Wednesday October 4: the feast of St. Francis, the high point of the Time for Creation, the day of the publication of Laudate Deum, the sequel to the encyclical Laudato si'... and a very special day for the AILE network: the ecological transition referents from Jesuit schools in France met for the first time at Le Châtelard.

With training sessions, peer-to-peer workshops, feedback, a visit to Le Châtelard (the Jesuit spiritual ecocentre near Lyon), a talk by Parlons climat! an introduction to carbon footprinting, and of course informal time spent over a delicious vegetarian meal, the outcome of the day was unanimously positive. One word emerged from the review: the joy of meeting and sharing realities, difficulties and successes.

A time for meeting and training, the October 4 event was the fruit of a year of gradual construction of this network of referents. It is part of a more global drive to define and set in motion a common vision and strategy for ecological transition across the network of Jesuit schools in France (AILE). It enables us to test pedagogical projects and transform practices to feed into the in-depth work of the Ecological Transition Commission launched last May. Last but not least, it is a tremendous boost and support for those in the field, who work every day to train hundreds of young people (and the not-so-young) to understand and face the current ecological crisis with hope.