In the Christian tradition, Lent is a time of reflection about the ways we have missed the mark and the ways we would like to do better in the next year. Texas Interfaith Power and Light has put together a Lenten series of reflections focused on the environmental problem of methane, which is an air pollutant and climate change driver. Join us for daily reflection and action steps you can take to advocate for methane mitigation.
March 31
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord!
– Psalm 96
March 30
Let me seek, then, the gift of silence and poverty, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer: where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is all in all.
– Thomas Merton
March 29
The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.
Isaiah 24:3-6
March 28
To preserve this sacred world of our origins from destruction, our great need is for renewal of the entire Western religious-spiritual tradition…. We need to move from a spirituality of alienation from the natural world to a spirituality of intimacy with it, … to a spirituality of the divine as revealed in the visible world about us, from a spirituality concerned with justice simply to humans to a justice that includes the larger Earth community… We cannot save ourselves without saving the world in which we live.… We will live or die as this world lives or dies. We can say this both physically and spiritually. We will be spiritually nourished by this world or we will be starved for spiritual nourishment. No other revelatory experience can do for the human what the experience of the natural world does.
– Thomas Berry
March 27
Not every increase in power represents progress for humanity. We need only think of the “admirable” technologies that were employed to decimate populations, drop atomic bombs and annihilate ethnic groups. There were historical moments where our admiration at progress blinded us to the horror of its consequences. But that risk is always present, because “our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience… We stand naked and exposed in the face of our ever-increasing power, lacking the wherewithal to control it. We have certain superficial mechanisms, but we cannot claim to have a sound ethics, a culture and spirituality genuinely capable of setting limits and teaching clear-minded self-restraint”. [17] It is not strange that so great a power in such hands is capable of destroying life, while the mentality proper to the technocratic paradigm blinds us and does not permit us to see this extremely grave problem of present-day humanity.
– Pope Francis, Laudate Deum. 24
Take Action: Read Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” for a theological discussion of international climate policy, power, and climate change.
March 26
Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars.
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think. What delight God gives to humankind with all these things.
All nature is at the disposal of humankind. We are to work with it.
For without we cannot survive.
-Hildegard of Bingen
Take Action: Read the White House’s Methane Action Plan
March 25
The principle of the oneness of humankind must become the ruling principle of international life… [this] makes it possible to view the climate change challenge through a new lens – one that perceives humanity as a unified whole, not unlike the cells of the human body, infinitely differentiated in form and function yet united in a common purpose which exceeds that of its component parts.
– Statement from the Baha’i International Community
Take Action: Learn about The Vessel Project’s inspiring work in mutual aid and environmental advocacy in South Louisiana
March 24
If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, [44] we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact. As a result, along with indispensable political decisions, we would be making progress along the way to genuine care for one another.
– Pope Francis: Laudate Deum. 72.
Take Action: Take the Laudate Deum Action Pledge
March 23
As people of faith, we are called to care for God’s creation and our neighbors, particularly those who are most vulnerable. National standards on methane will help care for these vulnerable communities by curbing climate change, improving air quality, and responsibly stewarding finite resources. We look forward to working with the Administration to ensure we maintain a strong rule that holds the oil and gas industry accountable to the communities most impacted by climate change and protects the health of our communities now and into the future.
– Creation Justice Ministries Statement on EPA Methane Standards
Take Action: If you haven’t already, sign the “Plug the Pipeline” petition to ask the Department of Transportation to require pipeline operators to plug dangerous leaks.
March 22
As beneficiaries of the divine Creation, what shall we do? We should care for the earth, be wise stewards over it, and preserve it for future generations. And we are to love and care for one another.
– Russell M. Nelson
Take Action: If you haven’t already, sign the “Plug the Pipeline” petition to ask the Department of Transportation to require pipeline operators to plug dangerous leaks.
March 21
At the same time, we have confirmed that in the last fifty years the temperature has risen at an unprecedented speed, greater than any time over the past two thousand years. In this period, the trend was a warming of 0.15° C per decade, double that of the last 150 years. From 1850 on, the global temperature has risen by 1.1° C, with even greater impact on the polar regions. At this rate, it is possible that in just ten years we will reach the recommended maximum global ceiling of 1.5° C. [9] This increase has not occurred on the earth’s surface alone but also several kilometres higher in the atmosphere, on the surface of the oceans and even in their depths for hundreds of metres. Thus the acidification of the seas increased and their oxygen levels were reduced. The glaciers are receding, the snow cover is diminishing and the sea level is constantly rising.
– Pope Francis: Laudate Deum. 12.
March 20
Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.
– C. S. Lewis
Take Action: Learn about efforts to protect the climate by protecting old-growth trees from logging
March 19
No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains to wildness as that which regards the world as made especially for the uses of man. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed to go unchallenged.
– John Muir, from “Wild Wool”
Take Action: Advocate against the expansion of Exxon chemical processing in Baytown. Learn more here.
March 18
Wait then ˹O Prophet˺ for the day ˹when˺ the sky will be veiled in haze, clearly visible, overwhelming the people. ˹They will cry,˺ “This is a painful torment. Our Lord! Remove ˹this˺ torment from us, ˹and˺ we will certainly believe.”
– Qur’an 44:10-12
Take Action: Learn more about the airborne methane leak detection project, MethaneSAT
March 17
The Bible tells us: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” ( Gen 1:31). His is “the earth with all that is in it” ( Deut 10:14). For this reason, he tells us that, “the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” ( Lev 25:23). Hence, “responsibility for God’s earth means that human beings, endowed with intelligence, must respect the laws of nature and the delicate equilibria existing between the creatures of this world”
-Pope Francis, Laudate Deum. 62.
Take Action: What is climate finance?
March 16
The role of religion and spirituality (in environmental activism) is to hold up the values that go beyond the value of profit and the value of somebody winning and somebody losing, to say…there are things that are more important than money or gain. The value of generosity, the value of putting the good of the community and the good of the whole before your own personal gain — those are things that every religion at its core has always stood for.
– Star Hawk
Take Action: Read Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” for a theological discussion of international climate policy, power, and climate change.
March 15
I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.
– John Muir
Take Action: What was the outcome of the last UN Climate Negotiations (COP28)?
March 14
– UMC Social Principles, Global Climate Stewardship.
March 13
-John Bell
March 12
No matter what our particular job, especially in our world today, we all are called to be Tikkun Olam—repairers of creation. Thank you for whatever you do, wherever you are, to bring joy, and light, and hope, and faith, and pardon and love to your neighborhood and to yourself.
– Fred Rogers
Take Action: Read the White House’s Methane Action Plan
I stand now with your people.
Join me in solidarity with others.
Let us take action.
Let us wait in silence.
Let us confront oppression.
Let us mourn what is lost.
Let us succeed in our struggles.
Let us share your suffering.
Let us dream new visions.
Let us renounce old ways.
We freely and wholeheartedly commit our lives to this service.
So, living God, we share your wounds and see your glory.
Let it be this way.
And may this covenant now made on earth, be ratified in the world that is to come.
Amen.
Cláudio Carvalhaes, Covenant Prayer. Liturgies from Below, page 207
March 10
God’s blueprint for creation was a world in which [humans] would succeed in directing and harnessing the amazing resources of this planet so that there would always be enough. Progress would not necessitate pollution, expansion would not require extinction, and the privilege of the strong would not demand the deprivation of the weak. Yahweh’s world was a world in which there would never be hunger, homelessness, abuse, famine, genocide, or refugee camps. But as a result of the fall, all of these realities became resident on our planet. The ultimate objective of God’s great plan of redemption is to fix that.
– Sandra Richter, Stewards of Eden, (p 67-68)
Take Action: Read Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” for a theological discussion of international climate policy, power, and climate change
March 9
It is often heard also that efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and developing cleaner energy sources will lead to a reduction in the number of jobs. What is happening is that millions of people are losing their jobs due to different effects of climate change: rising sea levels, droughts and other phenomena affecting the planet have left many people adrift. Conversely, the transition to renewable forms of energy, properly managed, as well as efforts to adapt to the damage caused by climate change, are capable of generating countless jobs in different sectors. This demands that politicians and business leaders should even now be concerning themselves with it.
– Pope Francis, Laudate Deum
Take Action: Take the Laudate Deum Action Pledge
– John Bell, paraphrasing angel Kyodo Williams
March 7
Earth is a mosque; a mosque is sacred; therefore, the Earth is sacred… [this] is another way of saying that we are all part of the same, wonderful fabric of creation.
– Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Green Deen
Take Action: Learn more about the recently launched methane satellite, MethaneSAT
March 6
“In Buddhism we speak of collective action. Sometimes something wrong is going on in the world and we think it is the other people who are doing it and we are not doing it. But you are part of the wrongdoing by the way you live your life. That is why to learn to change our way of daily life, so that there is more mindfulness, more peace, more love is a very urgent thing. And we can do that beginning now, today.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Take Action: Read more about the health and climate risks of methane
March 5th
“We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world. The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity. Linked in that web, we are interconnected- using, cleansing, sharing, and replenishing the fundamentals of life.” – Tara Cullis & David Suzuki, “The Declaration of Interdependence”
Take Action: What makes methane a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide?
March 4
The sky was light and the land all dark
The sun rose up over Central Park
I was walking home from work
Gaia
The petal sky and the rosy dawn
The world turning on the burning sun
Sacred wet green one we live on
Gaia
Run, run, run, run said the automobile and we ran
Run for your life, take to your heels
Foolish school of fish on wheels
Gaia
Turn away from your animal kind
Try to leave your body just to live in your mind
Leave your cold cruel mother earth behind
Gaia
As if you were your own creation
As if you were the chosen nation
And the world around you just a rude and
Dangerous invasion
Gaia
Someone’s got to stop us now
Save us from us, Gaia
No one’s gonna stop us now
We thought we ought to walk awhile
So we left that town in a single file
Up and up and up mile after mile after mile
We reached the tree line and I dropped my pack
Sat down on my haunches and I looked back down
Over the mountain
Helpless and speechless and breathless
Gaia
Pray for the forest pray to the tree
Pray for the fish in the deep blue sea
Pray for yourself and for God’s sake
Say one for me
Poor wretched unbeliever
Someone’s got to stop us now
Save us from us Gaia
No one’s gonna stop us now
– James Taylor, Gaia, from “Hourglass,” 1997
Take Action: Learn about the Vessell Project, a community aid organization fighting for environmental justice in Louisiana
March 3
Nowhere is my destination.
And no one is my identity.
My daily bread is powerlessness.
Temptations can be overwhelming.
Gone is every hope of help.
An abyss opens up within me.
I am falling, falling,
Plunging into non-existence.
Is this annihilation?
Or, is it the path to the Silent Love
That we are?. . .
– Thomas Keating, The Last Laugh
March 2
We know and feel in our bones that something primal is amiss. Our extended home is being eroded. It is essential that we stop and recognize these losses…to respond with sorrow, outrage and apology at these places touched by so much loss.
— Francis Weller
Take Action: What is climate finance?
Admittedly, not every concrete catastrophe ought to be attributed to global climate change. Nonetheless, it is verifiable that specific climate changes provoked by humanity are notably heightening the probability of extreme phenomena that are increasingly frequent and intense. For this reason, we know that every time the global temperature increases by 0.5° C, the intensity and frequency of great rains and floods increase in some areas and severe droughts in others, extreme heat waves in some places and heavy snowfall in others.
If up to now we could have heat waves several times a year, what will happen if the global temperature increases by 1.5° C, which we are approaching? Those heat waves will be much more frequent and with greater intensity. If it should rise above 2 degrees, the icecaps of Greenland and a large part of Antarctica will melt completely, with immensely grave consequences for everyone.
– Pope Francis, Laudate Deum
February 29
If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving every creature, our Beloved will enter you from our sacred realm and we will be, we will be, so happy.
– Rumi, That Lives in Us
Take Action: What was the outcome of the last UN Climate Negotiations (COP28)?
February 28
This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!
-United Methodist Hymnal, 141
Take Action: How does the global community work together to address climate change?
February 27
Open our eyes to see the pain and suffering
Open our ears to hear the cries of the oppressed
Let justice flow like a river to those who have been denied it
Let peace and security be like a strong, wide tree to the outcast
Open our mouths to be a voice for the voiceless.
-Cláudio Carvalhaes, Liturgies from Below
Take Action: Explore TRACE, the greenhouse gas emission tracking project. What are the biggest sources of emissions in your area?
– UMC Social Principles: Water, Air, Soil, Minerals, Plants
– Leviticus 25:1-5
February 24
“People of faith see climate change as the greatest ethical and moral concern of our time. In order to address the climate crisis, we must address methane pollution. This is an issue of justice for frontline communities. Children living near oil & gas facilities are at risk for higher rates of childhood asthma and hospitalization from asthma. We must act now for life.”
Sister Joan Brown, osf, Executive Director, New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light
Take Action: Learn about agricultural sources of methane
February 23
“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
-Micah 6:6-8
February 22
“We need more than just new technology to protect the planet; we need real community and co-operation. We need to re-establish true communication—true communion—with ourselves, with the Earth, and with one another. Only when we can touch real love for the Earth will we have the immense energy we need to make the radical changes necessary to save our civilization.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Take Action: What is the Global Methane Pledge? Learn more here.
February 21
“Our task must be to free ourselves … by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
– Albert Einstein
Take Action: What makes methane a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide?
February 20
This is a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life. The Bishops of the United States have expressed very well this social meaning of our concern about climate change, which goes beyond a merely ecological approach, because The effects of climate change are borne by the most vulnerable people, whether at home or around the world” In a few words, the Bishops assembled for the Synod for Amazonia said the same thing: “Attacks on nature have consequences for people’s lives”. And to express bluntly that this is no longer a secondary or ideological question, but a drama that harms us all, the African bishops stated that climate change makes manifest “a tragic and striking example of structural sin”.
-Pope Francis, Laudate Deum
Take Action: Natural gas pipeline leaks pose a safety risk to communities, contribute to the climate crisis by releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane, and result in lost and wasted product that is typically charged to ratepayers. Sign the “Plug the Pipeline” petition to ask U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to finalize the Advanced Leak Detection & Repair Rule this spring.
February 19
God of the earth, of heaven and of all that we see around us; allow us to learn to live with one another, together with creation
and may the peace that is the fruit of justice be a reality for every corner of the earth.
Give us strength, faith, and hope because until justice and peace meet with a kiss, we will continue plowing our fields awaiting new fruits of the earth and new dawns.
-Cláudio Carvalhaes, Liturgies from Below
Take Action: Read more about the health and climate risks of methane
February 18
“How we manage waste, watts, water, and food should reinforce the moral foundations of our communities…ensure economic and social justice and create the freedom to transform our pollution-based ‘gray’ economy to one that…is sustainable and ‘green.”
-Ibrahim Abdul-Matin:
Take Action: Explore TRACE, the greenhouse gas emission tracking project. What are the biggest sources of emissions in your area?
February 17
UMC Social Principles: All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect. Economic, political, social, and technological developments have increased our human numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives. However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and overconsumption of natural and nonrenewable resources, particularly by industrialized societies. This continued course of action jeopardizes the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations.
Take Action:Learn more about the Methane Emissions Reduction Plan
February 16
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Selah.
Psalm 24:1-6
Take Action: Learn more about the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Rulemaking
February 15
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home. Here I want to recognize, encourage and thank all those striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home which we share. Particular appreciation is owed to those who tirelessly seek to resolve the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest. Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded.”
-Pope Francis, Laudato Si (2015)
Take Action: What is the Methane Waste Emission Fee? Read more here!
February 14, Ash Wednesday
UMC Social Principles: Energy Resources Utilization
“The whole earth is God’s good creation and as such has inherent value. We are aware that the current utilization of energy resources threatens this creation at its very foundation. As members of The United Methodist Church we are committed to approaching creation, energy production, and especially creation’s resources in a responsible, careful and economic way. We call upon all to take measures to save energy. Everybody should adapt his or her lifestyle to the average consumption of energy that respects the limits of the planet earth. We encourage persons to limit CO2 emissions toward the goal of one tonne per person annually. We strongly advocate for the priority of the development of renewable energies. The deposits of carbon, oil, and gas resources are limited and their continuous utilization accelerates global warming. The use of nuclear power is no solution for avoiding CO2 emissions. Nuclear power plants are vulnerable, unsafe, and potential health risks. A safe, permanent storage of nuclear waste cannot be guaranteed. It is therefore not responsible to future generations to operate them. The production of agricultural fuels and the use of biomass plants rank lower than the provision of safe food supplies and the continued existence for small farming businesses.”
Take Action:
Learn more about the airborne methane leak detection project, MethaneSAT