The Monastic Understanding of Stewardship of Creation

Mother of the Redeemer Monastery, an Olivetan Benedictine community in Plaisance, Louisiana, presents creation care as a way of living rather than a separate environmental programme. Prayer shapes how the community receives people, uses material goods, tends its surroundings and accepts responsibility for the future.

For the monks, creation is a gift placed in human care, not property to be exploited. Stewardship therefore concerns attitudes, consumption, relationships and the effects of decisions on people beyond the monastery. It joins love of God with love of neighbour and respect for every creature.

Australian readers may encounter this approach through familiar concerns: drought, bushfires, native vegetation, household energy and the growth of cities. The Benedictine perspective adds a spiritual discipline, showing how environmental responsibility can arise from prayer, communal discernment and a disciplined way of living.

Creation received, not possessed

The scriptural starting point is the calling of human beings to tend creation as responsible custodians. This vocation does not make humanity its owner. It describes a relationship of trust: people receive the world, use its resources for genuine needs and return their lives and labour to God. Damage to creation is therefore also damage to this trust.

The Rule of Saint Benedict places material goods within a wider pattern of receiving, using and returning gifts to God. Simplicity and moderation are practical expressions of faith. So are repair, careful use, hospitality and concern that one community’s needs should not deprive others. Current expressions of this vocation can be followed through the community news page, which records the life and decisions of the monastery.

Stewardship also has a communal dimension. A monk does not make ecological choices in isolation, just as no household acts entirely alone. Decisions about food, transport, energy, waste and relationships affect a network of workers, neighbours and ecosystems. The monastic community makes these connections visible and seeks to answer them together.

Prayer that reorders attention

Benedictine life joins contemplation with activity. The rhythm of prayer, the psalms, silence and communal work repeatedly return a person to the fundamental claim that the world belongs to God. That conviction can transform environmental concern from a reaction to crisis into a continuing conversion of heart.

Prayer sharpens perception. Monks become more attentive to the conditions in which guests arrive, the resources consumed, the waste produced and the effects of work upon other people. Seasonal changes and the vulnerability of the local landscape can become matters of gratitude rather than mere background. This attention does not replace scientific knowledge; it gives that knowledge a moral and spiritual setting.

The practical effect may be modest: less waste, greater care with shared property, more deliberate hospitality and a readiness to repair rather than replace. It may also be demanding when communal life reveals habits that conflict with professed care. The monastic understanding holds both achievements and failures within the same path of conversion.

Everyday stewardship in Australian communities

At a monastery, hospitality and restraint belong together. Welcoming guests generously does not require extravagant consumption, while avoiding excess does not diminish hospitality. Even recreation can be approached with consideration for rules, courtesy and communal effects. The monastery's craps etiquette guide offers a playful example of how an ordinary activity can be received responsibly.

For Australian households

For parishes and community groups

These practices can be sustained when they are simple enough to become habits and accountable enough to be examined by others. Australian households already manage recycling, water restrictions and energy choices in different ways. Monastic discipline offers not a new household checklist but a spiritual framework for living with those choices.

Discernment and a shared vocation

Stewardship begins with vocation: discovering how one’s abilities and circumstances can serve God, other people and the wider world. The vocation is not limited to professional conservation work or to members of religious communities. It includes changing purchasing habits, supporting fair policies, caring for public land and helping a community cope with ecological loss.

For Australian Catholic groups, the diocesan vocation cross programme from the Diocese of Antipolo in the Philippines provides a concrete model for prayerful conversation about service. Its underlying principle travels well: discernment becomes communal when people listen carefully, test their motives and consider the needs they are being asked to serve.

Oblates and other friends of the monastery can also participate in this way of understanding service. The monastery’s vocation and information about its lay community can be approached through its news, retreat and other published resources. What matters is the formation of people capable of acting patiently and consistently, rather than adopting a single ideal without regard for particular circumstances.

Listening across religious traditions

Plaisance and Australia have very different landscapes, legal systems and religious settings, yet both communities face ecological questions that cannot be solved by technical knowledge alone. In Louisiana, monks understand stewardship within a Gulf Coast environment marked by wetlands, storms and seasonal heat. Australian communities confront drought, fire risk and the expansion of urban habitats.

Plural Australian society makes respectful dialogue especially important. Christians may encounter people whose religious traditions articulate responsibility toward creation in different ways. The aim is not to flatten those distinctions but to learn how each community interprets its sources and obligations. A scholarly discussion of Qur’an and Hadith traditions illustrates why such interpretation requires careful study.

Shared practical work can build understanding without requiring agreement on every theological question. Monks, lay partners and neighbours from different backgrounds can restore a wetland, reduce waste, visit people affected by disasters or plant native vegetation. Such cooperation creates trust and makes the common good more visible.

A practical path forward

Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth continue to expand, placing pressure on habitats while increasing exposure to urban heat. Rooftop solar, refillable supermarket containers, bulk-buying habits, farmers’ markets and container-deposit schemes in participating states and territories already shape household choices. These familiar practices can be understood as forms of mutual care rather than isolated consumer preferences.

Drought and bushfire recovery make environmental responsibility especially concrete. The Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 governs nationally significant environmental matters, while state and local rules govern many activities affecting native vegetation. In New South Wales, the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 is relevant; in Queensland, the Vegetation Management Act 1999 applies to many clearing activities. Support for Landcare, careful work by Traditional Owners and respect for Indigenous ecological knowledge remain essential.

These contrasts show how the same concern can operate at different scales:

Dimension Monastic understanding Australian community setting
Relationship to creation A gift received from God and held in trust A shared environment shaped by law, culture and mutual dependence
Daily decisions Prayer, work, restraint, hospitality and communal accountability Purchasing, transport, energy, food, waste and participation
Economic outlook Sufficiency, repair and responsible use Value for money balanced with ecological and social effects
Public responsibility Care for neighbours, guests and the surrounding place Compliance with environmental law and support for restoration
Signs of fidelity Simplicity, solidarity and lasting attention to vocation Reduced waste, lower emissions, healthier habitat and stronger communities

Stewardship becomes credible when contemplation leads to shared practice. Visit Mother of the Redeemer for prayer, a retreat, liturgical participation or quiet reflection, and explore how the monastery engages oblates and monastic vocations. Support the planned chapel expansion so this Benedictine centre can serve retreatants, neighbours and the wider community for years to come.