To Hope and Act With Creation Season of Creation 2024
by Kathleen Rushton RSM on behalf of the Laudato Si’ Action Group
The Season of Creation Celebration which extends from 1 September until 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, offers us a way to take steps towards believing more deeply in God as Creator. Throughout this month-long celebration, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians come together to care for our common home.
This year’s theme is: “To Hope and Act with Creation” and the symbol inspired by Roman 8:19-25 is: “The first fruits of hope.” In his letter to the Romans, Paul pictures the earth as a mother, groaning in childbirth. Later, Francis of Assisi referred to the earth as our Sister and our Mother. Today our relationship with the earth is one of subjection and exploitation rather than one of nurturing and respect.
There is, however, still hope and expectation for a new unfolding future.
In a biblical context, hope does not mean to stand quiet and still, but rather God calls us to groan, to cry out and strive for new life amidst the struggles. Just as in childbirth, we go through a period of intense pain but new life springs forth.
The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. We join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer, solidarity and action for our common home.
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis echoes St Pope John Paul II who called us to “ecological conversion” which is a “summons to profound interior conversion.” What everyone needs, Francis writes, is an ‘ecological conversion,’ whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them” (Laudato Si’ 217).
In the Laudato Si’ Movement Prayer Book (laudatosimovement. org/prayer-book), Cardinal Michael Czerny, who is now the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, writes that in this booklet “you will find inspiration for how to express: exhilaration, awe and joy at the wonders of the natural world, gratitude for all of nature’s gifts that sustain us, sorrow and shame at how we humans have mistreated the earth and each other and committed to do so, commitment to heal the earth and our human relationships.”
During October, the month of the Most Holy Rosary, we can pray Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries which are set out with scripture passages followed by special reflections for each mystery.
Contact: kprushton@gmail.com
On the Season of Creation: seasonofcreation.org/resources
Catholic Liturgical Guide: drive.google.com/file/d/1qv2Q46 TCv9L5w5HYeXImVgFODwh9exbM/view
