In 2015, Pope Francis sincerely asked people to undergo an "ecological conversion" to recover the order of creation by "praying to protect our creation." He also issued an encyclical letter entitled "Laudato Si'" (Praise be to you, my Lord) on the environment and human ecology for the cure of our common home.
His prayer intention for September 2020 is to "share the global resources not through exploitation but through justice and respect".
Recognizing the fundamental cause of COVID-19 is climate change, we are advised to pray for the recovery in a "Season of Creation" from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, 2020.
During this special period of "Season of Creation," there are various initiatives: an online conference on "Corona, the climate crisis, and human rights" organized by the Peace and Justice Committee of the Seoul Archdiocese; response action for a day of blue sky in the world; concentrated action throughout the country and pilgrimages on foot for climate action in the Daejeon Diocese; running the Climate School and the Ecological Spirituality School; and direct action for climate action by visiting a power plant at Dangjin.
All of us have a dream to recover creation. Curing our common home has become our common hope.
"The Butterfly Dream" is the most famous story in "Zhuangzi." Zhuang Zhou dreamt of being a butterfly fluttering about. Like a butterfly, he was happy and he did as he pleased. He didn't know that he was Zhuang Zhou.
Soon he woke up and there he was. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou.
This story concerns the transformation of things. As the butterfly dreams, we are nature, and nature is us. We are so closely interrelated that we affect one another.
Day by day, we grow up with dreams, small or large, positive or negative. One day, I had a dream of a butterfly with colorful wings like the rainbow. Some words were there on the wings.
In the midst of all the forms of crisis, we still have hope and freedom to be a butterfly that can reach the frontiers beyond all the obstacles.
The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (Figlie di San Paolo) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication. Learn more about the congregation at fsp.pauline.or.kr.