Thomas Berry, the Catholic priest and ecotheologian, wrote:
We must move beyond a spirituality focused simply on the divine and the human to a spirituality concerned with the survival of the natural world in its full splendor, its fertility, and its integral well-being as the larger spiritual community to which we belong.
Earth Day celebrates more than our growing awareness of the fragility of our planet home and importance of our ecological behavior. If in fact to be religious is to be deeply concerned with whatever matters most to us in life, then Earth Day may come to be one of the most religious observances we have.
We are one with the creatures,
One with the plants,
One with the life of Earth.
Each tuft of desert grass
God gives a separate place
Profligate with space
That pilgrim feet may pass.
Each river, mountain, flower and tree
Are part of life’s rich tapestry
All sharing in our joyous celebration
But nature we can never own
The earth is only ours on loan
