Pope Francis has declared 1st September to be an annual ‘World Day of Prayer for Care for Creation’. The day of prayer, the Pope said, will give individuals and communities an opportunity to implore God’s help in protecting creation and an opportunity to ask God’s forgiveness “for sins committed against the world in which we live.”
Pope Francis said in his statement announcing the day: “As Christians we wish to contribute to resolving the ecological crisis which humanity is presently experiencing. In doing so, we must first rediscover in our own rich spiritual patrimony the deepest motivations for our concern for the care of creation. We need always to keep in mind that, for believers in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who became man for our sake, “the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us” (Laudato Si’, 216).
Resources
Materials for Creation Time 2015
https://ctbi.org.uk/creation-time-2015/
Prayers section of http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-News-Media-Library/Archive-Media-Assets/Files/Environment/Between-the-Flood-and-the-Rainbow
Liturgy material from the European Churches Christian Environmental Network.
http://www.ecen.org/content/liturgy
The Columban missionaries in Australia have produced:
http://columban.org.au/resources/season-of-creation-sundays-of-september-year-b
Perhaps use one of videos here, which are based around Laudato Si:
http://www.columbans.co.uk/news/laudato-si-video-resources/
This study and action programme produced by the Columban Missionaries, provides notes for 6- 7 meetings, based on the encyclical ‘Laudato Si’. They follow the headings of the encyclical and should, ideally, be used in conjunction with it and with a Bible.
Green Christian’s resources at
http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/faith
plus the idea for a Prayer Walk with Creation on 1 September
http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/archives/9370
