“All those who walked with Mary this early morning—congratulations! In a small way, you’ve shown not only that your knees are still strong, but also that you have a deep love for the Blessed Mother.

Let us pray that we may learn to walk with Mary not just once a year, but every day of our lives. May we walk with Mary each day so that we never lose our way. To reach heaven, let us ask Mary to always hold us by the hand. She is not our Savior. But as a loving Mother, she will always lead us to Jesus, our Lord and our salvation.

And today, her Son Jesus invites us to do something very simple: “Look at the birds of the air. Consider the lilies of the field.”

Look. Consider. Pay attention.

Perhaps these words of Jesus are even more important today. Because we live in a generation that is always looking—but very often looking at a screen. We wake up and look at our phones. While eating, we look at our phones. While walking, we look at our phones. Sometimes even while talking to another person, we are looking at our phones.

We can spend hours scrolling through pictures of the world while failing to notice the beautiful world right in front of us.

And Jesus today is like telling us: Put down your phone for a while. Look at the birds. Look at the flowers. Look at the grass. Look at the sky. Look at the trees.

There is something deeply spiritual about paying attention. Jesus could have given His disciples a complicated theological explanation of God’s providence. Instead, He pointed to a bird. “Look.” Then He pointed to the flowers. “Consider.” Then to the grass.

Jesus was teaching His disciples that creation itself can become a school of faith. The birds teach us trust. The lilies teach us beauty. The grass teaches us that even the smallest and most ordinary parts of creation are held in God’s care.

But there is also an important lesson here for our celebration of the Care for Creation: We will not protect what we do not appreciate. And we cannot appreciate what we no longer notice.

If our children grow up knowing more about the latest gadgets than the trees growing in their neighborhood, something is missing.

If we know hundreds of personalities on social media but cannot recognize the birds flying around our homes, something is missing.

If we can spend hours watching videos but cannot spend five minutes admiring a sunrise, listening to the rain, or watching the sea, something is missing.

Before we teach people to protect creation, perhaps we must first teach them to fall in love with creation again.

And Mary can help us.

Mary lived close to the earth. She belonged to a simple family in Nazareth. She knew the value of water because water had to be fetched. She knew the value of food because food required work. She knew the rhythm of the seasons, the fields, the rain and the harvest.

And we can imagine the child Jesus growing up in this simple home.

Most likely, Mary was among the first to teach Jesus to notice the world around Him.

“Jesus, look at the birds.”

“Jesus, look at the flowers.”

“Jesus, look at the wheat growing in the field.”

Years later, Jesus would use precisely these ordinary things—birds, flowers, seeds, wheat, vines, sheep, water, mountains—to teach people about God. Creation became part of His language for speaking about the Father.

And perhaps this is something Mary can teach us today: If we love the Creator, we must learn to love and care for His creation.

We cannot honor Mary with flowers while destroying the soil where flowers grow. We cannot pray before her image while ignoring families suffering from floods, extreme heat, polluted water, damaged forests and environmental destruction.

Our devotion must become responsibility. Our prayer must become action. Our Walk for Mary must become a walk of care for our common home.

Jesus begins today’s Gospel with strong words: “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

When money becomes our master, creation easily becomes merchandise. A forest becomes only timber. A mountain becomes only minerals. A river becomes something to exploit. The sea becomes a dumping ground.

But when God is our Master, we see differently. The forest becomes God’s creation. The river becomes God’s gift. The sea becomes God’s blessing. The birds become our fellow creatures. And the people affected by environmental destruction become our brothers and sisters. Because caring for creation is also caring for people.

When we destroy a watershed, somebody downstream suffers.

When we throw garbage carelessly, somebody else’s community may eventually be flooded.

When we pollute the sea, somebody loses a livelihood.

When we destroy forests, our children and grandchildren inherit the consequences.

Everything is connected.

And so today, as we walk for Mary, let us ask her to teach us three simple ways of walking.

Walk with open eyes.

Look around you. Rediscover the beauty of God’s creation. Put down the phone sometimes. Look at the sky. Listen to the birds. Notice the trees. Watch the sunrise. Let creation awaken gratitude in your heart.

Walk gently.

Do not leave destruction behind you. Avoid unnecessary plastics. Do not waste water or food. Plant and care for trees. Protect our rivers, seas, mountains, forests and wildlife.

Walk gratefully.

Everything around us is gift. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the trees that give us shade—none of these began with us. We received them. And what we have received as gift, we must pass on as gift.

For those we may never meet

There is a beautiful story about an old man planting a small tree beside the road.

Someone asked him, “Why are you planting that tree? You are already old. You may never enjoy its shade.”

The old man smiled and answered:

“All my life, I have rested under trees planted by people I never knew. Now it is my turn to plant something for people I may never meet.”