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We were not here when the Lord wise and powerful
made the universe out of nothing and when He made
the Planet Earth.
He made the light, the air, the water, and the land,
with minerals and other hidden treasures.
He made the plants and the animals, all sorts of living things,
all beautiful and interesting.
When there were no people on this earth
the air, the waters, the soil, were clean and healthy
for all the living beings to share.
All the living creatures and all forms of matter the Lord made
gave glory to the Lord just by being what they were.
God created human beings in His image
to be witnesses of His love.
He wanted us to be happy and He wanted us to be free:
to use our free will participating in His Divine Plan,
lovingly caring for His creation,
common inheritance for all people of all times.
People came into a world of clean air, waters and soil,
full of different forms of plants and animals
to live among them and with them as a very special form of life.
The Lord gave us intelligence and skills
and ways to know right from wrong.
God gave us the task to care for the Earth
and to make it more useful and helpful to each person and to society
through science and technology,
so that we could all live in peace.
When there were no people on this Earth there were no wars.
Plants and animals followed the laws of the Lord
serving one another in their life and in their death.
But people did not recognise that they were placed on
the Earth to care for the heritage of God who made
everything out of nothing.
People made wars on nature and they made wars
among themselves. And now we have an environmental crisis:
Air and water pollution, massive deforestation,
fertile lands turned into deserts, important plants and animals in
danger of disappearing forever, disasters caused by human errors.
The living beings that occupied the Earth before we came
did not cause all this damage.
Many of them did not survive
and others are in serious danger of extinction
because people are constantly at war with nature
and what we need is to be at peace.
War with nature is a war we cannot survive.
We must do everything we can to stop it.
Science and technology must not destroy nature.
Knowledge must be used to save nature and to restore it.
Forests, soils, waters, the fauna, all are necessary.
They must be used wisely to permit their renewal.
We cannot use them without considering the future.
Future generations, after us, will depend on what is left.
We have duties towards God and towards our fellow men.
We also have serious obligations towards nature.
Our life depends on it and we owe nature a great debt.
Let us contemplate nature undisturbed and at peace:
the skies and the mountains,
the sea and the rivers,
the fields and the forests.
Let us look at the beauty of the little corner where we live.
There are still many beautiful places on Earth,
that we can protect and make more beautiful.
There are still many plants and animals we can save from
extinction. They may help us survive.
All the things the Lord made are wonderful:
all are good, all are beautiful.
He gave us all these things to care for, to share,
to protect from destruction and to restore in abundance and beauty.
The Lord gave us the intelligence and the capacity to love.
He also gave us His grace to do this with joy:
to restore the Earth so that we may live in peace with Mother Nature.
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