FAITH MATTERS

What a beautiful time of the year!

Spring has officially arrived. We are now hearing more birds around and seeing the first blossom on trees. The mornings have a very different feel about them now (especially out running early!).

With the constant dialogue around the pandemic, it’s very, very easy to lose a positive focus on anything we do. A change of season is just what we need. These beautiful, warm sunny afternoons we are enjoying this week have certainly lifted my spirits, as did the beautiful ‘care pack’ I received at my door. A lovely, thoughtful gesture from a colleague who thought I needed a little self-care. Today in one of my RE classes, we did a similar thing. The activity was called “Blessing Bags”. The students were asked to think of someone to whom they would like to give a few things. They had to either create something at home (possibly some baking), write thoughts or kind words or anything they thought would be a “blessing”. 

It’s the small things we do that can create some positivity in another’s life. We need to use the opportunities we have to focus our energy for the good of those around us.

September is the Season of Creation

The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home. Together, the ecumenical family around the world unites to pray and protect God’s Creation.

The season starts 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, beloved by many Christian denominations.

This year the theme is, “A HOME FOR ALL? RENEWING THE OIKOS OF GOD.”

Oikos is the Greek word for “home,” or “household.” By rooting the theme in the concept of oikos, we celebrate the integral web of relationships that sustain the well-being of the Earth.

This year’s symbol, Abraham’s tent, signifies our commitment to safeguard a place for all who share our common home, just as Abraham did in the Book of Genesis.

Season of Creation 2021 Prayer

Creator of All, 

We are grateful that from your communion of love you created our planet to be a home for all. By your Holy Wisdom you made the Earth to bring forth a diversity of living beings that filled the soil, water and air. 

Our consumption is out of harmony and rhythm with Earth’s capacity to heal herself. Habitats are left barren or lost. Species are lost and systems fail. Where reefs and burrows, mountaintops and ocean deeps once teemed with life and relationships, wet and dry deserts lie empty, as if uncreated. 

Human families are displaced by insecurity and conflict, migrating in search of peace. 

Animals flee fires, deforestation and famine, wandering in search of a new place to find a home to lay their young and live. 

In this Season of Creation, we pray that the breath of your creative Word would move our hearts, as in the waters of our birth and baptism. Give us faith to follow Christ to our just place in the beloved community. Enlighten us with the grace to respond to your covenant and call to care for our common home. In our tilling and keeping, gladden our hearts to know that we participate with your Holy Spirit to renew the face of your Earth, and safeguard a home for all. In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

Jesus, light of the world, guide us

St Joseph, journey with us

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, pray for us.