Consistent with Catholic social teaching and our Holy Father’s call in Laudato Si, St. Monica’s Green team is dedicated to protecting our Common Home. We are committed to improving energy efficiency, creating a culture of conservation and natural resource stewardship, and transforming our social values into actions. We will accomplish this by providing tools, training and service so that our congregation can live more sustainably and in solidarity with all of God’s Creation, including the most vulnerable among us. 

Giving Thanks for Abundance

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis on October 4 and draw the Season of Creation to a close, we give thanks for the beauty and abundance of our common home. Inspired by Francis’s humble love for all creatures, we recommit ourselves to care for earth, water, air, and every living being. May the prayers and reflections of this season deepen our stewardship, renew our hope, and inspire ongoing action for justice and healing in our world.

Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation

Santa Monica Bay | October 11th | 8:00 AM  RSVP

Meeting Point: Will Rogers State Beach 17000 CA-1, 

Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (North end of parking lot)

Join the St. Monica Green Team for a contemplative journey through coastal ecology, climate justice, and sacred stewardship. The St. Monica Green Team acknowledges that this walk takes place on the unceded ancestral territory of the Tongva & Kizh. We honor the those communities as the traditional stewards of this land and pay our respects to their Elders—past, present, and emerging.

MAP 
Self guided version.

Why We Walk the Shore: 
A Catholic Call to the Coast

Across the rolling surf and shifting sands of our Archdiocese’s coastline, Catholics are rediscovering pilgrimage as a sacred practice of renewal, solidarity, and witness. Each footstep on the beach invites us out of our familiar routines and into an encounter with God’s presence in the rhythm of the waves, the cry of seabirds, and the vast horizon that stretches before us.

Pilgrimage by the sea is both an outward journey and an inward unfolding. The shoreline becomes our cathedral—tide pools our chapels, driftwood our altars. As we walk in the ancient footsteps of disciples on the road to Emmaus and seekers on the Camino de Santiago, every grain of sand and cresting wave teaches us to see with new eyes and to listen with open hearts.

In this moment of ecological crisis and social fragmentation, walking the coast reminds us of our interconnectedness with all creation. The ocean’s pulse calls us to remember that what we do to the smallest shell we do to the whole planet. Inspired by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, we unite prayer with action, contemplation with advocacy, committing ourselves to protect our shores and the communities that depend on them.

This Pilgrimage of Hope is part of a growing movement to reclaim our coastal spaces as sacred ground. We honor the dignity of every living creature—from plankton to pelican—and walk humbly with our Creator, letting the salt air and rolling surf shape us into witnesses of justice, peace, and the healing power of love.

ROUTE OVERVIEW

MAP 
Self guided version.
Distance: ~3.6 miles (one-way)
Time: 2–3 hours with reflection stops
Start: Will Rogers State Beach 17000 CA-1, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (North end of parking lot)
End: Tongva Park (optional closing circle)
Return Option: Social bikes available nearby

Upcoming Events

Pilgrimage to the Cathedral

Join the St. Monica Green Team in this pilgrimage to the Cathedral of our Lady of Angels to honor the 10 year anniversary of Laudato Si and to empower our Archdiocese to commit to ecological stewardship. Consider wearing white, green or blue to show  solidarity at this special mass. 

Meet at 8:30am SMC Metro stop on 17th and travel together. MAP

✍️ RSVP: [email protected]

Join the Laudate Deum Prayer Network for Climate Healing 

This powerful initiative sends a message of solidarity and hope, especially uplifting those in parishes without an active green team. This network devoted to prayer for climate health  offers a space for spiritual connection, shared purpose, and faithful action across communities.

Explore and join at www.laudatedeumsolidarity.org

Save the date: Just Faith - Sacred Land

How do we care for our common home? Sacred Land: Food and Farming, the third program in JustFaith Ministries’ Eco-Justic Series, explores our connection with the land and our responsibility for it. Let us know if you are interested and we will send you a reminder when registration is open.

Sacred Land: Food & Farming | JustFaith Ministries

RSVP to [email protected]

Join the Green Team during the Thanksgiving Feast

Support the movement towards zero waste on Wednesday 11/26. Let us know if you can help!   

Email  [email protected]

Green Ambassador Training: Waste Management Simplified 

Do you struggle with waste management at St. Monica or home? During this hands-on training you will:

Master the recycling & compost system.
Learn where to drop leftover food after an event.
Find new ways to model creation care values to your students or fellow parishioners.
Have a great opportunity to network!

Check out this 18 minute training to help you and your ministry comply with new laws governing waste management at St. Monica. Learn what to buy for your event and how to manage the waste stream while on campus.

Green Ambassador Training Video & Resources available HERE.

In Case You Missed It

Join the Green Ambassadors

Separating food waste from the trash during our parish events is not only the law, but it is an important step to reduce methane gas generated at landfills. Methane is almost 30 times more potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Contact us to volunteer!

Green Ambassadors ensure that our parish events and  ministries do the following:

• Reduce waste by using reusable dishware when possible
• Eliminate the use of single-use plastic water bottles
• Ensure organics (food) waste  is separated from landfill waste and ends up in the organics dumpster
• Reduce use of all single-use plastic products
• Source 100% fiber-based single-use materials for events when single-use disposables are necessary
• Ensure an effective, high-quality recycling program on campus

Green Ambassador Training Video & Resources available HERE

Check out this 18-minute training to help you and your ministry comply with new laws governing waste management at St. Monica. Learn what to buy for your event and how to manage the waste stream while on campus.

Questions? [email protected]

Catholic Youth Climate Summit 

St. Monica Green Team members  were on hand to support  Heal the Bay and Catholic Climate Covenant during the Catholic Climate Youth Summit hosted at Loyola Marymount University on March 8th. Over 80 students from 28 Catholic schools and parishes participated in the day-long workshop presented by the Catholic Youth Climate Academy. The academy was made up of students from 6 Catholic High Schools across the Archdiocese. They prepared for the summit over 4 months, deepening their understanding of climate change impacts on the poor, Catholic Social Teaching and Laudato' Si.

Stay CONNECTED

Don’t recognize the number? St. Monica Green Team updates are texted from 855.276.4119 (via Flocknotes). Add this number to  your phone contacts so you never miss an update.

 

Laudato Si Resources

Watch the Vatican’s film, The Letter, for free on YouTube or hold a screening here.

Don’t forget to visit the Laudato Si’ Action Platform to see how you might begin to take action.

 

The Laudato Si’ Action Platform was developed by the Vatican to:

• • Uphold life and the dignity of each human person 
• • Support families and future generations 
• • Love the poor and vulnerable 
• • Advocate for basic rights and a just economy 
• • Be in solidarity with all, as one human family 
• • Care for all of God’s creation 

  
 
Praise be to you, our Lord, God of all Creation!