Pope Francis has written two encyclicals calling on Catholics to adopt more simple lives of sharing in order that we ourselves will not destroy all mortal beings.
An article on George Washington Carver’s influence on the environmental movement caught my attention last week. (“The Land-healing Work of George Washington Carver”https://grist.org/fix/george-washington-carver-environmental-legacy/.) Unfortunately, the author ignores the role of faith in Dr. Carver’s life.
His Wikipedia article quotes him in a letter:
A dear little white boy, one of our neighbors, about my age came by one Saturday morning, and in talking and playing he told me he was going to Sunday school tomorrow morning. I was eager to know what a Sunday school was. He said they sang hymns and prayed. I asked him what prayer was and what they said. I do not remember what he said; only remember that as soon as he left, I climbed up into the 'loft,' knelt down by the barrel of corn and prayed as best I could. I do not remember what I said. I only recall that I felt so good that I prayed several times before I quit. My brother and myself were the only colored children in that neighborhood and of course, we could not go to church or Sunday school, or school of any kind. — G. W. Carver; Letter to Isabelle Coleman; July 24, 1931 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver
Charles D. Reed, a classmate of Dr. Carver at Iowa State University wrote a lengthy reminiscence, "George Washington Carver, Mystic Scientist" In The Annals of Iowa 24 (1943), 248-253. Available at https://doi.org/10.17077/0003-4827.6201.
Day by day his mind was keenly sensitive to the guiding Holy Spirit of the Creator, and wonderful discoveries were revealed to him through channels that are not open to the scientist who is a physical scientist only. Mr. Carver was a faithful and consistent student of the Bible, and where he found promises of care and guidance he meditated upon these day and night. He cleared his heart of the frivolities of life and left it wide open for the entry of the Holy Spirit, and day by day that Spirit revealed to him the steps he must take, and he did not hesitate to take them.
This Lent, in keeping with Dr. Carver and Pope Francis, let us clear our hearts of the frivolities of life and leave them wide open for the entry of the Holy Spirit. Amen!