Ecological Way of the Cross

The Faithful Companions of Jesus hosted an 'Ecological Way of the Cross' on Tuesday 17 March at the FCJ Centre for Spirituality and Ecojustice near Euston station in London. The event took the form of a moving meditation on the identification of the crucified Christ with the suffering of God's creation.

Participants were each invited to choose and hold a pebble as a reminder of our own connectedness with the Earth. We are related to the rocks and to the sea which had worn each pebble smooth. We are brothers and sisters to all living beings and to the planet which sustains us all.

In her introduction, Sister MaryAnne Francalanza FCJ noted that the words of the traditional prayer used in the Stations of the Cross devotion - "We adore you O Christ and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world" - refer not only to the people of the Earth but to the whole of the world. God's saving work in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ affects everything.

Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si was quoted frequently, beginning with Section 9 of the document, referring to Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople: 'Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which "entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God's world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion". As Christians, we are also called "to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbours on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God's creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet".'

Each Station of the Cross was linked to specific forms of the suffering of God's creation. Prayers were offered for changes in human behaviour and the healing of the Earth. I found the background music particularly moving, including Theo Gerard's clarinet piece, 'Lament'.

LINKS

For more information, and to sign up to the FCJ Centre newsletter, see: www.fcjsisters.org/news/fcj-centre-for-spirituality-and-ecojustice-in-london/.

FCJ reflection on ecological conversion, see: www.fcjsisters.org/news/some-thoughts-about-ecological-conversion/.

Theo Gerard's 'Lament', see: https://uppbeat.io/track/theo-gerard/lament.

Laudato Si: www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.