[Sundaycommunity] Integral Ecology and Laudato si movie..."The Letter" Sunday reflection.

[Arthur Blomme]

      Integral Ecology

Brenda, thanks for posting this video on Laudato SI.

When initially I looked into this documentary "the Letter" and saw that 
it was an original production of Youtube I was suspicious of the slant 
the movie would take.  For me it is hard to understand the position of 
the Pope as he is so often portrayed by a media that is deeply immersed 
in a narrative which seeks to control our beliefs through fear.  I find 
it unsettling that for the past two years we have been bombarded with 
fear messaging from legacy media that has been used to drive a giant 
wedge between the left and the right wings of our culture. the Fear of 
Covid has morphed into fear of the unvaxed to fear of Russia and nuclear 
war.

In the case of"The Letter" which heralds the Popes message to love the 
earth, the opening frame draws us into the fear of sea level rise caused 
by climate change.   In contrast Francis message in Laudato Si Is the 
positive message of Caring for Our Common Home which he calls Integral 
ecology.  In this regard  Francis quotes the Eastern Right Patriarch 
Bartholomew: Integral ecology “entails learning to give, and not simply 
to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I 
want, to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and 
compulsion.” Further I have included as this Sunday's reflection Passage 
11 of Laudato Si that defines Integral ecology through the life of St. 
Francis as beyond the language of mathematics and biology..

The notion of Integral Ecology weds together two complex concepts.  I 
believe that they both are derived from a systemic view of the world. 
The first concept integral has the same route as integrity and 
integrated.  the dictionary meaning is Possessing everything essential; 
entire.  While ecology according to its Latin roots is the Study of 
Consequences.  It was originally coined in biology as the 
interrelationship of organisms and their environments. But Ecology is 
not limited to the biological sciences as there is also the field of 
human ecology. In Human Growth Therapies an ecology check is usually 
done to see if the desired outcome of the therapy is positive for the 
whole personality. In Gestalt therapy the therapist asks the client if 
there are any parts of the personality that are in disagreement with the 
desired change.

Putting these two concepts together Francis states the following  “We 
are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other 
social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and 
environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach 
to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same 
time protecting nature.”

For me Integral ecology requires us to take a page from Human Growth 
Therapists.  When we want a change to our global society we must pose 
the question ;  Are there any parts of our global society for which this 
change would not work.  The current method of impulsive change where we 
create fear to impose rules on the unwilling is doomed to failure.

As the Gospel of John tells us "the truth will set us free"

Art Blomme

^47

On 10/05/22 8:55 p.m., Dwyer Sullivan via Sundaycommunity wrote:

> Thank you Brenda for such an enthusiastic promo, I will be sure to 
> watch it now. Also nice receiving your peace and love to all.
> Peace, Dwyer
>
> On Wed, Oct 5, 2022 at 11:27 PM Brenda Holtkamp via Sundaycommunity 
> <sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
>
>     Maybe you have all seen this already. It was released on the feast
>     of St. Francis, October 4th. Well worth the time to watch. And I
>     wonder....what do we do to make a difference....fall in love with
>     Mother Earth....what else????
>
>     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rps9bs85BII
>
>     Sending peace and much love to all,
>     Brenda
>
>
>     ________________________________________
>
>     Sundaycommunity mailing list
>     To send message: sundaycommunity at integralshift.ca
>     To manage Subscription: https://sundaycommunity.integralshift.ca
>     To Unsubscribe send email to:
>     sundaycommunity-unsubscribe at integralshift.ca
>     To Subscribe send email to: sundaycommunity-subscribe at integralshift.ca
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly With Your God
>   - Micah 6:8
>
> ________________________________________
>
> Sundaycommunity mailing list
> To send message:sundaycommunity at integralshift.ca
> To manage Subscription:https://sundaycommunity.integralshift.ca
> To Unsubscribe send email to:sundaycommunity-unsubscribe at integralshift.ca
> To Subscribe send email to:sundaycommunity-subscribe at integralshift.ca
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integralshift.ca/pipermail/sundaycommunity-integralshift.ca/attachments/20221015/2368d658/attachment.htm>