Pope Francis’s message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, 1st September, invites the whole of humanity to recognize our responsibility for the destruction of God’s creation, our common home.
Our greed and violence destroys. Yet we must have hope, pray and act so that ‘our sister mother earth’, as Saint Francis called our planet home, will flourish for the good of all.
‘Despite our sins and the daunting challenges before us, we never lose heart.
“The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us… for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and his love constantly impels us to find new ways forward” (Laudato Si, 13; 245).
In a particular way, let us pray on 1 September, and indeed throughout the year:
“O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
who are so precious in your eyes…
God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth” (ibid., 246),
God of mercy, may we receive your forgiveness
and convey your mercy throughout our common home.
Praise be to you!
Amen.’
