Season of Creation 2021 - 1 September to 4 October

In 2015 Pope Francis published his ground-breaking encyclical on the environment 'Laudato Si’ – On Care for Our Common Home.' In it he calls on all people of the world to enter into dialogue about what is happening to our planet, urging us to listen to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. He invites us to “become painfully aware” of the extent of this crisis and engage in the eco-conversion that is needed to protect our common home.

We are invited to join Christians around the world in celebrating this season in prayer, especially in our liturgies, in deep reflection, in living more sustainably and in raising our voices in the public sphere. We are invited to think more deeply about what is happening at present to the earth, the environmental destruction which now threatens our world and the call to ‘eco-conversion’.

It is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on our place within the story of creation and to accept our individual and collective responsibility to care for our common home. The Season of Creation offers all of us a unique opportunity to renew our vocation to become stewards of God’s creation. Our commitment to the care of our common home is not some kind of add-on to our faith or optional extra; instead as Pope Francis continually reminds us the care of God’s creation should be at the centre of our call as Christians.

“The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion…whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (Laudato Si’ #217)

Source: https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2021/07/21/season-of-creation-2021/

In 2021 the theme for this month long celebration of creation is: 

A Home for all? Renewing the Oikos of God.

The full guide for the Ecumenical Christian Season of Creation is HERE

Season of Creation Prayer 2021 HERE

Season of Creation Toolkit HERE

Resources for each Sunday during the Season of Creation available from the Integral Ecology Committee - Wellington Archdiocese HERE

Message from Pope Francis for the Season of Creation HERE

Suggestions for Prayer of the Faithful

Response to each of these prayers is: Whakarongo mai rā ki a mātou.

Week one: 5 Sept

Let us pray: Christ who opened the ears of the deaf man, open our ears to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Leader: E te Ariki... Response       

Week two: 12 Sept

Let us pray for those in need of someone to listen to them. May we respond generously with our time and aroha to all we encounter each day.

Leader: E te Ariki...  Response     

Week three: 19 Sept

Let us pray that we may gain a deeper appreciation of the beauty and diversity of all that you have created and of how we are interconnected with each other and with the natural world. 

Leader: E te Ariki...  Response 

Week four: 26 Sept

Let us pray: Mindful that the survival of our planet and the well-being of humanity is threatened, we pray that UN Agreements to reduce global warming and to care for the poor will be honoured by governments throughout the world. 

Leader: E te Ariki...  Response 

Week five: 3 Oct

Let us pray for people in the world whose basic and inalienable rights are not met. Give us the courage to speak up on their behalf.

 Leader: E te Ariki...  Response 

Music for the Season of Creation

All creatures of our God and King

Peace is flowing like a river

Make me a channel of your peace

Give thanks with a grateful heart

All things bright and beautiful

Be still

Now thank we all our God

This is my commandment I give you

The Lord Hears the cry of the poor

Awesome God (Chris Skinner)

Whakaaria Mai

Te Aroha

Listen and Sing

For the beauty of the Earth by John Rutter

Song Words HERE

A short powerpoint HERE

Youtube link to John Rutter's 'For the beauty of the Earth" HERE

Joyful mysteries of the Rosary for the Care of Creation

Available HERE from CAFOD  

Our Common Home seen from Space: 

‘The astronaut looks back and sees the Earth not as something big but small. And now the contrast between Earth--that bright blue-and-white Christmas tree ornament--and that black sky, that infinite universe, really comes through. Earth becomes so small and so fragile, and such a precious little spot in the universe, and you realize that on that small spot, that little blue-and-white thing, is everything that means anything to you; all of history, music, poetry, art, games, war and death, birth and love, tears and joy, all of it is on that little spot out there that you can cover with your thumb.

‘You’re going 25,000 mph, ripping through a vacuum, and there's not a sound. There's a silence, the depth of which you've never experienced before, and you think about what you're experiencing and why. Have you been separated out by God to have some special experience that other people cannot have? No.

‘It's not for yourself. You have to bring it back, somehow--a rather special responsibility. It tells you something about your relationship with this life. When you come back, there's a difference—so precious-- in the relationship between you and that planet and all its forms of life, because you've had that kind of experience.’ Astronaut Russell Sweickaart 1969

“Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.” Laudato si’ #205