Season of Creation 2024: To Hope and Act with Creation
The Season of Creation begins on 1 September with the Day of Prayer for Creation and ends on 4 October, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, whom Pope Francis describes as “the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically” (Laudato Si, 10).
Pope Francis goes on to help us understand integral ecology as lived out by St Francis who was “a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace” (LS, 10).
The Season of Creation website (https://seasonofcreation.org/about/) provides some helpful background on the history of this ecumenical season:
“The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. During the Season of Creation, we join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.
Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed 1 September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. In fact, the Orthodox church year starts on that day with a commemoration of how God created the world.
The World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from 1 September until 4 October.
Following the leadership of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I and the WCC, Christians worldwide have embraced the season as part of their annual calendar. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s warm welcoming of the season official in 2015.
In recent years, statements from religious leaders around the world have also encouraged the faithful to take time to care for creation during the month-long celebration.
Throughout the month-long celebration, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians come together to care for our common home.”
For schools, this is an ideal opportunity to engage our young people in a theme which is dear to their hearts, the care of our common home.
For school leaders looking to embed Catholic Social Teaching more deeply in the life of the school, the care of our common home could be adopted as a school-wide theme from the beginning of term up to the first half-term break in October.
Laudato Si, issued by Pope Francis on 24 May 2015, is a major contribution to Catholic Social Teaching. There is strong case to consider care for our common home as a permanent principle of Catholic Social Teaching, along with the dignity of the person, the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity.
You will find resources to help you plan your activities in school on the Season of Creation website. You can download the Season of Creation Celebration Guide here: https://seasonofcreation.org/
You can download the Season of Creation Advocacy Guidelines here: https://seasonofcreation.org/resources/