It’s a fall evening. Crickets are singing, and Canadian geese and sandhill cranes are gathering for their annual flight south. The leaves are turning their beautiful colors. Everything is the same as it always was. But all it takes is the tang of wood smoke in the air to remind us of wildfires raging through northern Minnesota and many parts of the world. In the cool of the evening, it’s almost possible to forget the punishing heat that killed thousands of people. It is tempting to think that this summer was an aberration, but deep in our bones we know that it is just one more ominous sign that the Earth’s climate is changing. We humans are responsible for those changes that will make this Earth a place that no longer can nurture life. Rather than taking our wasteful ways to the moon and beyond, can we at last join hands around this beloved Earth and pray for the wisdom and the will to heal the damage that all of us together have caused?

By Mara Faulkner, OSB