This liturgical season is a time of prayer and action stretching from September 1st, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to October 4th, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The Season celebrates God as Creator of the vast cosmic universe, God’s revelation in Creation, and our calling to care for Creation, to protect its rich diversity and to address the urgent, destructive crises threatening its health and future – including our own. 

The theme for 2024, To Hope and Act with Creation, calls for profound Christian hope rooted firmly in faith in the resurrection of Christ and urges us to re-energized action with Creation for the healing of Earth. We are called as the Christian community to address the discouragement growing as the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and pollution worsen, the global human response is falling short, and the urgency is growing.

The Earth is the home of every creature that lives on it and in it. The global Christian community is invited to recall that every creature of God upon Earth is loved by God for itself. It reminds us that the current exploitation of Earth is making it “a means to economic or political ends” and is destroying its ability to be the nurturing home for millions of species that God has created it to be. It invites us to ask what we must do to restore the planet to being the life-giving home God intends it to be for all that dwell here.

Read Pope Francis’s message for 2024 World Day of Prayer for Creation