Hello, I am Linda Sheran, I live in Tegucigalpa Honduras, I am a Laudato Si Animator since May 2021, deputy responsible for the Laudato Si Circles of the Honduras Chapter starting this year. I have always had an appreciation for nature. I like sunsets, a walk in the countryside, enjoying the beach with my family.

In a certain way I was outraged to see the burning of the mountains in summer, I criticized the people who littered in the street, of course I didn’t do those things but I didn’t improve my habits either. I didn’t take into account the amount of plastic I used every day at home, or the amount of prepared food I ended up throwing away in the garbage.

With the Encyclical Laudato Si, I heard the call of our Mother Church to live an ecological conversion. Little by little I have incorporated changes, small but lasting, that allow me to move forward every day in a more sober lifestyle. Because any change in favor of the common home, is not insignificant but not enough either, there will always be something left to improve or to do.

I avoid single-use plastic, I cook the necessary portions of food to avoid waste, I separate organic waste to prepare compost, I avoid unnecessary purchases, among other actions.

As a mother of three girls, Edna (16), Ana (14) and Ximena (7), two of them are already Laudato Sí Animators, and they also work in activities promoted by the chapter in our country, such as the Ecoreaders, a community that reads the ecclesial documents on the protection and care of the planet. I motivate and support them, aware of the responsibility I have towards my descendants, perhaps a generation that I may not meet but that I would like to enjoy nature as much as I do. My family is the first community I live and walk with in my conversion. With their company I am getting involved in concrete activities for the care of our environment and for the poor.

I know that we cannot live a true conversion if we forget our less favored brothers and sisters, as the Holy Father says in the Encyclical Laudato Sí: “to listen both to the cry of the earth and to the cry of the poor” LS 49.

This Holy Week 2022 together with my family we were able to do mission in the community of Marale, going out of our comfort, leaving aside indifference, proclaiming the Gospel, listening to the other as a brother, with faith in God that things can change for the better if we all cooperate.

This is a decision that is renewed every day. I am currently a volunteer in an organization that accompanies educational processes in the rural area near Tegucigalpa, who have been forgotten and live as discarded. Inequity affects us all.

If you have come this far, I invite you not to be discouraged and to continue, may Mary Most Holy, Mother and Queen of all creation, guard your heart and help you.

Linda Sheran – Deputy National Circle Leader LS Honduras