In 2015, Pope Francis designated 1 September as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Catholic Church, encouraging all members of the Catholic community to ‘rediscover in our own rich spiritual patrimony the deepest motivations for our concern for the care of creation’.
For this, the fourth year of celebration, he drew our prayerful attention to water. ‘Care for water sources and water basins is an urgent imperative’ and we must ‘recognize that every privatization of the natural good of water, at the expense of the human right to have access to this good, is unacceptable.’ This includes seas and oceans. The complete text of the message can be read here.
The complete documentary can be watched here
The World Day of Prayer begins the Season of Creation which culminates in the Feast day of St Francis on 4th October.
During this season you might like to pray again the prayer for the Earth, written by Pope Francis. You could pray it in sections over 7 days, taking time to reflect on each verse, or you might like to pray the complete prayer, daily or weekly. You will find both formats in our Spirituality section here
Pope Francis has also recorded a video for the World day of Prayer which you might like to view.
The Season offers an invitation to take the Laudato Si’ pledge which has three aspects to it:
• Pray for and with creation;
• Live more simply;
• Advocate to protect our common home.
You might also like to visit the Season of Creation website and engage in the suggested activities or use some of the resources.
