Every year the Christian family unites for the Season of Creation, a worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. The season starts on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. Pope Francis established the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Roman Catholic Church in 2015.
This year’s Season of Creation theme is “Living Water, Immersion in Living Water.” This year’s theme and symbol were derived from Ezekiel 47:9, 12, which reads, “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live…Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” This year’s theme, “Living Water,” explores Ezekiel 47:9 and 12 as a powerful biblical vision of hope and ecological healing.
In 2020, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development released, “Aqua fons vitae (Water is the source of life) Orientations on Water: symbol of the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth,” which states that “according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, water is a common good, the adequate management of which contributes to the realization of the common good of the entire human family.” The document continue to emphasize the importance of water as a common good noting that, “The Earth’s…cycles of water and climate remind us of how versatile and fundamental this precious creature of God is.”
Pope Leo XIV’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation message calls for peace and restored respect for life and creation
By Vatican News
In his Message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Leo warns that war has consequences that destroy far beyond the battlefield and says that we are to imitate the Lord’s offering of peace to work toward peace in the world.
“In place of the weapons of war, the God of peace grants us the strength to heal, to reconcile and to build a civilization of love,” Pope Leo said.
The Church observes the World Day on September 1st with this year’s theme being, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4).
In this way, the Holy Father insisted, we are called to safeguard the many “ecosystems” entrusted to us: the ecosystems of creation, of human relationships and of the human heart itself.
“The true tools for building peace,” Pope Leo underscored, “are not weapons of destruction; instead, they are truth, dialogue, patience, goodness, justice, mercy, understanding, care and love,” which he said flow from hearts shaped by the Gospel and sustained by God’s grace.
Healing wounds of our world
Only these qualities, he acknowledged, possess the power to transform individuals, renew communities and heal the wounds of our world.
The Holy Father confirmed that the path before us is not easy, but is clear.
“We are called,” he said, “to allow our hearts to be renewed, so that we might seek peace and care for creation.”
To read this entire Vatican News article, please click here or to reach Pope Leo’s full message, please click here.
Using this season as a time to reflect on the Jubilee Year of St. Francis
The Season of Creation brings an opportunity to learn more about the current Jubilee Year of St. Francis that our Universal Church is observing. Pope Leo XIV declared that from January 10, 2026 through January 10. 2027 is a special Year of St. Francis, in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death.
Who was St. Francis of Assisi? Before giving his life completely over to the Lord, Francis lived a life of luxury. After hearing God’s call to “rebuild my church,” Francis voluntarily gave up his wealth and completely rejected worldly goods and embraced a life of poverty. Francis was the first recorded person to receive the stigmata, the wounds of Christ formed on his body, piercings in his hands, feet, and side. He founded the Franciscan Order, taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Francis’ poem, “Canticle of the Sun,” written around 1225, is considered one of the earliest works in the Italian language. Francis’ hymn praises God through the sun, moon, stars, wind, water, fire and earth. Eight centuries later, its message continues to shape Catholic teaching on creation and humanity’s responsibility to care for it.
One of Pope Francis’ most emphasized messages throughout his papacy was care for creation, using St. Francis’ canticle as inspiration for his writing his impactful encyclical, Laudato Si’. Pope Leo continues to emphasize this message as well as pulling from St. Francis’ canticle, saying in 2025, “We cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures.”
When he declared the Jubilee Year of St. Francis, Pope Leo XIV called all Catholics to live a life of peace like the saint.
“Our time is not very different from that in which Francis lived, and precisely in the light of this his teaching is perhaps even more valid and understandable today,” Pope Leo said. “...When the virtual takes over the real, disagreements and social violence are part of everyday life and peace becomes more insecure and distant every day. This Year of St. Francis spurs all of us, each according to our possibilities, to imitate the poor man of Assisi, to form ourselves as far as possible on the model of Christ.”
The occasion of the Year of St. Francis grants the Plenary Indulgence under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father).
