During this year’s Lenten season, I’ll be taking a daily walk through my local cemetery, greeting the trees, birds, rabbits, deer and the occasional fox while being mindful of the beloved dead who rest around me. I’ll pray as I walk, listening for the whispers of my more-than-human neighbours and blessing the sacred land.

These small acts of devotion have brought into focus the ways people can use Lent to support the good of the planet — both through Creation care and the quieter path of Creation prayer. With so many planetary crises unfolding around us, my Christian animist worldview and my work as 22 around us, the local cemetery is my little patch of God’s green earth — my parish, so to speak — filled with kin both seen and unseen. In my devotion to the very particularity of this place, I find I’m renewed for the work of justice and ecological restoration in the wider world — something I believe others can share in, too.

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How to …

At the beginning of Lent, identify one more than-human neighbour you would like to pray for — for example, a local tree, an animal or a small pond.
Throughout the 40 days, visit that friend, either in person or in your imagination, and feel the love flowing from your heart toward them.
If you feel moved to use words, offer a prayer to the Creator for their wellbeing and a short blessing. Over the Lenten season, observe how your relationship deepens.
At the Feast of the Resurrection, leave a small Easter gift of bread for your companion, knowing that you are each children of God and friends of the Risen Christ.

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Shawn Sanford Beck is the founder of GreenSpirit Chaplaincy, nested in Grosvenor Park United, and a guide in the Lifelong Learning Pathway of St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon. He is also the author of Christian Animism and A Prairie Rune.