Care for Creation
Our mission is to seek God through community life, prayer, ministry, and care for all creation.
In his Rule, St. Benedict invites us to treat all things as “vessels of the altar.” In his message for The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation for this year, Pope Francis reminds us that “the earth is entrusted to our care, yet continues to belong to God.” Mindful of this, we continue to seek ways to be better caretakers of the earth.
Our focus
Our earliest focus in this area was to look at alternate sources of energy. We installed our first set of 50 KW solar panels on the roof of Dooley Center. The second 50 KW set was installed on the roof of Sophia Center. The most recent set was installed near the garden, which gives us a total of 150 KW. All three sets are connected to our present electric grid to reduce our use of fossil fuels.
Besides reducing our use of fossil fuels, we continue to practice organic gardening. Each summer, we plant tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, peppers, squash, radishes, beets, lettuce, kale, arugula, beans, and a variety of herbs. Our produce enables us to provide some fresh vegetables for our community meals. We know that our produce is chemical free and therefore healthy for us. In addition to our vegetables, we plant clover and hairy vetch (cover crops), which serve as food for our bees and put important nutrients back into our soil. Our bees have provided us with several hundred pounds of honey, most of which we use around the monastery or sell in our gift shop.
We continue to seek ways to become ecologically sustainable and know we still have work to do in many areas. Read about the other ways we are taking initiative!
Laudato Si
In 2015, Pope Francis published the encyclical Laudato Si, in which he shared with the world his concerns about the care of our common home. Realizing the world’s responses to this encyclical have not been adequate, Pope Francis published a second encyclical entitled Laudate Deum in which he called climate change a global climate crisis and challenged all of us to recognize our interconnectedness to all of creation and to one another. In Laudato Si, he states,
“as part of the universe…all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect.”
Pope Francis
Laudato Si Platform Goals
The encyclical Laudato Si inspired the Laudato Si Platform, which encourages organizations to achieve concrete and lasting solutions to the ecological crisis through seven goals. In March 2024, the Mount community voted to implement the following seven goals:
“All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture experience, involvements, and talents.”
Laudato Si
Taking Initiative
Taking Initiative
In response to this growing crisis, we the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, have made care of creation part of our mission statement as well as one of our directional statements at our last election. In light of this, we have drawn up a Laudato Si’ Platform around the following 7 goals of Laudato Si.
Response to the Cry of the Earth
Goal 1: Protect
Goal 1: Call to protect our common home for the well-being of all, as we equitably address the climate crisis, loss of species and ecological sustainability.
Some things we are doing:
- Create a certified pollinator garden.
- Research and explore the use of electric cars, lawnmowers, and gators.
- Continue practices of organic gardening, composting, and beekeeping.
- Expand the use of native and drought-tolerant plants for landscaping.
- Continue and expand the removal of invasive species on the monastery grounds.
Response to the Cry of the Poor
Goal 2: Promote and Defend
Goal 2: Call to promote eco-justice and defend human life from conception to death and all forms of life on Earth. This is everyone’s cry because of the “intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet.”
Some things we do:
- Continue outreach to those in need in collaboration with other humanitarian groups (Fuller Center for Housing of Atchison, Water by Women, Hunger Coalition, Journey to New Life, Pax Christi, in addition to supporting mission work at the border of the United States Mexico, and providing donations in response to natural disasters).
- Issue corporate public statements in response to current events and social justice issues.
Ecological Economics
Goal 3: Acknowledge
Goal 3: Acknowledges that the economy is a sub-system of human society, which itself is embedded within the biosphere—our common home.
Some things we do:
- Continue participation in the filing of shareholder resolutions with corporations in the areas of clean energy/climate change, racial equity, just wages and benefits, and decreasing fossil fuel usage.
- Develop and implement community guidelines to encourage the purchase of ethical and sustainable household items, cleaning products and toiletries.
Sustainable Lifestyles
Goal 4: Sufficiency
Goal 4: Grounded in the idea of sufficiency, living simply and using Earth’s resources and energy wisely and reverently.
Some things we do:
- Continue to educate community member about sustainable lifestyles and personal practices for energy conservation.
- Continue efforts to reduce food waste.
- Continue efforts to eliminate single-use plastics.
- Provide more plant-based dietary options.
- Refine processes in our recycling program and composting system.
- Tend a small flock of chickens for small-scale on-site egg production.
- Explore the use of cloth napkins in our monastery dining room.
Ecological Education
Goal 5: Re-design Education
Goal 5: Re-thinking and re-designing curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action.
Some things we do:
- Develop for-credit internships for Benedictine College students in sustainability and integral ecology — ex. pollinator garden, ecosystem restoration.
- Collaborate with Benedictine College Center for Integral Ecology and the Eco-Stewardship Club.
- Continue providing scholarship and presentation opportunities for Benedictine College students for environmental-based Discovery Day projects.
- Continue and expand tours and volunteer opportunities centered on MSS sustainability initiatives(Benedictine College, Donnelly College, Maur-Hill Mount Academy, MSS oblates, SoulJourners, and others).
- Continue the education of sisters and oblates through the study of Laudato Si’ and screenings of ecological films.
- Engage MSS oblates to develop and participate in LSAP initiatives within their deaneries.
Ecological Spirituality
Goal 6: Conversion
Goal 6: Springs from a profound ecological conversion and helps us to “discover God in all things” and to experience the sacredness of all creation.
Some things we do:
- Develop a non-credit summer residential creation care internship for college undergrads or recent grads which includes earning certification as a Laudato Si’ Animator.
- Continue to provide and develop creation care and eco-spirituality retreats and workshops through Sophia Center and Keeler Women’s Center.
- Continue to invite members, oblates, and others to participate in Season of Creation and Earth Day activities and liturgies.
- Develop prayers and prayer services to intentionally mark the change of seasons — ex. equinoxes and solstices.
- Publish MSS creation care initiatives and Laudato Si’ Action Platform goals on the community website.
Community Engagement
Goal 7: Community
Goal 7: Envisages a synodal journey of community engagement and participatory actions at various levels.
Some things we do:
- Provide space and personnel for a community garden hosted on the MSS campus.
- Offer ecumenical opportunities for prayer and reflection at the community garden site.
- Explore grant opportunities for community garden initiatives.
