Ways to celebrate Mother Earth for each day of the week (4/20 to 4/24) as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day 2020.

4/20/20 – Join Us in Prayer! – Earth, and all that is within it, is yours, Lord God.  Every creature great and small, you made and cherish them all. We confess, Creator God, that too often we have exploited rather than loved your good Earth. We recognize our selfishness, our shortsightedness, our ungratefulness and our lack of regard for the air and sea, the soil beneath our feet and the living beings dependent upon an unpolluted world.  And this coronavirus pandemic has opened our eyes to our precious and healing your earth is and how united we all are as we share it.  Forgive us, Gracious God. Pick us up off our knees and enable us to stand and look afresh with wonder at all the beauty you bestow upon us. Give us eyes to see the colors and light that beckon us to care for the sky and land. Grant us ears to hear the birds’ songs and the crickets’ chirps as they call us to be good stewards of the trees and soil they call home. Give us the wisdom to stop, see, listen and feel your glory made known through the countless variety of flowers, insects, plants and animals in every corner of this your globe. May the beauty of this, your Earth, compel us to act in ways that preserve, protect and sustain your creation so that each and every living being may flourish now and for generations yet to come.  Amen.  Click here to access the full prayer service.

4/21/20 – Measure your Carbon Footprint!  Today might be a great day to measure your carbon footprint with the help of this link: https://www.terrapass.com/carbon-footprint-calculator (short and easy) or https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/ (a little more detailed, includes living space, diet, etc.). You may not know the exact answer to each question but you can estimate and get a sense of your own footprint and learn ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

4/22/20 – 50th Anniversary Earth Day Live! Spend the day with https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-live/. Join those from all of the world to celebrate this day and learn its history. Or, try Exploratorium, an educational resource site which has a virtual celebration of Earth Day. You could end the day with a 9 P.M. (EST) by viewing of Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, shown on Turner Classic Movies.

4/23/20 – Watch Environmental Programming!  If you have access to Amazon Prime, you might want to view a few episodes of “One Strange Rock.” This is a 10 episode program series which explores the fragility and wonder of planet Earth in mind-bending fashion. The series is produced by award-winning filmmaker, Darren Aronofsky, and is hosted by Will Smith. On Amazon Prime it costs about $3 per episode and $10 for the season’s episodes but it’s well worth every penny. You may also be able to get hold of it in other vehicles as well.

4/24/20 – Explore Your World!  Spend some time outside (still socially isolating of course) and enjoying the beauty of God’s nature and then come in to widen your heart with Sr. Andrea Likovich’s version of the Canticle “Be Praised”.