Mission Minute Monday
“Mission Minute Monday” with Gina Martinot | MTS 2019
Gina, an alumna at the Franciscan School of Theology shares a wonderful reflection on Earth Day with us.
As a 2019 graduate of FST, and now a Secular Franciscan candidate, my life has been enriched and my faith has deepened through my walk with my brothers and sisters, looking to St. Francis as we strive to “repair the church” in our own lives.
Recently, I visited Concord, Massachusetts where I sought out Thoreau’s, Walden. Thoreau was a transcendentalist, who at the turn of the century sought to find solace in a spirituality, a divinity, he experienced in Nature. I was intentional about walking the perimeter of Walden Pond (actually, a lake). I imagined the angst Thoreau must have been struggling with when he went to live at Walden Pond at the time, retreating from the rise of industrialization and an involvement in war, and with the advent of these things, the encroachment upon a life of simplicity, natural beauty, and spirituality.
These are the same conditions we retain today, with even greater complexities that infringe upon our ability to be quiet and still long enough to see the divinity of God around us.
That day, as I circumvented Walden Pond, I thought about Francis and Thoreau, inspired by their commitments to meeting God in a pinecone, a leaf, the water, a trail traveler’s face…to seek the “joyful mystery” in all of creation. In observance of Earth Day 2022, may we be called to repair the church-our common church that is Mother Earth. “Retreat” with steadfast humility and gratitude to embrace all of Creation with utmost care and earnest celebration.
“In his Canticle to the Creatures, St. Francis reminds us that our common home, this earthly planet, is our sister with whom we share our life; she is our mother who opens her arms to embrace us. It is in all of Creation that humanity and divinity are one.”
