The Church Fathers and Mothers are those men and women who shaped the Christian tradition in the early centuries of the Church. Through their writings, prayers and charisms, these people help remind the modern Church that the commitment to care for God’s creation is an ancient part of the Christian faith.

“It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who ’in the beginning created heaven and earth.’” St. Basil the Great, Homily in Hexaemeron I, 2

“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.” St. Hildegard of Bingen

“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” St. Francis of Assisi

“Throughout the entire creation, the wisdom of God shines forth from Him and in Him, as in a mirror containing the beauty of all forms and lights and as in a book in which all things are written according to the deep secrets of God...Truly, whoever reads this book will find life and will draw salvation from the Lord.” St. Bonaventure

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