Laudato Si'

This past summer, Pope Francis issued an encyclical called Laudato Si'.  The title of papal documents come from the first words of the document and Laudato Si' means "Praised be to You" which comes from St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of the Sun."  The encyclical's secondary title is "On Care for our Common Home" and looks at creation, the environment, and how humans are not being the great stewards God called us to be in the book of Genesis.

We at Trinity High School have decided to put this encyclical into action and throughout the month of October, we will be focusing on ways in which we can take better care of our common home and care more for God's creation.  The pope is clear that he doesn't just want us to be more "green" but rather to also examine ways in which the world and its resources are often exploited by the rich and the powerful at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

Thus, with that in mind here is how Trinity High School will be responding to Laudato Si':

1. Our daily prayers in October will be excerpts from Laudato Si' (expect on major feast days)
2. We had our blessing of the animals ceremony on Oct. 1
3. We are running a drive to benefit the Manchester Animal Shelter all month
4. Our 5th annual Cardboard City event to raise awareness of homelessness and to benefit New Horizons is Oct. 17/18
5. We have expanded our recycling program to be single stream and we will now collect any items that are recyclable with the numbers 1-7
6. We will be encouraging students and faculty to be more conscious of how we use energy and to shut off lights in classrooms, offices, and bathrooms when not in use.  From a practical standpoint, we can then compare our electrical bills now and at the end of the year to see if we have saved any money
7. Encouraging teachers to look at how we are using paper and to find ways to reduce that use
8. We will ask our environmental science class to "calculate" Trinity High School's carbon footprint and examine ways to be carbon neutral

We pray that through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, our efforts may, in the words of Pope Francis, "love the common good, advance the weak, and care for the world in which we live" as we prepare "for the coming of [God's] kingdom of justice, peace, love, and beauty."