By Joe Makley, OFS
National JPIC Animator
This article is written by Joe Makley, who succeeds Carolyn Townes after her 10 years of service on the National Executive Council.
Greetings in the Season of Caring for Creation 2023!
The Season of Creation is a period that unites the Christian community worldwide to pray and care for the environment. It begins on September 1 with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends on October 4 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
It was established by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I, in 1989, when he proclaimed September 1st as the Orthodox Day of Prayer for Creation. Years later, the World Council of Churches extended the celebration to October 4th, the day St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment, is celebrated.
For his part, in 2015, Pope Francis made the Season of Creation official for the Roman Catholic Church. His holiness’s message for the World Day of Prayer 2023 is here.
The first attachment below is Carolyn Townes’ annual prayers for the Season of Care for Creation based on St. Francis’ own Canticle of Creation and the prayer from Laudato Si’.
The next attachments are resource guides to help OFS members seeking ways to initiate concrete actions to implement Laudato Si.
Franciscan Season of Caring for Creation
Greetings Joe! My name is Dot Himes, ofs, JPIC Animator for the St. Thomas More Region in Arizona. Thank you for this webpage with links to great resources. Currently I’m sending out weekly Season of Creation emails to each fraternity – and forwarded the Feast of St. Francis materials from Catholic Climate Covenant to them to use if they would like.
There are 6 in our Region currently in a ZOOM discussion group following the Dan Horan Understanding Laudato Si You Tube series. Our Flagstaff fraternity had a book discussion group back before Covid when Laudato Si first came out – and I have heard of other fraternities who have used it. (I was formed and professind in Flagstaff in 2017 – but 5 years ago my husband and I moved to SW Colorado – Cortez – about a 5 1/2 hour drive away from any fraternity in CO, NM or AZ.
So we try to drive down for gatherings weather permitting, and during the worst of Covid, ZOOM was offered.
I’ll miss seeing Carolyn on ZOOM – and at the St. Louis Gatherings – but am looking forward to meeting you too.
Peace,
Dot