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Jesuit Parish Family Healthy Earth Team Resource Directory

Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ opens our eyes to a truth: We are compelled by our faith to care for God’s creation. 

If we take this to heart, we naturally want to change our lives to respect and protect nature by enjoying it, reducing the harm we do to it, and advocating for policy and corporate change. 

We offer this Resource Directory to help guide the way. Our list, while long, represents a fraction of the vast and growing universe of information and opportunities to help us care for our common home. We hope you will find the resources helpful, inspiring, and even life-changing.

The directory is divided into overlapping themes: 

  • Family Activities
  • Daily Life (Food, Energy Use, Land Use, Consumption/Waste) 
  • Advocacy, Volunteering, and Financial Support
  • Prayer and Scripture 
  • Learn and Explore 

We welcome your suggestions, corrections, and updates. Please email our Director of Sustainability and Social Mission Tim Severyn. Thank you!

“Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.”
~ Pope Francis, Laudato Sí’: On Care for Our Common Home

Educational Resources

Get Outdoors

See also: Paul in the Parks, a blog by Healthy Earth Team member Paul Fuchs. He has a goal of visiting every one of our National Parks (he’s well on the way) and shares his knowledge, tips, and inspirations here.

General Resources

Food

“Changing how we eat will not be enough, on its own, to save the planet, but we cannot save the planet without changing how we eat.” – Jonathan Safran Foer  

Ethical Eating

See also: “Christian Ethics and Dietary Choices” by Xavier University Theology Professor John Sniegocki

Food Gardening

Energy Use

“In burning fossil fuels, we have partly undone the millennial work of our planet in burying carbon… When we treat the air as a dump…the invisible tides of garbage do not just go away.” – William Bryant Logan 

Land Use

“Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth.” – Chief Seattle (Seathl)

Native and Pollinator Planting Guides

Recommended books:

  • The Wild Lawn Handbook by Stevie Daniels
  • The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife by Nancy Lawson
  • Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Doug Tallamy

See also: Why Plant Native Trees and Shrubs?, a talk given by retired XU professor Tim Kloppenborg and XU horticulturalist Karen McCabe at Bellarmine Chapel

Shop for Native Plants

Local tree expert: Bellarmine parishioner, Healthy Earth Team member, and retired Xavier U professor Tim Kloppenborg leads our annual tree and shrub giveaway and can answer any questions about planting trees in your yard. kloppenborg@xavier.edu

Consumption/Waste

“Simplicity of living, deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life…an appreciation for the condition of the rest of the world.” – Duane Elgin 

Sustainable Shopping

Recycling and Reuse

Composting and Food Waste Prevention 

Recommended book: 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste by Kathryn Kellogg

Use your “time, talent and treasure” and your vote  to bring about change by resisting the powerful political and economic forces that exploit the environment, animals, the land, and people, especially the poor, as a source of profit.

“Tragically, those in the most vulnerable situations are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution. Caring for creation, therefore, becomes an expression of humanity and solidarity.” ~ Pope Leo XIV

Cincinnati, Regional, Ohio 

See also: Green Cincinnati Plan from the City of Cincinnati Office of Environment & Sustainability

National, International

​Connect an “Earth ethic” with your Catholic faith to encourage what Pope Francis called an “ecological conversion.”

Recommended book: Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems and Invocations from Around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon

See also: Genesis 1 and 2; Psalms 104 and 148; Job 12: 7-12, 36: 26-33

Videos and Films

See also: 

Books on Nature

  • ​Desert Solitaire by Edward Albee
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  • Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places by Dudley Edmundson
  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
  • My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
  • I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
  • An Immense World by Ed Yong

See also: 

  • Wendell Berry (essays, poetry)
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins (poetry)
  • Barry Lopez (essays, fiction)
  • Joanna Macy (nonfiction)
  • Mary Oliver (poetry)

Books on Climate Change and Our Responsibility as Christians

See also:

Children’s Books

Articles

See also: 

Apps

  • AllTrails: Maps, guides and information for wherever you’re hiking
  • iNaturalist: Be a citizen scientist. Identify plants, animals, and other organisms, record your observations, and discuss with others. 
  • Merlin: Bird identification and information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • Picture This: Plant identification, information and care tips 

“I am at home in the universe. I carry my house with me. No matter where I go, I cannot be less than at home. The forests are the rooms of the house of my childhood. The winds are my mother’s arms. The sun is my child’s laughter. The caterpillar crawling on my hand is my brother’s hand-thrown over my shoulder.

The children playing in the street of another country are my children. The stranger’s bed encloses me in the sleep of my covers. The earth is my home, and its creatures are my family.”

– Ken Patton, Unitarian/Universalist pastor and author