At our annual Partnership Celebration, guest speaker Abbot John Klassen, OSB, of St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, reflected on the "Common Good and Environmental Stewardship."
We'd like to share with you the practices he offered to enhance the common good and promote environmental sustainability.
• Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
• Spend time each day doing lectio divina, or
visio divina.
• Know and own your own limits.
• Create something from scratch, whether it’s a birthday card or a batch of cookies.
• Share your talents and time with the local community.
• Keep Sunday truly as the “Lord’s Day.”
Don’t watch television.
• Savor time and treat it as the precious gift
that it is.
• Care for a plant or cultivate a garden.
• Learn to live with ambiguity.
• Dress simply and neatly.
• Reject consumption patterns that breed oppression for other people on the earth.
• Find inexpensive ways to celebrate life.We each have a given span of days—75 years—27,375 days. Assuming that, how many days do you have left?
Exercise regularly.
Help create a living environment that fosters contemplation. For example, if I am contemplating, I wont be shopping.
Develop a deeper appreciation for all creation. Watch nature in its details.
Let nothing distract you from your main goalto seek God.
Learn to eat sensibly and sensitively.
Make recreation healthy, happy and gadget free.
Live now the way you honestly would like to live.
Work with others to reshape institutions in order to bring about a more just global society.
Seek peace and pursue it.
Become acquainted with different races and cultures.
Purchase goods that are durable, usable and beautiful.
Make a yearly inventory of your clothes and possessions and develop a habit of giving things away.
Practice conservation of natural resources.
Speak truthfully from your heart.
Let us hear from you! How do you help promote the common good and environmental sustainability? Send your comments to info@benedictinewomen.org. We may post them on our website.
