Cairo, Sant’Anna School: children attending after-school classes enjoyed a special day dedicated to integral ecology.

From early morning, the children, accompanied by their leaders – our secondary school students – spent the day in a garden where they admired fruit trees such as mangoes, olives, oranges and other ornamental plants. The children learned how to care for a tree to help it bear fruit.

In addition, for the first time, they observed chickens up close in their coop with their eggs.

In the afternoon, after all these emotions and outdoor activities, the children gathered for a moment of calm. Sitting on the ground on rugs, they listened to a beautiful reading about nature and the seasons. Silence reigned, interrupted only by the singing of birds.

This day allowed the children to understand the importance of nature and respect for the environment, while experiencing moments of joy, sharing and serenity.

We have much to learn from the plant world, as the well-known biblical scholar Jean Louis Ska reminds us. And the Bible encourages us to go in this direction.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of Nazareth invites his disciples to contemplate nature in order to learn some essential lessons for life: (Mt 6:25-30): ‘Look at the birds of the sky: they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Observe how the lilies of the field grow: they do not toil or spin; yet I tell you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of them. 3If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

We have something to learn from the grass of the field. According to experts, vegetation occupies 85% of the biosphere, much more than animals and other living beings.

Vegetation appeared on earth 450 million years ago, while humanity is much more recent: according to the latest estimates, it dates back only about 400,000 years.

Vegetation has much more experience than we do. It therefore has much to teach us.