Learning the Practice of a Holy Exchange
From February 2–11, the Diocese of Texas supported a continuing education pilgrimage for clergy in the Peruvian Amazon titled El Cuidado de la Creación. Nine clergy participated, representing the North, East, West, and South regions of our diocese.
For ten days, they lived and learned in one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. The Amazon rainforest is often described as vital to the planet’s ecological balance and climate stability. A vast and complex system where life depends upon delicate reciprocity.
The pilgrimage was intentionally designed as time for spiritual reflection, theological learning, and attentive presence in creation — slowing down long enough to notice the details God has already placed there.
In the quiet rhythm of river travel and forest life, participants encountered a simple but profound truth: the land gives. But a healthy exchange requires that we also give back.
Bishop Monterroso reflected on this balance of reciprocity. In the forest, nothing hoards. Animals take what sustains them and return what they do not use to the earth. Life is sustained through exchange, not accumulation.
“We often arrive with expectations,” he reflected, “wanting something extraordinary. But when we slow down and practice gratitude, we begin to see that what already exists is more than enough. Creation itself is already the great marvel of God. A healthy exchange — giving back — is part of honoring and being conscious of that creation.”
In a culture often shaped by consumption and excess, this lesson felt particularly urgent. The Amazon does not merely display beauty; it reveals a pattern of life grounded in balance, restraint, and gratitude. Creation is not a possession. It is a gift — and gifts invite responsibility.
Each day, the group prayed the Daily Office and celebrated the Holy Eucharist. They studied together, reflected together, and shared meals in community. Pilgrimage, as one participant noted, is not tourism. It is a way of traveling that allows God to shape us through place, prayer, and people.
The Rev. Mike Stone reflected:
“Pilgrimage is a way of traveling in community: praying the hours, celebrating daily Eucharist, and engaging in study together. We prayed, ate, learned, and explored alongside local guides and communities.”
The clergy also learned from local leaders and guides, many of them in their early twenties. These young adults are already leading conservation efforts and carrying forward ancestral wisdom. They are entrusted with real responsibility.
In the Amazon, intergenerational leadership is not theoretical, it is lived. Young people make decisions. They carry the legacy of their communities. They transmit wisdom while adapting to new challenges. Elders guide, youth lead. Authority and listening move in both directions.
That witness offers something essential to the Church.
Shared responsibility. Mutual listening. Spaces where wisdom moves both ways.
The forest itself became a teacher, not only of ecological balance, but of communal life.
Freed from constant phones and digital interruption, participants noticed another rhythm. People arrived when they said they would. When smaller boats approached, larger ones made way. There was an instinct to honor others’ presence and time. Consideration was not announced; it was practiced.
Creation was not merely scenery. It was sacrament, a visible sign pointing toward invisible grace.
Through river and canopy, through prayer and conversation, God was teaching again what Scripture has long proclaimed: the earth is the Lord’s, and we are stewards within it.
This pilgrimage was not only about seeing the Amazon. It was about learning to see differently.
To see that enough can be enough.
To see that reciprocity is holy.
To see that creation is not a backdrop to ministry, but one of its teachers.
As these clergy return to their congregations across the Diocese of Texas, they carry more than memories of the Amazon. They carry renewed commitment to practice gratitude, to cultivate balance, and to care for God’s creation in ways that are local, intentional, and faithful.
El Cuidado de la Creación is not confined to one place on the map. It is a calling that travels home with us.
And it begins with a simple discipline:
to receive with gratitude,
and to give back in love.
