Introduction. The ecumenical Season of Creation begins on 1 September with World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends on 4 October the feastday of St Francis. Supported by many churches including the Catholic Church it offers a range of resources and celebrations e.g. Blessing of Pets around feast of St Francis. Our common prayer and action can help us listen for the voices of those who are silenced. In prayer we lament the individuals, communities, species, and ecosystems who are lost, and those whose livelihoods are threatened by habitat loss and climate change. By action we listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.  

Pope Francis message for the World Day of Prayer. If we learn to listen we can hear in the voice of creation a kind of dissonance. On the one hand we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; on the other an anguished plea lamenting our mistreatment of our common home. During this Season of Creation let us pray that the upcoming conferences COP 27 on climate change and COP 15 on biodiversity can serve to unite the human family in effectively confronting the double crisis of climate change and the reduction or biodiversity. It is our sister mother earth who cries out in a call to us to repentance and ecological conversion.  Ecological education can take place at school, in families, in the media, in catechesis and elsewhere. Good education plants seeds when we are young, that continue to bear fruit throughout life.  LS213.

Setting the scene for the MARFAM DAILY THOUGHTS. A 4 step SEE-JUDGE-ACT format is used. 1. A look at life – Parish Justice and Peace and Family Ministry team family activity, an eco-safari. 2. Scripture from readings of the day. 3. Pope Francis writings, particularly Laudato Si’. 4. Daily Eco-tip and prayer. Suggested family prayer for the season is   Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Amen.    

September 1. WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR CREATION. SEASON OF CREATION 2022 THEME: LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF CREATION.   Bruce announced,  “Our family has decided to go a an eco-safari, exploring what we can about nature and our country. Like many families we are concerned about the state of the world, which is our home. Can you believe that there was a time when people believed that the world was flat, standing on pillars in the waters below with the sky a dome above?   It is amazing how different branches of science are showing us much more about our world, the whole universe, and our particular place in it.  The Bible gives us two different creation stories but what really matters is the message. God is the Creator and created everything out of love and for love.  Everything from the sun, the moon and the stars, to water, air and land and every creature, large and small has its place. Human beings hold a unique and special place in creation because we are made in God’s own image and likeness. As individuals but also as a couple together they mirror the relationship of love of the Trinity.   

Scripture. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world, and all who dwell in it. It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm.  PS 24. Pope Francis extract from the Message for the World Day of Prayer for Creationy:  It is a special time for all Christians to pray and work together to care for our common home and an opportunity to cultivate our “ecological conversion”, If we learn how to listen, we can hear in the voice of creation a kind of dissonance. On the one hand, we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; on the other, an anguished plea, lamenting our mistreatment of this our common home. The sweet song of creation invites us to practise an “ecological spirituality” (LS 216), attentive to God’s presence in the natural world and to base our spirituality on the “loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion” LS220. For the followers of Christ this reinforces our awareness that “all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (Jn 1:3) 

ECO-TIP AND PRAYER:  This World Day of Prayer begins the Season of Creation. Check the media for any significant climate related events anywhere in the world, e.g. flood, drought, fire, hurricane, cold, heatwave, etc.  Offer a prayer in union with those affected.   End with Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Amen