The Season of Creation or Creation Time, is marked throughout the Christian world from 1st September to 4th October (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness raising initiatives to protect the natural environment.
In St Joseph’s Parish, Boyle, we are honouring the Season of Creation this weekend October 5th and 6th at all Masses.
Pope Francis challenges us to reflect; ‘What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?’ Laudato Si, (his 2015 encyclical letter on “Care for Our Common Home”).
He says there is only ever an “integral ecology” in which the fate of humanity and non-human creation are inextricably intertwined. While the human poor have been and will always be the first to suffer the consequences of climate change’s effects, ultimately no one can escape the destruction of “our common home.”
There are some people who rightly understand the gravity of our circumstances and the urgency that should govern our response. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, is another prophetic voice on this life issue today. Her recent sailing trip across the Atlantic Ocean to New York for the United Nations climate talks, a mode of long-distance transportation with zero carbon emissions, put her back in the spotlight. At the age of 15, she helped launch a series of school strikes and climate demonstrations across Europe and
beyond, which shows that wisdom is not reserved for the old alone, and that our younger sisters and brothers can teach and lead us. Yet, as Thunberg has often said, it is up to adults who have power now to do something.
In a 2018 speech, she accused world leaders of stealing their children’s “future in front of their very eyes.” She sagely admonished the world: “Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.”
The theme for this year’s celebration of the Season of Creation is ‘The Web of Life’. Which calls us to protect biodiversity in all its wonderful complexity because each member of God’s creation reveals a piece of the Creator’s glory.
We are inviting Sister Nellie McLaughlin to speak to us on this theme at all our Masses on the weekend (Oct 5/6). Nellie is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Northern Province, Ireland. She works in cosmology, ecology, sustainable living, together with retreats and conferences in creation spirituality throughout Ireland and internationally and has published several books on the topic. She will talk with any parishioners, who may wish to take these issues further, after the Saturday Vigil Mass in the Resource Centre. Please come with all your issues and questions. If you’d like to attend it would be helpful if you could notify the parish on 966 2643 so we can have an idea of numbers.
Let us not squander this year’s Season of Creation, but instead allow it to be a time for us to reorder our priorities and form our consciences to be truly pro-life, because the future of all life is counting on us. Creation is all around and within us. To bring the symbolism of what we celebrate in the church right into the heart of our lives we are inviting the congregation to bring a small glass (rather than plastic) bottle of water to be blessed at Mass on the weekend of Oct 5/6, to take home and bless your land, animals and pets: garden, farm, plants,
lawn, places you walk in, parks etc. whatever piece of land you use or own.
