion. Contemporary spiritual leaders such as Teilhard de Chardin, Fr. Thomas Berry and Sr. Miriam McGillis have helped bridge the gap between religion and science in the common goal to save our Earth home. St. Paul writes that all is to be reconciled in Christ. Mary at LaSalette invites us all to come near and to not be afraid to be reconciled so that even the Earth will rejoice with self-sown potatoes and “rocks and stones will turn into heaps of wheat”. There is an urgent ecological message that needs to be preached especially at this time: we need to reconcile ourselves with the Earth. An Eco-Mission is a step in that direction.