Part of the plan

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity! Today (22 May 2024), we honour the profound interconnectedness of all life. We are a part of the plan of God for all Creation by virtue of our very existence.  Created out of Love, for Love.

“Mary is mother of a love that is beautiful. She taught us, who were united with her, to grasp the ‘beautiful love’ of God that exists beneath all creation. Everything seemed linked by this love.  [ … ] “We saw how everything on earth is in a relationship of love with everything else: each with every other thing. This was a golden thread that connected all that is”.  (From Mary: The Transparency of God, by Chiara Lubich).

We know this.  But this Day calls us to do more.  Not to remain passive to the reality of this interconnectedness.  Yes, we are ‘Part Of The Plan’, but we are called to do more!

Be part of the Plan

In December 2022, the world came together and agreed on a global plan to transform our relationship with nature. The adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as The Biodiversity Plan, sets goals and concrete measures to stop and reverse the loss of nature by 2050.

This year, the theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity is “Be part of the Plan”. This is a call to action to encourage governments, indigenous peoples and local communities, non-governmental organisations, lawmakers, businesses, and individuals to highlight the ways in which they are supporting the implementation of the Biodiversity Plan. Everyone has a role to play and therefore can be #PartOfThePlan.

This year’s celebration is expected to increase the visibility momentum in the lead-up to the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16), to be held in Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024.

Target 16 of the Biodiversity Plan states:

Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make sustainable consumption choices, including by establishing supportive policy, legislative or regulatory frameworks, improving education and access to relevant and accurate information and alternatives, and by 2030, reduce the global footprint of consumption in an equitable manner, including through halving global food waste, significantly reducing
overconsumption and substantially reducing waste generation, in order for all people to live well in harmony with Mother Earth.

Both nature, and nature’s contribution to people are vital for human existence and a good quality of life, including human well-being, living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth.

Perhaps today we can take this opportunity to stop and pause our pace of life, and recommit to establishing our harmonious relationship through everything we do by ‘Walking Lightly on the Earth’.  May we play our part in that call to action, expressed in the Plan, and to providing practical encouragement, individually and together, to highlight the ways in which we are supporting the implementation of the Biodiversity Plan.

Awakening to God, we pray …

May our way of Life express our yearning
for union with the Living God,
present in mystery
in the unfolding of creation,
in its magnificence, beauty, and wonder,
in its darkness, pain, and woundedness.

May we awaken to 
the Spirit of God
present and active in all that exists;
to a spirituality of being in communion;
to participate in the universal mission
of Jesus Christ”.

[Text adapted as prayer from Our Way of Life,(C3)].

Some information links:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/biological-diversity-day

https://www.cbd.int/gbf

Download Pdf of Biodiversity Plan from COP15 cop-15-dec-04-en

Also https://laudatosiweek.org/

And https://presentationsistersne.ie/called-to-be-seeds-of-hope/