LEXINGTON -- "I feel God's presence when I'm in nature," says Kathryn Rapperport.

Rapperport has been a parishioner at Sacred Heart in Lexington for a quarter century. She used to garden with the former pastor, Father Arnold Colletti. Sacred Heart is a personal parish in the Archdiocese of Boston that is dedicated to preserving the natural world, based on the teachings of Pope Francis's environmentalist encyclical "Laudato Si'."

"I found 'Laudato Si' very moving," Rapperport said, "but I was always raised to care about the environment, so to have this expressed in such a beautiful way for Catholics and to get all of these parishioners involved in caring for creation is a really moving experience."

Nov. 15 looked like a typical Saturday morning for the parish, with volunteers gardening, cleaning, and working to beautify the parish's surroundings. Since 2024, however, this work has taken on a new spiritual dimension. Sacred Heart is the first-ever parish Ark of Biodiversity, a designation it received last year from the St. Kateri Conservation Center. Named after St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint, the center is a Catholic land trust that preserves natural habitats.

"The idea is that you create a sacred space for increasing biodiversity, the way Noah preserved species, and Mary brought forth Christ into the world, and there was a new covenant," Rapperport said. "This is a new way of looking at the environment for the Catholic Church."

At least 30 percent of a parish's land has to be set aside for conservation in order to become an ark. Sacred Heart's ministries, such as its Masses of Creation, environmental education programs, and support of a girls' school in Honduras, also appealed to the St. Kateri Center. On Nov. 15, volunteers planted native plants and removed invasive species. Any detritus, such as leaves and trimmed branches, is left on site to decompose naturally. It's better for the environment that way, Rapperport said.

Two acres of hilly woodland adjacent to the church are being set aside as conservation land. The area was full of trash before volunteers began their work there. Great horned owls, white-tailed deer, rabbits, hawks, and foxes make their homes there. Migratory birds like warblers and thrushes use the land as a stop on their journey.

The parish property abuts land owned by the Town of Lexington, which connects with another conservation area. This creates a sort of highway for animals to travel without being disturbed by human activity. There are plans for a trail going through the town-owned land and Sacred Heart's ark. The plan is awaiting approval by the Archdiocese of Boston.

Rapperport pointed out that the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental landowner on Earth.

"If each parish started to take this seriously, it would make a huge difference to the environment," she said.

Holly Yasaitis, Sacred Heart's "master gardener," was putting finishing touches on the pollinator garden outside the parish center. She gave a comprehensive tour of its inhabitants -- bayberry, spicebush, summer sweet, Christmas ferns, Norway maples (invasive, and therefore needing to be cut), black-eyed Susans, petunias, Joe-Pye weed, coneflowers, spiderwort, evening primrose, and more.

"It creates space for native pollinators, native bees, and insects," she said, "because the other grass, your typical foundation plantings, provide nothing for pollinators or habitat."

The Japanese decorative plants outside the parish center have to be trimmed and aren't very helpful to the environment, she explained. She hopes that all of the grass surrounding the parish center will become a pollinator garden someday. When she gardens, she thanks God for the plants and for life itself.

"It gives me a sense of peace and oneness to be fostering God's creation," she said.