NOTE:  A novena leading up to the feast of St Francis can be started on this day. It includes a prayer, reflection, petition and offering of self.  See SACBC Season of Creation reflections. www.sacbc.org.za

September 25.  “Today we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach: it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the ‘cry of the earth’ and the ‘cry of the poor’ (LS 49). This time has given us hope for the future, conscious that there are no simple answers but that there is a time for everything as the Bible says:

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born and a time to die

A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted

A time to kill and a time to heal

A time to break down and a time to build up

A time to weep and a time to laugh

A time to mourn and a time to dance

A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing

A time to seek and a time to lose

A time to keep and a time to cast away

A time to mend and a time to sew

A time to keep silence and a time to speak

A time to love and a time to hate

A time for war and a time for peace.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Pope Francis: But we should be particularly indignant at the enormous inequalities in our midst, whereby we continue to tolerate some considering themselves more worthy than others. We fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading poverty, with no way out, while others have not the faintest idea of what to do with their possessions, vainly showing off their supposed superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which, if it were the case everywhere, would destroy the planet. In practice, we continue to tolerate that some consider themselves more human than others, as if they had been born with greater rights. LS 90.  

Ecotip.  The passage from Ecclesiastes is a powerful resource to reflect deeply and possibly to identify where I and our family stand in the journey to become eco-friendly. Pray for wisdom in discerning the way forward.   

DAILY FAMILY PRAYER from Season of Creation 2026.  May God our Father, who brought water from a rock, sustain us in the desert. May Christ our Lord, who is Living Water, refresh us for the work of restoration.  May the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen. St Francis guide and inspire us on our way.