The idea of ‘living simply’ has a certain natural appeal for those of us with over-busy lives. But our parish ‘Live Simply’ project is not an ‘if-only’ moment or a nostalgia for ‘the way things were’. It’s a hard-nosed recognition that our way of life is threatening the future of life on earth – by over consumption of resources, degradation of the environment, extinction of species and human-induced global warming. That’s the ‘down-side’.

But ‘Live Simply’ is also and primarily a positive recognition that humanity has the unique calling to be stewards of Creation. We can change the weather – literally and metaphorically! More than that, as Christians, we find in our ‘Common Home’ signs of God’s love and providence. As St. Francis recognised so clearly 800  years ago, every creature (and the sun, the moon and the stars, too) is our ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. In his final illness, when already blind, ‘il Poverello’, the poor man of Assisi, wrote his sublime ‘Canticle of Creation’, or in Italian, Laudato Si’.

Eight years ago, Pope Francis wrote a letter with that same title to call us all to heed ‘the cry of the poor’ and ‘the cry of the earth’ (for it is the world’s poorest people who suffer when Mother Nature is attacked). Living simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor – the goals set for parishes (and parishioners) seeking a ‘LiveSimply Award’ from Cafod – is therefore an act of justice, caring for the most vulnerable on our planet. But it is also an act of prayer, recognising God’s work in all of Creation: Laudato si’, O Signore! Be praised, O Lord! – by our contemplation of the beauty of nature and by the changes we make to our lifestyle, so that we may tread more lightly on this beautiful earth and hand it on safely to our children and our children’s children.

Canon Robert Esdaile
Parish Priest