SEASON OF CREATION - 2

 SEASON OF CREATION (Continued)

DISSENTING VOICES

Yes, true, that’s a wonderful attitude.
But the fact remains that there are many issues I myself can do very little about directly. The well-known manufacturers and oil producers, the high-level politics, the dominant economic interests, the devastating wars, and last but not least the hesitant climate policy.

And to be honest, I’m also skeptical when someone says: Every little bit helps. You may never see the final result, but your small contribution will ultimately make a difference.
Is that really true?
I don’t know.
Intellectually, I don’t have a conclusive answer to that.
Can I endure that uncertainty?
Can I still move forward despite that uncertainty, or does it just paralyze me?

EXPERIENCING SOMETHING

What has helped me endure that uncertainty is experience—that is, actually experiencing something. Not just thinking about something, but also becoming aware of what you’re experiencing. I’ve noticed that by doing things differently—more mindfully, more relaxed—something happens inside me.

For example, tidying up calmly, washing dishes in a relaxed manner, simply helping someone who interrupts you, waiting patiently for a response from someone searching for the right words, writing something down slowly, rereading a longer text, walking back calmly when you’ve caught a glimpse of something beautiful, and a thousand other things like that.

I experience the healing power of “calm.” Of attention that purifies you, however strange that may sound. The sudden fascination with another person you’ve known for years. The unexpected insight when you let go of that urgent question. The spontaneous gratitude for what is so taken for granted. The life in plants that suddenly fascinates you. The playfulness of children or animals. It “suddenly” touches you much more deeply; it opens you up, makes you happy.

You get a sense of being allowed to live, a sense of liberation to simply do what needs to be done. But with less haste, less pressure, more patience. Still seriously committed—but with a smile.

It’s precisely those small experiences that are so important. At least, that’s how I experience it.
They form an interesting chain:

            FROM ATTENTION COMES ADMIRATION
            FROM WONDER COMES GRATITUDE
            FROM GRATITUDE COMES LOVE
            FROM LOVE COMES CARE

What is good or necessary is done, but in a different way—it brings more satisfaction and even joy. In addition to all the effort, it also gives you new energy. It’s mainly a matter of opening yourself up to it.

And, as I said: then you may be surprised by a good idea, a deeper insight, or a new motivation to tackle something or to persevere. You gradually begin to trust your intuition—your spontaneous instincts—more, rather than relying solely on your “logical mind”—however necessary that remains, of course.

GROWING FROM DUTY TO OPPORTUNITY

Perhaps that is the most important change of all:
Tasks that initially had to be carried out out of a sense of duty now begin to appear as an OPPORTUNITY. Your circumstances are no longer merely a practical given, a kind of straitjacket, but they become a space offered to you—a place to say yes to what is good, meaningful, or necessary. Even with wonder and gratitude...

Engagement then doesn’t start with the question: “What do I have to do to save the world?” but much more simply: “What appeals to me, what fascinates me, what do I feel connected to?” (as I explaned in the previous text). Let me respond to that wholeheartedly right now. That’s enough, also in this MONTH OF CREATION. Consciously positively countering pessimism, cynicism, and stress.

LIVING CREATIVELY

Through your inner openness, you’ll actually see more clearly what CAN and IS being asked of you. But now as an offer, a possibility, a space to say “yes” for yourself and to be creative. A motivation born of LOVE for Creation, in joy and trust. Simply let go of the question of whether it’s all worth it. Not out of indifference, but from a deeper knowing, an experience of deeper connectedness, through which you give life and—perhaps even more—receive life!
To be a creator yourself, to connect with all of Creation, which overflows with untamed life force. What an encouragement !

Do you experience it that way, too? Write to me sometime!

Johan Muijtjens
Season of Creation 2026

THE SOURCE OF OUR HOPE NEVER RUNS DRY

 Interview with CARMODY GREY 

[https://groenekerken.nl/carmody-grey/ ] 

*** Can you tell us a little bit about yourself for those who don't know you yet? Who is Carmody Grey? 

I am first of all a mother of my beloved son Benjamin, and wife of my beloved husband Manuel. After that, I am someone who loves nothing more than to be out climbing a mountain, swimming in a lake, hiking in a forest, or working in my garden.  I also think, talk, read, write, do philosophy, theology and ethics, and have a great love of the natural sciences, especially biology.  And I am an English Catholic, with Protestant martyrs in my ancestry.  

***Where did your love of nature come from?  

My grandfather was a famous vet – he was the central character in the famous James Herriot stories, which you may have read, or seen on television or in film. From him I learned that animals and plants are the worthiest object of our curiosity, fascination, reverence and a constant source of delight.  

I was lucky enough to grow up in a beautiful part of the rolling hills of the South Downs. There was nature everywhere. My parents also taught me that curiosity is a virtue, and wonder is an obligation. The worst failing was not to be adequately amazed by the world; not to be surprised; not to be taken up in the astonishing glory of it all. I am eternally grateful for this gift from my parents. Attention to the beauty around us is a discipline, one of the most important ones. It’s a discipline the Scriptures will give us, and the liturgy. We are invited to carefully foster in ourselves a habit of gratitude, based in wonder and praise. 

*** You are a professor of integral ecology at the Laudato Si' Institute at Radboud University. What does “integral ecology” mean? What is "integral" about it? 

Integral ecology is a way of understanding the whole of reality, which is based on the idea that everything exists only through and in its relationships. There is no isolated ‘entity’, only networks of relations. Ecology is the science of relationships; and these relationships are ‘integral’ because they are implicated in one another. In the social teaching of the Catholic Church, the understanding is that we all exist through three relationships which are always intertwined: with one another; with nature; and with the divine. 
So integral ecology is a programme that is moral and spiritual, and also intellectual and practical. It calls us both to live in a particular way, a way which respects that everything is connected, and also to think in a particular way, to understand things by looking at the relationships which make them what they are. In particular, integral ecology challenges the abstractive, analytical style of modern knowledge. Modern knowledge is based on the presupposition that in order to understand something you have to take it apart, literally, to ana- lyse. Integral ecology tries to put things back together – to syn-thesise, to see things in terms of wholes and not just as assemblies of parts. 

*** What appeals to you in the encyclical Laudato Si'? 

Laudato Si’ takes the Church’s vision – a vision of God, creation and human life – and puts it to work in our contemporary moment, to show how deep and rich are its resources for meeting the challenges of our time. It brings spirituality, ethics, science, economics and politics, and theology itself, together, to illuminate what we are facing and how we can move forward. It is both sober and challenging, and also hopeful and joyful. I continue to think it is probably the ‘best’ thing ever written on our ecological crisis, in terms of an all-encompassing vision. 

*** It has been 10 years since the encyclical was written. It seems as if we have learned little from it... 

Yes. That was Pope Francis’ own view as he expressed in the follow-up document he wrote in 2023, Laudate Deum. There he wrote that our progress in addressing the challenges of our time has been painfully slow. And he names the deep reasons for this slowness: myopia, denialism, a deliberate and sustained indifference, and a knowing collusion of the rich and powerful in the destruction of climate and nature.  We talk a lot about Laudato Si’, but it’s important also to talk about Laudate Deum. We need to be honest about our situation. 
We are facing the severest kind of collapse of our life support systems. Our joy and our hope need to be clear-eyed; and they need to spring from faith, not from a cheap optimism which simply believes that things will be ok. We also need to recall that Laudato Si’ was written as an invitation. Not as a solution, or an end- point. It was a call, a summons, an opening of a path. We need to walk down that path. We need to hear the summons, accept the invitation. That’s a work that is ongoing and will not stop. This is particularly true insofar as ecological damage has now reached such a point that the consequences are already unavoidable. We need to consider how we will respond to the challenges that will come our way in the next decades, treating Laudato Si’ as a gateway, not a final conclusion. 

*** As a professor of integral ecology, what activity or subtopic did you tackle first? What has struck you so far? 

At the moment I am thinking about how to give more depth and shape to the theme of integral ecology. The term has quite a diverse history, and sometimes its usage can seem vague and imprecise. I’d like to give it form and focus. More deeply, I am trying to figure out what it would really mean to shift our paradigm. Pope Francis as well as many others asks that we go through a deep cultural, intellectual and social revolution. We need a new synthesis, a new paradigm. What would that look like? How can it be fostered, practically? 

 Once I was quite suspicious of this language. It seemed a bit far-fetched, a bit over-the-top. But that has changed.  It now seems clear to me that the whole basis on which our civilisation was constructed needs revisiting. We need to step back, to see the pathologies of our civilisation – pathologies of endless consumption, self-absorption, failure to respect our finitude and our earthliness – and ask how we can grow as human beings into something more mature, more grounded, more whole.  We need a new way of thinking about ourselves, about what constitutes a worthwhile life, about what happiness is, about our place in nature, our responsibilities to it and to each other.  

That rightly deserves to be called a paradigm shift. But new paradigms cannot just be invented. They need to be discerned through a shared process of listening and enquiry, and a deep openness to the creativity that is always flowing in reality itself.  So that’s what I’m doing now: listening, learning, reading, trying to understand – how do we need to see differently, think differently, so that we can live and flourish as creatures of this earth.  
I don’t have any answers. But I do know that we need to learn from those we have traditionally ignored. That means women, especially mothers; it means indigenous communities; it means communities in the global south.  And yes, it means listening to animals and plants and ecosystems. They are always speaking, if only we would stop and listen.  But this contemplative receptivity needs to go together with a steely, gritty, fierce determination to apply political pressure to see actual change, especially at the global level. This is a difficult combination to pull off but that’s what we have to do. We really do have to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 

*** The theme of climate change has become politicised and polarised. How do we get out of this? 

That is one of the toughest problems. The politicisation of climate change, especially its representation as a cause of the radical left, has been probably the single greatest obstacle to generating shared political will to tackle this problem.  

I am thinking about this a lot at the moment. We need to reimagine a language of the good, the true and the beautiful that actually unifies; a new vision of human life which crosses the political divide, which people from every political background can recognise themselves in. I think that means we need something like a new humanism. That’s another thing I am working on at the moment. 

*** Our theme for this year is “Sabbath life”. A life characterised by rest and connection, at least one day a week. Do you recognise that there is a great need for this? 

 Desperately. And it’s harder than ever. The revolutions in communication and information technologies – smartphones, ChatGPT, AI and chatbots – these are genuine enemies. And I do mean that as strongly as I’ve said it. These forces deprive us of the very means of our life – real, sustained relationship with one another and with nature. Figuring out how to protect ourselves is a critical imperative right now. I hope Pope Leo will lead us in this.  

As individuals, we have to put these technologies in their place in our lives: that is a very restricted, carefully circumscribed place. I hope for a future in which we see that smartphone use, or regularly employing ChatGPT in our ordinary work and leisure lives, is as damaging as smoking.  And we have to figure out how to do this as a society as well. An integral ecology is also about this. Our real lives take place in three dimensions, in real space and real time. That’s where we need to live, to build our meaning and our identity.  If we try to live in the virtual space, we end up not living at all.  

We need to fight for our Sabbaths. We mustn’t wait to be given them. We need to fight for them. Rest is resistance – resistance to a prevailing paradigm of frenetic activity, constant pressure to  produce, to achieve, to go somewhere or do something. We need to notice that just to be a creature is already enough. We don’t have to make ourselves. We are made and given to ourselves. We can dwell gratefully in our creatureliness, to see and give thanks for our own being and all the creatures around us. Not only can we, but we must.  This is what makes action possible – not reaction, but true action. Because true agency, which is rooted in freedom. The Sabbath makes us free. 

*** The ecological crises can be saddening. What gives you hope? 

The ecological crises should be saddening. If we do not grieve, we are deceiving ourselves. We all need to find ways to grieve what we are losing. We need practices of mourning and lament; ways we can express our anger, our pain, our grief, our fear. I think this is more important than we know.  

But hope is a wellspring that never runs dry. Why? Because true hope is not based on an optimism that things will turn out well. It is based on a faith that the grain of this world, the grain of reality itself, is towards the good; that nothing can extinguish that goodness. That no matter how things go in the coming decades, that goodness is deeper, more enduring.  People of faith call this goodness ‘God’. It is that which St Paul calls ‘the reason for our hope’. The greatest witnesses to Christian faith have been people who lived a radical hope like this. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is my favourite example. Even when all seemed hopeless, he still witnessed to the possibility of goodness, to human dignity and a sense of purpose and meaning, the worthwhileness of doing what is right - even in the darkest places, and even when it seemed it would make no difference.  

This deep goodness of things, which is God, shows itself in our daily lives. We all sense those places where it is close to the surface, where it communicates with us. For me that is in the face of my son Benjamin. When I see Benjamin playing, when I hold him, I feel that inextinguishable beauty of reality; its endless dynamism and freshness.  We all need these concrete encounters with the source of hope. For many, it is in their children. For others it is nature, or music, or friendship. And obviously this changes throughout our lives. Each of us needs to identify those places, the places where we feel real life flowing, the energy of God, if I can put it like that. And stay close to those places. 

*** What message would you like to convey people who are committed to this? 

DON’T GIVE UP. NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER EVER GIVE UP. 

 ==========

SEASON OF CREATION - 1

SEASON OF CREATION

I’VE HAD ENOUGH… 

When it comes to love for nature—especially during this monthlong Season of Creation—I’m tired of always having to start with that ever-growing list of everything that’s going wrong in terms of climate, the environment, war, and peace. It takes so much energy out of me! Getting annoyed at climate deniers, oil barons, corrupt politicians, and misleading information—it drains all my energy and courage. Even numbers, no matter how large, affect me less and less.  Images of the suffering of people, animals, and plants only make me sadder. 

SO WHAT DOES HELP ME? 

That has become the big question for me. 

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that it’s especially the things I’m personally involved in—the things I love, the things I truly care about—that give me the energy and enthusiasm to commit to a cause. That’s where an important key lies for me: I need to feel involved. It has to move me. Otherwise, it just rolls off me. That starts very close to home, in my own daily life and circumstances.That’s where I find my sources of energy. 

For example, I notice that something changes inside me when I take the time to do something calmly and carefully. When I don’t decide right away, but take a little longer to think it over. When I take a moment to look a little longer at the plants I care for, speak to them kindly, and above all… listen to them. Then something happens. It’s as if they gain a voice and have something to say to me. As if they’re appealing to me—appealing to the good and positive in me, to the joy within me. I’m allowed to care for them, I’m allowed to do that task calmly and well, I’m allowed to give that person a thoughtful answer. You could say: It’s not so much about duty, but much more about an invitation, an opportunity, a space that’s been offered to me. 

IT PAYS OFF IN ITS OWN RIGHT 

Curiously enough, that engagement turns out to be its own reward. Put simply, it puts me in a good mood. I feel calmer and more relaxed. I become more receptive to all the good things that are happening in the meantime—things I normally overlook and that the media rarely draws my attention to. Pausing a little longer to reflect on a message. Taking a moment to look at something I’m working on. Giving it a little more attention. And suddenly, something that seemed insignificant or just routine turns out to be important, valuable, more interesting than I thought, more fascinating... 

--- 

These are just a few initial thoughts and experiences, offered as a modest guide to experiencing the Season of Creation in a meaningful and encouraging way. 

Next week, I hope to explore this further, because, evidently, not only experiences but also questions arise… 

By the way: Do you recognize this in yourself as well? Do you have an example ? Let me know !   There’s nothing more beautiful than enriching one another! 


 Johan Muijtjens
September 2, 2026