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Celebrating the Season of Creation at Sacred Heart Church: Oakland, CA October 2nd, 2024
Contributed by Fr. Jack Lau, OMI
International World Day of Peace for a city wide clean up “From Creek to Bay.” We joined with 35 other groups from all over the city, over 500 volunteers! For our part, we collected over 250 Gallons of trash.
2024 Season of Creation: Join the Global Movement to Nurture Our Planet August 30th, 2024
The firstfruits of hope (Romans 8:19-25)
The Season of Creation is an annual celebration of prayer and action for our common home, celebrated by Christians everywhere from September 1 to October 4. This year’s theme is “To hope and act with Creation.”
Oblate Scholastic Musonda Choto, OMI and Fr. Jack Lau, OMI prepare Sacred Heart Church, Oakland, CA for the Season as shown in these are photos.
What is the Season of Creation? August 27th, 2024
Pope Francis calls for a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
By: Bishop Michael Pfeifer, O.M.I, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of San Angelo
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The Season of Creation is an ecumenical monthlong moment of prayerful reflection and celebration which began several years ago and calls us to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. During this Season we join together as sisters and brothers of a universal family in prayer and action to renew our appreciation, our commitment, and our care and activities to protect and bring new life to Mother Earth, our Common Home, as we thank our loving God for the beautiful gift of all creation.
The theme for this Season of Creation is “To Hope and Act with Creation” and it is also the theme designated by Pope Francis for the World Day of Prayer of Creation which takes place on September 1st , the first day of the annual Season of Creation, which will end on October 4th , the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is the Patron Saint of ecology and is beloved by many Christian and other denominations. Pope Francis in the statement Laudato Si calls Mother Earth, our Common Home, that we will pass on to the next generations. Pope Francis’ World Day of Prayer focuses on thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father for the beautiful gift of all of creation, and asking God’s continuing blessings on this wonderful gift.
The Laudato Si Movement points out that in accord with this year’s theme of Hope, the symbol is the first fruits of hope inspired by (Rom 8;19-25) which is to produce new life. The biblical image pictures the Earth as a mother groaning as in childbirth (Rom 8;22). Saint Francis understood this when he referred often to the Earth as our sister and our mother in his Canticle of Creatures. In so many ways the present moment we live sadly shows that we are not fully relating to the Earth as a gift from our Creator but most often as a resource to be used selfishly and not to protect, to enrich, and renew this wonderful gift. “Creation is groaning” (Rom 8;22) because of our selfishness and our unsustainable actions that harm her.
2024 Laudato Si Action Platform: Building a Future Together July 31st, 2024
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP) is an action-oriented 7- year ecological conversion journey in the spirit of integral ecology intended to support and empower families, communities and institutions to achieve total sustainability.
In PART I of OMI JPIC’s Laudato Si Action Platform we view this as a fresh opportunity for each of us to commit to sustainability in the spirit of Laudato Si. In this resource we promote works from Oblates and allies as a step toward integral ecology.
In PART II of OMI JPIC’s Laudato Si Action Platform, we revisit the commitments we have taken on and ponder what other action steps we might add to our list.
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FEATURED PARTNER – Sisters of the Holy Cross Pope Francis reminds us, “All Christian communities have an important role to play in ecological education” (LS 214) and “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue” (LS 217). We are continually motivated by the urgency of these global crises and the call for communities like our own to act and journey toward integral ecology. |
Laudato Si Action Platform – Partner Resources
Visit VIVAT’s website: www.vivatinternational.org
Watch this video about the one billion bamboo project of VIVAT members in the Philippines.
VIDEO: https://bit.ly/3A53fBb
This is an example of how the local communities address the impact of climate change (i.e., typhoons and floods in the Philippines) by planting one billion bamboo by 2030. This effort is for climate change mitigation and adaptation through a nature-based solution.
Additional Resources:
- Oblate Ecological Ministry (Godfrey, IL)
- Looking Ahead: OMI Commitments to Laudato Si (August 2023)
- Oblates Partner with Three Part Harmony Farm (Washington, DC)
- OMI JPIC Laudato Si Action Platform – PART I (August 2022)
- OMI JPIC Laudato Si Action Plan – Part II (July 2023)
- Laudato Si in Action at Oblate Parish (August 2020)
- Laudato Si themes to integrate in Justice & Peace work (May 2020)
2024 World Earth Day: Show Appreciation & Stewardship for Planet Earth April 15th, 2024
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Bishop Michael Pfeifer, O.M.I.
Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of San Angelo
Pastoral Statement for World Earth Day
The 54th Earth Day anniversary will be celebrated on April 22nd, 2024, by millions of people in many countries to safeguard and fight for a brighter future for Planet Earth. World Earth Day always focuses attention on appreciation and stewardship for planet earth. In a particular way, EarthDay.ORG, the global organizer of Earth Day which grew out of the first Earth Day, has announced the global theme for Earth Day 2024; Planet Vs. Plastics.
(Image by Elena Pashynnaia, Pixabay)
The first Earth Day in 1970 mobilized millions of Americans from all walks of life to give birth to the modern environmental movement. On international Mother Earth Day, we reflect on humanity’s important relationship, not only among human beings, but with the whole natural world. The UN Secretary General has reminded us that from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil that grows our food- humanity’s health depends on the health of Mother Earth. He cautions us that sadly, many times, we seem hellbent on its destruction. Our actions are laying waste to forests, jungles, farmland, wetlands, oceans, coral reefs, rivers, seas, and lakes. Biodiversity is collapsing as one million species teeters on the brink of extinction. We must end these relentless and senseless wars on nature. We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions, but we must pick up the pace.
The annual celebration of Earth Day indeed calls us to pick up the pace of not only caring for our fellow human beings, but we must also care for the entire Earth and all creation. Our Creator gave us stewardship over the Earth, not to dominate it but to care, protect, and enrich it. As Pope Francis has said many times, Earth is our Common Home, the only home we have, the only one we will pass on to the next generations. This World Day leads us to have a new appreciation and respect for the beauty and goodness of the natural world that surrounds us, nothing more and nothing less, than God’s work of art, his own beautiful gallery. Through the beauty, variety, harmony, and truly wonder-filled marvels of creation, our Creator has something very important to say to us. Today all humanity should lift up prayers of thanksgiving to our loving God for the wonderful gift of Mother Earth, which provides us with the means we need to stay alive. And then, humbly pray that we will be better stewards to better care for this magnificent gift.
