The Season of Creation has a special significance for the Catholic Church, particularly since Pope Francis established 1 September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
The Season of Creation or Creation Time, is marked throughout the Christian world from 1 September to 4 October (Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment.
RESTORING OUR COMMON HOME
The theme for the Season of Creation 2021 is ‘Restoring Our Common Home’. During this season we are asked to join together to celebrate creation and protect our common home through prayer, reflection and action.
The global Christian family is called to awaken to the urgent need to heal our relationships with creation and with each other and to encourage our parish communities to do the same, “for we know that things can change!” (Laudato Si’, 13).
Pope Francis has invited the faithful to participate in this annual season “to renew their faith in the God of creation and join in prayer and work for the care of our common home.”
Wednesday 1st September 2021
As a Diocese we will mark the opening of the Season of Creation with a service On Wednesday 1st September in St Peter’s Cathedral at 7pm. The event is being coordinated by a newly established Laudato Si group in the Diocese and the homilist will be Fr Timothy Bartlett. Join us online www.churchservices.tv/stpeterscathedral. We are all encouraged in this season to read Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ On Care of our Common Home. In this week we pray for greater attention to the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor and that we may commit ourselves to living according to the vision and values of Laudato Si’.
Each day of the Season of Creation there will be a post on the Diocese of Down and Connor and the Living Church Facebook pages scheduled for 7am. Please click on the links below for further information:
https://www.facebook.com/downandconnor/
https://www.facebook.com/livingchurchdownandconnor/
Sunday 5th September 2021
“The Lord was able to invite others to be attentive to the beauty that there is in the world because he himself was in constant touch with nature, lending it an attention full of fondness and wonder.” (LS’, 97). As a diocese we are blessed with so many areas of natural beauty and we are encouraged this week to take time to contemplate, with wonder and awe, the world in which we are blessed to live.
Sunday 12th September 2021
The Season of Creation continues and we encourage everyone across the Diocese to take time in prayer and reflection. We are encouraged to reflect on all that the earth provides for us and to pray this grace before meals;
Generous God, you embrace all of creation, and bless us with gifts of life. As we break this bread, we praise you for your goodness, we give thanks to those who grew our food, and we remember those who are hungry. May we be moved by the Holy Spirit to share these gifts as one family, and so catch a glimpse of your Kingdom, of justice, peace and love. Amen.
Sunday 19th September 2021
The Season of Creation is a critical moment for Catholics to lift up the voices of the most vulnerable and advocate on their behalf ahead of the important summits, the UN Summit on Biodiversity (COP 15) in October and the UN Climate Summit in November (COP 26). Bishop Treanor invites you to join advocacy initiatives such as the Healthy Planet, Healthy People Petition urging for bold action to protect creation in addition to other initiatives calling for new paths forward together. To sign the petition visit www.thecatholicpetition.org
Sunday 26th September 2021
The season of creation closes on Monday 4th October the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.
St Francis ‘was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.’ (LS,10).
We encourage everyone in the Diocese to consider the personal actions that they will prayerfully commit to in caring for our common home and to ask for the intercession of St Francis.