Launch of the Laudato Si’ Lenten Retreat in the run-up to the European elections
This year, the Laudato Si’ Movement is proposing a European Lenten retreat (in five languages: French, English, Polish, Italian and Spanish), to “stop and listen” to the pain of Creation and to realize the importance of structural political choices, in this European election year. This is the first time that such a proposal by the Laudato Si’ Movement has been put forward at European level.
Stop and listen
The retreat is entitled “Stop and listen”. It proposes stopping for a few minutes each day, at a fixed time, to pray and meditate on a daily reflection: a Bible verse, a quotation from Laudato Si’ or Laudate Deum, the testimony of a European, structural issues, and so on. This theme also echoes the desert time before the Resurrection that Lent represents, the Angelus prayer and the biblical tradition of the Sabbath.
A PDF document brings together the specific content for each Sunday and the daily reflections for each day. It is also possible to join a WhatsApp group to receive the reflection each day at noon.
An introduction to European political issues in the run-up to the elections
Pope Francis recently wrote in Laudate Deum that “the most effective solutions will not come from individual efforts alone, but above all from major political decisions on the national and international level.” (LD, 69). As the coming months will be punctuated by the European elections at the beginning of June, the Lenten campaign introduces the importance of European political decisions through the testimonies of people living in several European Union countries and the presentation of European structural issues each Saturday.
Five major themes and daily reflections
Each week explores a major theme in the ecological challenges we face. The first three weeks focus on agriculture, energy and transport. These are fundamental sectors in the radical transformation of lifestyles we need to achieve in Europe. The following two weeks will reflect on the influence our lifestyles have on Creation, and on human beings in particular, with the themes of oceans and biodiversity, followed by climate migration. Finally, Holy Week will focus on death and resurrection: in our ecological conversion, there are things in our lives, individually and collectively, that need to die so that others can be born.
At the end of Lent, action proposals will be presented to participants, so that they can make a commitment, based on their Christian faith, to protect our common home, particularly in connection with the European elections.
Website of the European Lent campaign : https://www1.laudatosilent.org/europe/
Laudato Si’ Movement’s website : https://laudatosimovement.org/
Contact : Eloi Descamps for French and English (+ 33 7 81 60 61 41 / eloi@laudatosimovement.org)