By Katie Ascough - 21 August, 2020
The Season of Creation is marked throughout the Christian world from 1 September to 4 October and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment. As part of this season, Pope Francis has established 1 September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference have listed on their website some resources for use in dioceses, parishes and in the home during the Season of Creation 2020. The first resource is a list of quotes by Pope Francis on caring for “our common home”, such as: “We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family”; “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years”; and “We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us.”
The bishops also list liturgical resources prepared by the Laudato Si’ Working Group of the Bishops’ Council for Catechetics, including Sunday Liturgy Notes for the Season of Creation 2020 and a Week-Day Prayer Service for the Season of Creation 2020.
There is also a list of recommended reading for the Season of Creation 2020 which links to Laudato Si’, the 2015 encyclical letter from Pope Francis; messages from Pope Francis on Care of Creation; St John Paul II’s Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation (1990); and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation (2010).
To find all of the resources recommended by the Irish Catholic bishops for the Season of Creation 2020, visit their website by clicking here.
