Faith and Mission

As we celebrate Fathers' Day this Sunday, we are reminded of the nurturing roles that fathers and father figures play in our lives. This sense of care and responsibility is mirrored in the beginning of the Season of Creation, which calls on us to extend this nurturing spirit to our environment.

In the spirit of renewal and responsibility, the theme for the 2024 Season of Creation is 'To hope and act with Creation.' This powerful call to action reflects our collective duty to protect our environment and nurture hope in the face of ecological challenges.

The Season of Creation begins on 1 September, the Day of Prayer for Creation, and concludes on 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the beloved patron saint of ecology.

St Paul, in his letter to the Romans, likened the earth to a mother groaning in childbirth [Rom 8:22], a sentiment later echoed by St Francis of Assisi when he affectionately referred to the Earth as our Sister and Mother in his Canticle of Creatures. However, in modern times, our relationship with the Earth has often shifted from one of respect to one of exploitation.

Yet, our faith calls us to hope. In a biblical sense, hope is not passive; it is an active force—groaning, crying out, and striving for new life amidst adversity. Like the pains of childbirth, these struggles can give rise to new life and a brighter future.

As stewards of God’s Creation, our mission is clear: to seek justice for our planet. This season is a beacon guiding us towards a sustainable and harmonious future, where the beauty of Creation is cherished and preserved for generations to come, where ecosystems thrive, and where every living being is valued in the intricate web of life.

The Season of Creation gives us an opportunity as a community to actively think about the role we can play in environmental stewardship within our homes, College, workplaces, and wider community.

If not us, then who?

Janeen Murphy

Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Community Mass

Next Friday’s Community Mass (6 September) will be prepared by students in the Sustainability Club.

This Sunday – as well as being Fathers’ Day! – marks the beginning of the 2024 Season of Creation throughout the Universal Church. Season of Creation is a five-week period to celebrate the goodness of Creation and human kinship with the created world. For us in Perth, the season coincides with new growth in the season of Djilba – also known as the ‘First Spring’.

To coincide with the Season of Creation, the Pope’s monthly prayer petition concerns the threat to our environment and to the people affected by it. Jesuit, Father Andrew Hamilton, offers this reflection.

Pope Francis’ prayer echoes the themes of his reflections on the Environment in Laudato Si’ and Laudate Dominum. He emphasises the cry of the Earth threatened and wounded by Global warming. He insists that this is not a natural phenomenon but is the result of human exploitation of the environment in the pursuit of profit. As he focuses on human responsibility for the threat to the world and to human beings, especially to the poor who bear the burden of global warming, he stresses the corresponding human responsibility to care for the world. Though technological developments, which have helped create the crisis, can also be part of its healing, a change of heart and of human behaviour will also be needed.

For that reason, Pope Francis calls for this change of heart. In it we should pay attention to the hurt suffered by our environment and allow it to touch our hearts. It must become personal. If we see it as something that affects only the natural world and not us, we shall ignore it. Pope Francis sees the environment as us and us as our environment. If the earth cries out, we shall feel the pain. The intensity and frequency of the floods and fires around the world that are associated with global warming should touch our hearts. We should also share the pain of those whose families have died, have been made homeless, and who go hungry because of these events. They are our brothers and sisters and perhaps prophets of our descendants’ fate.

If these people are our people, this world torn by extreme climate change is also our only world. When we take to heart a wounded world and wounded people, we shall naturally want to heal the wounds. Pope Francis insists that the state of the environment should become personal. We should not have only a general desire to see the world healed but a personal care for the world that is wounded. Then our care will be reflected in the way in which we live. It begins at home and colours all our behaviour. It helps shape what we eat and drink, how we dispose of the wrappings, how and whether we travel, what we read and which television programs we look at, where we holiday, what causes we support and what controversies we become involved in.

When things become personal to us, we can easily become earnest and preoccupied. The season of creation provides an antidote to that. Its focus on St Francis of Assisi reminds us of what a blessing it is to take delight in our environment of which we are part. It takes us out of ourselves to notice the movement of the seasons, the beauty of water, trees and hills, to feel the rise and fall, the texture of the paths beneath our feet, the freshness of rain after a heatwave, the fit of well-designed houses in a treelined street.

The Season of Creation is a time for celebration and gratitude as well as solicitude.