Taking Care of Nature

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation…offers individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.

We should be united in showing mercy to the earth as our common home and cherishing the world in which we live as a place for sharing and communion.

Climate change is also contributing to the heart-rending refugee crisis. The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most vulnerable and already suffering its impact.

My brother, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has courageously and prophetically continued to point out our sins against creation:…. “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.”

[We must, therefore, repent and] resolve to live differently should affect our various contributions to shaping the culture and society in which we live. Indeed, “care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion” ” (Laudato Si’, 228)

A single question can keep our eyes fixed on the goal: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (Laudato Si’, 160).

The Christian life involves the practice of the traditional seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy…. So let me propose a complement to the two traditional sets of seven: may the works of mercy also include care for our common home.

[In conclusion, a prayer:]

“O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth…God of mercy, may we receive your forgiveness
and convey your mercy throughout our common home.
Praise be to you! Amen.