Catholic Stewards of Creation has seen a blessed year on the web. We began with an idea of connecting stewards with a creation stewardship web site, informative, inspirational, spiritual and educational. We offered a couple of columns and some selected links and the web site was rather small.

Today, the fruits are growing! We have been blessed with a beloved priest, Father Ron, who shares God’s love every week in such an indelible way; wonderful experts in various fields of ecology, marine life, animal advocacy, humane issues and spirituality; our dear Sister Marie Rene, with her prayers and prayer life; our newest additions Rick Cannizzaro and Mary Galvano, each sharing their gift uniquely in the realm of creation; wellness, nutrition, the heavens above us; steward alerts and activities and so much more! Thank you Lord God Creator and Sustainer of all things for your blessings!

However, I have a confession to make…….this web site was not a thought in my mind, something I would have never considered, EVER, due to my technological ineptness a year and a half ago. So, how did this ministry come to be?

The beginning of a sentence can start a book. A moment spent in silence can lead to authentic prayer. An inspiration can launch a ministry. That was the case for the formation and presentation of this web site one year ago September 8^th.

I share this recounting today, as it bears witness to something that I cannot take credit for…the wonderful fruits and success of our web site ministry in raising awareness and advocacy in and for the creation about us!

The web sites beginnings actually started while I was in the mountains of North Carolina, where I had initiated the first sentence of my book. It was there, when my dog, Buddy and I would take those peaceful walks up the mountain that my prayer brought an inspiration. For me, it was like my “burning bush.” It was a moment that consumed all thoughts at once and filled me with images of God’s peaceful kingdom. Standing at the edge of that kingdom was me. I was alone, in a barren field, with a “grubbing hoe” in my hand. At my feet, written in the dirt was “PAX CREATURAS.”

What did this mean?

It was over the next few months that this vision became clear. Every creature is visible evidence by its distinct creation of God’s power, wisdom and goodness with humankind sharing uniquely by being capable of possessing God in knowledge and love. All things in God are rightly ordered and rest peacefully in His divine providence. PAX CREATURAS.

I knew that this truth had to be shared with others and that it would indeed be my vocation to serve God in however that was supposed to be. It turned out to be that my “grubbing hoe” was the web site, a personal response to our Holy Father’s request for Catholics to utilize the web, and the barren field was to be where the renewal of creation stewardship would begin. The “caring for creation through peaceful responsibility.”

My book, Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know! was a catalyst that would lead me to something more spiritually multi-dimensional and important. A ministry to a basic truth that the world seemed to be lacking.

God wants more than anything for all humankind to be creatures of peace, creatures of love and living in harmony with His creation and His will. And there is a truth that is the roadmap to this destiny.

You cannot give “root to grow” in the human conscience an idea of the value and sanctity of life if you fail to first give value and importance to the beauty that surrounds the physical presence of that conscience. It is a BASIC precept that must be taught to every human being! From the planting of that basic holy idea will come the respect and dignity in the human conscience that will renew the earth!

It is with GREAT HOPE and SERVANT JOY that we ask God to continue to bless this ministry in the coming year!

.