Let Peace and Justice flow

We’re looking forward to celebrating Season of Creation together from 1 September – 4 October 2023. 

Join us as we celebrate Season of Creation, 1 September – 4 October 2023. This annual celebration is a special opportunity to come together in prayer, action, renewed commitment and advocacy for God’s beautiful creation.

In 2023 we come together for Season of Creation at a time of extreme temperatures, flooding and wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere and July 2023 marking the world’s hottest month on record. These extreme records are coinciding with Antarctic sea ice dropping to a record winter low, a record that has scientists deeply concerned and has led António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, to state that we are seeing the era of global warming ending and the era of global boiling arrive.

As we hold the deep grief and lament of witnessing these climate ‘milestones’ we know our collective calls for urgent action are more important than ever. Join us this Season of Creation as we commit to taking action together in hope, joining our voices with Christians across the world, as part of a mighty river of peace and justice calling for the protection of God’s beautiful creation.

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”  (Amos 5: 24).

What is the Season of Creation?

Every year, Christians around the world, from across denominations, commit the month of September as a season to celebrate God’s beautiful Earth, and renew our shared commitment to preserving and restoring that beauty. For the liturgical amongst us, this is called the Season of Creation. Learn more about the history of Season of Creation here.

Join Common Grace as we celebrate, reflect and gather together in prayer and action this Season of Creation. Explore links below to creative actions, resources, events and prayers to engage with as part of your Season of Creation 2023 celebrations. 

2023 Catholic Guide to Season of Creation (pdf)

• “Our unbridled burning of fossil fuels and destruction of forests are raising temperatures and causing great droughts,” says the Pope
• The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Creation Day) on September 1st will mark the beginning of the Season of Creation until October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and the first anniversary of the release of the film ‘The Letter’

• To celebrate this Ecumenical Season, the faithful are invited to take three simple actions.

“May our common home overflow with life once again.” This is the wish expressed by Pope Francis in his message for the Day of Creation, to be celebrated on September 1. The message was presented today, in the framework of Laudato Si’ Week, at a press conference at the Holy See, with the participation of Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Tomás Insua, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, among others.

As Czerny explained, “Pope Francis updates the biblical image of the river to the 21st century, calling attention to the physical rivers that we mistreat so much today, proving to be a stark image of the ecological crisis”. This year, the theme of the Season of Creation – which will begin on September 1st and end on October 4th, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and the first anniversary of the premiere of the film ‘The Letter’ – is ‘Let justice and peace flow’, words that, as Francis points out in his message, are inspired by those of the prophet Amos: “Let judgment flow like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).

“God wants justice to reign,” the Pope stresses, which “is essential for our proper life as children created in the image of God, no less than water is essential for our physical survival.” Therefore, “justice and peace can flow, like an inexhaustible stream of pure water, nourishing humanity and all creatures.” However, “the effects of this war can be seen in so many rivers that are drying up,” in large part, because “our rapacious consumerism, fueled by selfish hearts, is disrupting the planet’s water cycle.”

In this way, Pope Francis denounces that it is precisely “our unbridled burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests that are raising temperatures and provoking great droughts”, while “the terrible shortage of water increasingly besets our homes, from small rural communities to large metropolises.”

For this reason, Francis calls on “all people of good will” to bring about a “transformation of our hearts, our lifestyles and the public policies that govern our societies.”

Tomás Insua stressed the “prophetic” dimension of this message by the Pope. “In line with his magisterium so far, this latest message doesn’t beat around the bush about the dramatic urgency of the climate emergency,” he noted, just as “he doesn’t beat around the bush about the powerful interests driving the destruction.” He does so, moreover, “while most other world leaders, particularly the most powerful, remain lukewarm and subservient to corporate interests”, thus underpinning his “moral leadership model”.

How to celebrate the Season of Creation

This year, to celebrate the Season of Creation, we are invited to participate in three very simple ways:

1. Include the 2023 theme and symbol (“A mighty river”) in Sunday liturgies or in a community prayer service.
2. Denounce the impacts of climate injustice to national government leaders by sending a prayer, story or image to urge bold action at the climate summit (COP28) in November.
3. Participating in the global events to be held on September 1st, September 30th and October 4th.

All information will be available on the www.SeasonOfCreation.org website

For more information: Gabriel López Santamaría, Laudato Si` Movement Communications Director

+34 691 907 261 / gabriel@laudatosimovement.org

Resources:

• Season of Creation Logos and Symbols
• Season of Creation Video Presentation
• Pope Francis’ full message

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