“Each year from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites for this worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. Our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth.
We rejoice in this opportunity to safeguard our common home and all beings who share it. This year, the theme for the season is “To hope and act with Creation”. Amid the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, many are beginning to despair and suffer from eco-anxiety. As people of faith we are called to lift the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. This is not a hope without action but one embodied in concrete actions of prayer and preaching, service and solidarity. This season, we are also uniting our Christian voices through a joint advocacy initiative to support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty which calls for a halt to new fossil fuel projects.” (Guide for the Season of Creation 2024, page 3)
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HOPE AND ACT WITH CREATION?
In his Message for the Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2024 Pope Francis encourages us to:
– Live and incarnational faith, one that can enter into the suffering and hope-filled “flesh” of others.
– Join forces and help rethink the question of human power, its meaning and its limits.
In Fratelli Tutti, the Holy father invites us to live a spirit of social friendship, marked by universal fellowship, Christian peace and the stewardship of our common home.
HOW CAN WE LIVE OUT THIS SPIRIT OF UNIVERSAL FELLOWSHIP?
The Holy Spirit calls faith Communities:
– To Extend this harmony between human beings and to creation, with responsibility for a humane and integral ecology, the path to salvation of our common home and of ourselves who inhabit it.
– To conversion, a change of lifestyle, to resist environmental degradation.
– To engage in that social critique which is above all a witness to the possibility of change.
“The protection of creation is therefore not only and ethical issue, but one that is also eminently theological. It is the point where the mystery of man and the mystery of God intersect.” (Message for the Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2024, par 8)
Join the following events of the Season of Creation:
September 10 at 2pm: Webinar about the Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty with high-level speakers from religious and political spheres. Find more details on how to join the event here.
September 21: Fossil Fuels Day of Action. Find more information here.
October 4 @2pm: Closing prayer service for the Feast of St. Francis led by the Ecumenical Youth Committee. Find more details on how to join the event here.
On a more local level:
September 5 at 7pm: Wilton Justice Group will hold a Prayer Service in the Gardens of SMA Wilton, Cork to mark the Season of Creation.
September 25 at 7pm: SMA and OLA communities will join for an online for an Evening Prayer Service, based of the Vespers of the day, on the 25th of September at 7pm. Watch our Facebook page for more information about joining this.
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