Laudato Si changes

[cmicher]

This is my first post here. I have been reading a lot of the comenary on the pope’s new encyclical and at first it came with heartburn because I have been in the climate has always been changing camp for many a years. The more I read and listen though I can agree that we can all do things to be better stewards of God’s beautiful creation. What I am looking for is ways we incorporate the pope’s writing into our daily lives. I fully agree on America we have it very good and need to be able to share our abundance. I have two young boys and a girl on the way any day now. If I buy them a toy am I commiting sins and giving into this consumption culture? I don’t know where the line is with this? How are others looking to make changes in their lives?

Thank you for your responses and God Bless

 

[Xantippe]

This is my first post here. I have been reading a lot of the comenary on the pope’s new encyclical and at first it came with heartburn because I have been in the climate has always been changing camp for many a years. The more I read and listen though I can agree that we can all do things to be better stewards of God’s beautiful creation. What I am looking for is ways we incorporate the pope’s writing into our daily lives. I fully agree on America we have it very good and need to be able to share our abundance. I have two young boys and a girl on the way any day now. If I buy them a toy am I commiting sins and giving into this consumption culture? I don’t know where the line is with this? How are others looking to make changes in their lives?

Thank you for your responses and God Bless

What do you think the pope would say if he were in your living room and you asked him that question?

I think he’d say something like, “Be reasonable.”

Remember, almost any good toy that you buy can be passed down among your children and then shared with others. I have toys that all three of my children have been able to enjoy, and when we are done with them, I plan to share them with other families. We do the same with children’s clothes and baby equipment.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

This is my first post here. I have been reading a lot of the comenary on the pope’s new encyclical and at first it came with heartburn because I have been in the climate has always been changing camp for many a years. The more I read and listen though I can agree that we can all do things to be better stewards of God’s beautiful creation. What I am looking for is ways we incorporate the pope’s writing into our daily lives. I fully agree on America we have it very good and need to be able to share our abundance. I have two young boys and a girl on the way any day now. If I buy them a toy am I commiting sins and giving into this consumption culture? I don’t know where the line is with this? How are others looking to make changes in their lives?

Thank you for your responses and God Bless

God said you will always have the poor with you. Don’t let the Pope put you on a guilt trip, that was uncalled for. All these things are a matter of prudential judgment. Your first obligation is to your own family. Practice small economies and donte the savings to Aid to the Church in Need or to Peter’s Pence. Avoid obvious extravagancies and trust in God.

Linus2nd.

 

[triumphguy]

“Don’t let the pope put you on a guilt trip”?

 

[lynnvinc]

This is my first post here. I have been reading a lot of the comenary on the pope’s new encyclical and at first it came with heartburn because I have been in the climate has always been changing camp for many a years. The more I read and listen though I can agree that we can all do things to be better stewards of God’s beautiful creation. What I am looking for is ways we incorporate the pope’s writing into our daily lives. I fully agree on America we have it very good and need to be able to share our abundance. I have two young boys and a girl on the way any day now. If I buy them a toy am I commiting sins and giving into this consumption culture? I don’t know where the line is with this? How are others looking to make changes in their lives?

Thank you for your responses and God Bless

I think the toy issue is interesting from another perspective. When my sister & I were kids in the late 40s & 50s, we didn’t have many toys – kids just didn’t have many in those days. We would make our own toys a lot of times or go out to the nearby wilderness and build “forts,” put a bunch of tumbleweed together and lay down white grass as “carpeting.” Indoors, we would throw a blanket over a table and make a “house.” It was a great childhood. Mom bought us a book, What Shall I do, full of tips for things kids could make things and things kids could to do to have fun.

When my brothers came along a few years later, there were more toys in the shops and our family was a bit wealthier, so they did have more toys as kids. But somehow I think the childhood my sister and I had was perhaps richer in some ways.

I’m thinking that there is a lot we can do in line with the Encyclical that achieves the same ends of having fun and accomplishing things, but with less. What we need to cultivate is creativity to do that.

Another thing that might be good for kids is getting them involved in doing some small charity work, maybe refurbishing toys for poor kids or other types of things. Kids are so much better than adults with their innocent “can-do” spirit.

 

[ethereality]

If you buy used and from second-hand stores, thrift shops, flea markets, and farmer’s markets, you will reduce the amount that is thrown away, and you will reduce the pollution that goes into creating and shipping more stuff.

You may also reduce the unaccountable pilfering of foreign lands’ resources, a problem the Pope mentions in this encyclical. We studied an example in high school: As I recall, a sporting goods store went into India to sell baseball bats in North America; they cut down all the forest to make the baseball bats, and then they left once the forest was depleted. This, apart from the devastation to the land and loss of the animals’ habitat, also hurt the local people, who suffered the pollution, loss of land, and mistreatment from the factories (not paying them what they promised and abruptly leaving). So you might think of this when at a store selling “new” sporting goods, and look instead to see if there are used ones you could buy instead (also for the purpose of keeping the used item out of a garbage dump).

So I encourage you to buy everything used, from second-hand stores, etc. Not only that, but see if you can put unneeded items in your home up for sale on eBay and Amazon, likewise to keep things out of the dump.

 

[lynnvinc]

When we started on our path to reduce our greenhouse gases and pollution, we kept track of our electric, gas, and water bills for a few years to see if they were reducing. That was sort of fun. Sometimes I’d go outside to see the electricity dial-thing spinning around fast, and I’d see what I could do in the house to make it slow down.

One doesn’t have to run out an buy energy efficient appliances or a home close to work, but have those types of things in mind for when it might be feasible to do those things.

REDUCE (1st principle), REUSE (2nd principle), and RECYCLE (3rd principle) are not just clichés, but real solutions.

What kept me going was an image of a famine-starved African Madonna and Child in my mind’s eye. I had read about how global warming could be causing droughts in Africa. People come to these issues from different angles and motivation points. The Christian motivation is the most important aspect; with prayers, people will find solutions, and with more prayers God will help them implement the solutions.