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Get started on the LiveSimply Award in your parish or school!
Here are our top tips for living more simply – we’re here to support you taking steps to a greener lifestyle, finding more time to reflect and providing practical help to those in need.
LiveSimply members in Leeds were awarded the LiveSimply award for their efforts to create a greener Parish.
“"We will find it hard to feel and show any real concern for those in need, unless we are able to cultivate a certain simplicity of life, resisting the feverish demands of a consumer society, which leave us impoverished and unsatisfied, anxious to have it all now."”
Committing to live simply, sustainably with creation and in solidarity with those in poverty can help us deepen our relationship with God, ourselves and one another.
Committing to live simply, sustainably with creation and in solidarity with those in poverty can help us deepen our relationship with God, ourselves and one another.
Get started on the LiveSimply Award in your parish or school!
Pray for peace in Ukraine and take action to urge the Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary to push for a diplomatic end to the conflict and to provide support to refugees.
Take action with us by emailing your MP to ask them to support a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to protect communities affected by human rights abuses.
Your school's actions will impact our global family, your local community and your school community as you reflect the teachings of Laudato Si’ and Catholic Social Teaching along your journey.
Challenge yourself to a parish ‘unplugged’ day – without your phone, TV or radio.
Make time for silence in your day and in Mass.
Upcycle your furniture and give your old sofas, chairs and tables a new look instead of replacing them.
Have a meat-free day every week.
Collect pledges to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with God’s creation from everyone in your parish.
Shop your wardrobe: could you challenge yourself to buy no new clothes for 12 months and discover new outfits from your existing clothes and accessories?
Walk or cycle everywhere you can to benefit your mind, body and soul? Top tips for making your travel green
Make time to pray for God’s creation, the people and the planet. You could use the LiveSimply hymn or prayers.
Join in with CAFOD campaigns to make sure the voices of all our sisters and brothers are heard.
Spend time in prayer on Family Fast Day, eating more simply and contemplating our relationship with God and with each other.
Support your local Caritas organisations who will be able to support you in becoming a collection point for a foodbank, or a support service for the homeless. Find out how they are supporting refugees in the area and how you as a parish can help.
Switch to an ethical bank (at home and in the parish); check that your energy is from a renewable source.
Set aside time to reflect on Laudato Si’ as a parish.
Make your parish meetings and events planet-friendly: Choose Fairtrade tea and coffee for cuppas and use real crockery. Do the cleaning and washing up with environmentally friendly products. Reduce the amount of paper you print for mass, for events and for meetings (folks are usually happy to share and it gets conversations started).
Reduce your use of energy: use led light bulbs and turn them off when they’re not needed; turn off computers and photocopiers when not in use; encourage people to walk to mass and meetings or to share lifts, display bus or train information in the parish, check you are recycling and composting as efficiently as possible.
Conduct an energy audit of the parish. Depending on what you discover you could reduce your carbon footprint by insulating buildings, installing ground source heat pumps and/or solar panels. There are lots more ideas in this guide.
Set aside part of the parish grounds for a wildlife garden or community vegetable garden, complete with insect hotels, bat boxes and bird houses. Start a gardening club hold a seed or sapling or harvest swap.
Resources to help your school take part in the LiveSimply award.
The Livesimply award enables you to strengthen the bonds of community in your parish or your school, to nourish your spiritual life and care for God's gift of creation.