Christmas Letter to the Pope

December 12, 2020

His Holiness Pope Francis
00120 Vatican City

Most Honorable Holy Father,

I send you the most blessed and sacred of all Christmas greetings.  As a Christmas gift, I am enclosing my Prayer Book for Our Planet: Solutions for Social Justice and Environmental Change. I hope it reaches you, despite the screening of thousands of Christmas parcels you receive.

I wrote this book eleven years ago and knew without hesitation that the Holy Spirit had everything to do with its inspiration and creation.  It was recently released in what I believe to be a perfect example of Divine Order.  The book’s timing could not be more critical, considering the conditions of the planet and all the creatures on it.

I note that your celebrated book, Laudato Si’ is named after the eighth line in the Canticle of the Creatures, one of the prayers I included for contemplation in my work.  I obtained a copy of the Canticle while visiting the town of Assisi in 2006.  Laudato Si’ is a beautiful celebration of the extravagance of God’s creation, just as the Canticle is.

You and I share a great reverence for this sacred planet, Earth, and hope to inspire others to care for our common home.  I sincerely hope you will have the opportunity to read, contemplate and savor the Prayer Book, for it is written in the same spirit as your work.

You have my most humble admiration and profound respect.  You are the finest Pope that I have experienced in my lifetime, and I believe I share my feelings with all the people of our glorious planet Earth.

May God richly bless and keep you.

Sincerely,


Marybeth Gallagher