Welcome to

Living Laudato Si' Group

St Patrick's Walthamstow

Living laudato si’ reading group

You’re invited to join us starting on

Wednesday May 24th

6.45pm - 8pm

35 Maude Terrace, Walthamstow E17 7DG

Stop 1 - Sensory Garden: This was our first stop as pilgrims in the Wetlands: it is specially constructed for people with disabilities. I too have my disability, one that can’t be seen which the garden brought to mind: not taking time out of my day to stop and feel the caress of the Creator’s Love in the sights, fragrances, sounds, stings and savour of this wild and untamed Garden.

"The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God."LS 84

"Help, me Lord! .... to step into the mystery of your Presence." From the original text by Dominika Borowska. LSAnimator, Kielce, Poland

Stop 2 - Tea Party: Why Tea Party? There’s no tea or picnic! But then I wasn’t here for tea or picnic. My Tea Party: to walk alongside my companions in a spirit of wonder and a bit of silence, to try in my limited way to let go of me and let God…in, through and with all that was round me. The second stop was aletting go… As Lorna Gold writes in ‘Laudato Si’ - Through a Mother’s Eyes’:“Many times, we would go for walks in the woods when the boys were younger, and those walks would become the natural place for catechesis. “Who made all this, mummy? Why did God give us such a beautiful gift?” Big questions! …”

Stop 3: Birdwatching Hide: Stilled was the heron, coupled were the Egyptian geese and yet what drew me was a man, perhaps North African, who perched inside the edge of the reservoir either texting on his mobile or reading something. He too was stilled like the heron but uncoupled. That’s what drew me: the uncoupled-ness unlike the other visitors to the place. It seemed to me that he was suffering as if here had he chosen to ‘hide’. The sighting of him stayed with me as it did another pilgrim. An invitation “…to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it." LS 19

Stop 4 - Dragonfly Ponds: No manifestation of dragonflies here but I spotted one elsewhere darting in the space above us. Pilgrim that I was I lingered with it but it didn’t linger with me! It helicopter-ed out of that space. Or did it dragon-fly itself out of that space? This was the end of our pilgrimage and it closed with another invitation to make stop 5, our own: to halt with what attracted our attention and be present to it. I stayed with a tall thistle-like plant that stood on its own (its name escapes me.) It stuck out like some desert cactus with arms unaligned with the rest of its body and no flower to lighten its appearance. And "in my effort to decipher" its sacredness, I explored my won." LS 59. I loved it for its difference, contrasted with the low-flying carpet of yellow flowers. What was it doing there?? How did it come to seed there all alone? It was just there. Not doing anything. Just being itself. That's sacred enough for the Creator.

Wetlands

Pilgrimage

By Debra

A pilgrimage at Walthamstow Wetlands during the Season of Creation for 2022 appealed to my spirit of adventure, after all I had been a pilgrim once in Lourdes and on three occasions to Medjugorje. As a pilgrim, you expect to be challenged in some way as you step out of your comfort zone and into the unknown for the love of God. This pilgrimage was different having been to the Wetlands before, which is flat and accessible. There is no comparison with our physical scramble over rocks and boulders to climb Cross Mountain in Bosnia safely and without injury. We wore shoes and others walked in bare feet leaving a bloody trail behind them.

Different also because my mind felt free to meditate on excerpts from Laudato Si’ carefully chosen for the stops we were going to make by Sr Chris. Reading aloud through the eyes of motherhood from Dr Lorna Gold seemed strange at first as I had not raised any children but then God whispered to me that I too was a mother because I had children who were sadly miscarried. It goes without saying that I would have taught my own children about the wonderful earth God has given us as a gift - and to nurture in each other an appreciation of the beauty of the earth. And this is what we did on our pilgrimage. Within this context everything around me was brought into sharp focus and I was acutely aware of mother nature embracing us as we marvelled at the wonder of creation in glorious sunshine. Singing together “Laudato Si’, I mi Signore” felt quite special. Indeed “Be praised, O my Lord”

October 1st 2022

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Community Pilgrimage

Saturday October 1st

~ ALL WELCOME ~

We will have a Wetlands' guide and there will be pauses to listen, reflect and pray together.

JPIC

BUILDING HOPE FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET

'Poverty will never be history if you ignore the environment, environmental destruction and poverty go hand in hand'

Ellen Teague

Photos taken at the JPIC Linking Day.

Saturday 24 September

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The community coming together at St Patrick's Church, Walthamstow.

Why not try one of the receipes

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Things to Do

Watch this video about Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato Si'

Learn More

the story so far

Many activities are already taking place in our local community of Walthamstow, including the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Patricks being awarded a CAFOD Live Simply award in 2016. Ongoing efforts to hear the cry of the poor through Christian Kitchen, community homeless shelter, and befriending. Environmental challenges being met by bike racks, shower timers and allotments. The question now is how do we build on all of this good work, and come together to care for our common home, how might we repair, replenish and restore our beautiful world? What would you, yes you, like to see in our community?