By Mary Baudouin
This year, the Catholic Church celebrated the Jubilee of Hope, the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’, and the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s beautiful Canticle of the Sun (or Creation). With this significant convergence of events, meaningful commemorations were in order, and several schools in the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province responded.
Every year, churches around the world set aside September 1 – October 4 as a period to celebrate the Season of Creation, a time for people of faith to renew their relationship with God and God’s creation through celebration, prayer and action to care for our common home. Pope Francis established the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Roman Catholic Church in 2015; in 2019, he invited Catholics to celebrate the Season of Creation as well.
This year’s Season of Creation coincided with several other key celebrations in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis designated 2025 a Jubilee Year, an occasion for Catholics to engage in renewal as “Pilgrims of Hope” through reconciliation, pilgrimage and “coming home” to the faith.
This year also marked the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment which calls for an integral ecology that honors both the natural world and the dignity of every human person.
Finally, Christians also celebrated the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun, the Franciscan saint’s reflection on creation as a sign of God’s love. St. Francis is known in the Catholic Church as the patron saint of ecology.
To mark these events, 22 Catholic organizations throughout the United States and Canada, including the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States and the Ignatian Solidarity Network, joined together to launch Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation. Dioceses, schools, parishes and religious communities participated during the Jubilee Year, with a special focus on the Season of Creation. The goal: encourage the Catholic community to host local pilgrimages that promote a culture of respect for the earth’s resources and commit to act to protect and preserve those resources.
The Catholic community responded to the call, hosting more than 220 Catholic pilgrimages in 41 states across the United States, covering more than 20,000 miles.
“In this Jubilee Year of Hope, I find hope in seeing so many Catholic institutions planning these pilgrimages in their cities and communities,” said Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. “Pope Leo reminds us, ‘Only an inner conversion makes possible the change of habits and mentality that leads to a new way of living in communion with the environment.’”
Those 220 Pilgrimages have taken different shapes across the United States, including three held in apostolates in the Jesuit USA Central and Southern Province.
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans incorporated a variety of activities into their pilgrimage experience, held on the eve and the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 3 and 4. The pilgrimage began with a liturgy in the flower-adorned Chapel of St. Ignatius, opened this past summer. The Canticle of the Sun was illustrated with sidewalk chalk at the entrance to the chapel. The liturgy incorporated the prayers and readings from the new Mass for the Care of Creation, recently added to the Roman Missal by the Vatican.
After the liturgy, student dancers, banner-bearers and musicians led a short pilgrimage through Loyola’s campus. The pilgrims paused at three key locations on campus: the statue of St. Ignatius, the Hurricane Katrina memorial bench and the Palm Court. At each stop, participants engaged in an eco-examen prayer, led by University Chaplain Tom Ryan.
“Our pilgrimage highlighted the psalms’ depiction of all creation singing God’s praises,” Dr. Ryan reflected. “Doing so helped us recognize our connection to other creatures, and, (the reality that) if one part of creation is diminished, praise of God is diminished.”
The pilgrimage concluded with a prayer service and testimonies at the patio entrance to Holy Name of Jesus Church. At the end of the service, participants were invited to make a commitment to action, which they wrote on cards that they tied then to a pole.
On the Feast of St. Francis, the Loyola University Community Action Program (LUCAP) sponsored their first Eco-Expo, featuring keynote speaker Shamyra Lavigne-Davey. Lavigne-Davey is a third-generation human rights activist and lifelong resident of St. James Parish, a frontline community in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where petrochemical pollution has caused devastating health impacts and some of the highest cancer rates in the United States. Along with her mother, Sharon Lavigne, Lavigne-Davey leads Rise St. James, a faith-based grassroots organization working for environmental justice.
Lavigne-Davey has gained national recognition for her bold fight against environmental racism and toxic industry. At Loyola, she urged students to join with Rise St. James in their struggle against the pollution caused by petrochemical companies in south Louisiana.
Loyola University’s Minister for Social Justice Lindy Brasher expressed her hope that the pilgrimage and Eco-Expo would engage the university community more deeply in caring for creation. “The Mass for the Care of Creation and the Pilgrimage of Hope is especially important right now at Loyola University New Orleans because it calls the campus community to live out the gospel by caring for the Earth and one another. It reminds students, faculty and staff that protecting creation is a faithful response to Christ’s call to love and serve.”
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston incorporated community service into their Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation. Their “litter pilgrimage” took place October 1 at Arthur Story Park, where the school engages in clean up activities several times a year. The park features two lakes, walking trails and four playgrounds – and it serves an important ecological purpose, as well. The park is a “catch basin,” and can hold approximately 1.15 billion gallons of stormwater, thereby reducing the risk of flood damage for thousands of residents and businesses along Brays Bayou.
“When the basin becomes clogged with trash, the potential for flooding is really high, so our litter-pickup activities not only help to beautify the area, but they help to keep the neighborhood safer,” said Elizabeth Jamerlan, a Strake faculty member and moderator of the school’s Environmental Club.
Jamerlan organized the litter pilgrimage by recruiting members of the Environmental Club and the school’s cross country team, who regularly practice at the park. The pilgrimage began with a prayer service, followed by meditations at five different stops during the cleanup activities, using an eco-examen as a guide. At the final location, the group prayed silently for the last person who held the trash that was in their hands. Participants removed 20 large garbage bags of debris during the event.
Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas
Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas introduced their year-long Pilgrimages of Hope program in September. Rich Perry, the school’s director of community service and social justice, is spearheading this initiative for seniors that, in his words “transforms local service into a spiritual journey that invites them to encounter God through creation, community and acts of restoration.” The 32 seniors who have registered for the program will participate in eight pilgrimages across the Dallas area. Each pilgrimage is a three-hour experience of prayer, presence and solidarity that will deepen students’ understanding of how faith calls them to protect creation and honor the dignity of every person. Each pilgrimage will invite a deepened awareness of creation, echoing the Ignatian call to “find God in all things.”
Jesuit Dallas’ pilgrimage experiences will vary, though each will incorporate prayer, service and reflection. Some pilgrimages will give students the chance to encounter marginalized people as part of their experience. For instance, students will accompany community members with special needs to White Rock Lake in a morning of ecological restoration, lakeshore cleanup and shared reflection on Laudato Si’s call to care for our common home.
On another pilgrimage, students will accompany older adults from senior and memory care programs in the area on an intergenerational pilgrimage to the Dallas Arboretum. Students will be paired with an older companion to walk and pray through the gardens of the Arboretum.
Food access and ecology will be the focus of a project at Joppy Momma’s, a community-run urban farm in South Dallas. Students will join residents in cultivating organic crops and learn how sustainable agriculture can strengthen both body and spirit. Joppy Momma’s farm is located in an area federally declared a food desert. The staff works to change that by growing and providing healthy, affordable foods for the community.
Animals will be the focus of a pilgrimage to DFW Rescue Me, an animal rescue organization where students will assist with dog adoptions and pet care. “In caring for vulnerable creatures, pilgrims will reflect on God’s tenderness for all creation and on their call to extend that same care within their own communities,” Perry says. “Plus, they’ll have a great time with the animals!”
Students will learn about restoration ecology and the resilience of creation when they visit the Trinity River Audubon Center, a former landfill that has been reclaimed and transformed into a sanctuary for wildlife and environmental education.
Unlike a single pilgrimage event, the Jesuit Dallas program is unfolding throughout the academic year as part of the school’s Senior Service Intensive Experience, in which every senior is required to participate. After each service experience, students will be led through a guided reflection during which they will name moments of grace and insight arising from each encounter.
Perry is excited about this unique approach to hosting pilgrimages. “Every pilgrimage draws directly from the Ignatian tradition to be contemplatives in action and will be an invitation to ongoing conversion and discernment, hallmarks of Ignatian spirituality.”
Through Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation, Catholic communities across the United States – and across the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province – have embraced the call to care for creation, through prayer, action and reflection. Let us pray that these pilgrimages lead to ongoing conversion and action – reminding us that caring for our common home is a faithful response to the call to love and serve.
Mary Baudouin is the provincial assistant for justice and ecology for the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province.
Featured Photo: Students from Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston clean up a local park on a Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation.
