For here is one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and that one’s legacy must be left to another who has not toiled for it. This also is vanity and a great evil….when Dad labored in building this barn some 50 years ago, I don’t think this was to whom he thought the property would be left…
R. (1) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return to a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.“
You make an end of them in their sleep; because they did not take up an ancient lesson, found in different religious traditions and also in the Bible. It is the conviction that “less is more”.
Teach us to number our days aright, instead of obtaining a constant flood of new consumer goods (which) can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, so that we are serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, (opened) to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment.
R. (1) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Brothers and sisters:…
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth...Among the many environmental issues Pope Francis is concerned about, the one that “has shocked me the most,” he once said, is the way resources are increasingly being consumed faster than they can be regenerated.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Will I not get into the kingdom of heaven along with the blessed poor in spirit if I’m contributing to a 501K?
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
“Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Lk 12:21
It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack.
this quote as well as sections in italics above are from paragraph 222 of Laudato Si