Pope Francis has issued his message for the 2022 World Day of Prayer for Creation, which is celebrated every year on Sept. 1, which he established in 2015 and is in keeping with the theme of his environmental statement, Laudato Si.
The World Day of Prayer for Creation also marks the beginning of The Season of Creation, which lasts until Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecology.
The theme for this year’s day and season of creation is “Listening to the Voice of Creation.” Pope Francis stated that in this season “we return to pray in the great cathedral of creation, enjoying the “grand cosmic choir” of innumerable creatures singing praises to God,” as we listen to the voice of creation.
The Season of Creation, which spans five weeks, offers, as Pope Francis says, “a time for individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creations, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork God has entrusted to our care and to implore divine help for the protection of all creation as well as seeking pardon for the faults and sins committed against the world in which we live.”
The Season of Creation reminds us and inspires us to participate more actively in two other special days of creation, World Water Day and World Earth Day in the spring. The pope stresses that these days of creation encourage all to make simple changes to their lives so that God’s creation is treated with respect.
This is a time to reflect on our lifestyles and how our daily decisions about food, consumption, transportation, use of water, energy, clean-up projects and many other goods can often be thoughtless and harmful. Rather, we should remember each day how we can form a positive attitude about all these issues to improve our common home.
We are beloved creatures of God whom in his goodness he calls to love life in communion with the rest of creation.
Francis strongly encourages all to pray during this season of increased prayer and concern on behalf of our common home. In the silence of prayer, we can hear the symphony of creation to abandon our self-centeredness in order to feel embraced by the tender love of our Father and Creator and to share in joy the gift we have received. He urges letting one’s prayer be inspired by the closeness of nature, mentioning that St. Bonaventure called creation the first “Book” that God opens before one’s eyes, “so that marveling at its order, variety and beauty, we can come to know, love and praise its creator.”
Pope Francis also recalls the dedication of many young people to the environmental cause. “The young remind us that the earth is not a possession to be squandered, but an inheritance to be handed down. They remind us that hope for tomorrow is not a noble sentiment but a task calling for concrete action here and now.”
The ecumenical phase begins Sept. 1 with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and concludes Oct. 4. Pope Francis states, “It is a special time for all Christians to pray and work together to care for our common home and for humanity to renew its relationship with the creator and with all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. This season is an opportunity to cultivate our ‘ecological conversion,’ a conversion encouraged by Saint Pope John Paul II as a response to the “ecological catastrophe” predicted by Saint Paul VI back in 1970.”
The pope continues, “If we learn to listen, we can hear in the voice of creation a kind of dissonance. On the other hand, we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; we also hear an anguished plea lamenting our mistreatment of our common home.” It is our sister, mother earth who cries out. Prey to our consumerist excesses, she weeps and implores us to put an end to our abuses and to her destruction.
Then too, there are many different creatures in our common home who also cry out with mother earth. There also are the poorest among us who are crying out. Exposed to climate crisis, the poor feel even more gravely the impact of drought, flooding, hurricanes and heat waves that are becoming ever more intense and frequent.
Likewise, our brothers and sisters of the native people are also crying out. As a result of predatory economic interest, their ancestral lands are being invaded and devastated on all sides, “provoking a cry that rises up to heaven.”
Pope Francis continues that the sweet song of creation invites us to practice “ecological spirituality,” attentive to God’s presence in the natural world. It is a summons to base our spirituality on the “loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures but joined in a splendid universal communion.” “It summons us to a new relationship with God and entails a different relationship with others and with all creation. The present state of decay of our common home merits the same attention as other global challenges such as grave health crisis and wars. Living our call to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to the life of our Christian experience.”
The Most Rev. Michael Pfeifer, OMI, of San Antonio is bishop emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo.
