Simplifying One's Life While Caring for Creation

Holy Family Church, Peoria, Illinois

Following St. Francis of Assisi’s lead to care for creation, Holy Family Church in Peoria, Illinois – with Conventual Franciscan Friar Michael J. Glastetter as pastor – is encouraging its parishioners to follow Green America’s Climate Action Program. Green America is a not for profit organization that according to its website has been working towards creating “a socially just and environmentally sustainable society” since 1982.

The church is encouraging its parishioners to reduce their energy use

The Climate Action Program asks participants to reduce their home energy use by 50 percent in the next five year period. Although a reduction of 50 percent sounds like a difficult thing to accomplish, it is in fact doable and will save program participants a significant amount of money.   

Peoria, Illinois

North Americans use a lot of energy. We have dishwashers, dryers, and countless other energy-hungry appliances. We rarely think about the impact that these appliances have on the environment. Moreover, one can argue that many of these machines are not quite as essential to our existence as we might think they are. Freshly washed clothes – as a recent Holy Family bulletin pointed out – can often be dried on a wrack instead of in a dryer. St. Francis of Assisi advocated simplicity in life. By cutting out or reducing the use of certain energy hungry machines we too can simplify our existence and do our part in taking better care of creation.    

(Sources of all related images on webpage and homepage: www.peoriaholyfamily.com and pobrecito33's photostream on flickr.com.)