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August 23, 2020By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Praying while you take a walk in the woods is a simple way to celebrate God’s creation this summer and fall. The Environmental Stewardship Ministry of the Diocese is encouraging you to do just that.
A recent Flocknote message said the ministry “is prayerfully with you in spirit as we experience the most unusual summer of our lives.” The message was also posted on its website (environment.worcesterdiocese.org) and Facebook page.
The ministry is planning activities to celebrate the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 to Oct. 4) “during which we can share time in prayer, hopefully in person, with appropriate social distance,” the message said.
The main event is a “green Mass,” which Bishop McManus is to celebrate at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 3, at St. John Parish in Worcester, said Peter Dunbeck, the ministry’s chairman.
The Mass is a “celebration of Catholic social teaching in regard to our care for creation,” Mr. Dunbeck said. This city parish was chosen for the Mass to celebrate “the great work they do with the soup kitchen,” he said, noting that Pope Francis’ encyclical about the environment, ‘Laudato Si’, also addresses economic inequalities.
Other Season of Creation events are still being finalized, Mr. Dunbeck said.
“The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together,” says the website seasonofcreation.org, supported by many Christian denominations.
Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed Sept. 1 as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989, the website says. It says the World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a “season,” celebrated annually from Sept. 1 through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and that Pope Francis made the Catholic Church’s welcoming of the season official in 2015.
“In spite of the unusual circumstances of these summer months, we strongly urge you to take time to enjoy God’s creation with outdoor walks, hikes, and/or biking,” said the message from the diocese’s environmental ministry. “While enjoying your time in nature, we encourage you to make prayer and contemplation of your relationship with the Creator a part of your experience.”
With the message are prayers, links to more in-depth resources for prayer experiences and a list of “destination places,” including shrines and sites with trails.
“When on your walking or biking adventure, please snap a selfie and share that outdoor time with us” at facebook.com/EnvironmentWORC, the message said. “These small examples of positive action give hope and encouragement to all seeking the best path forward. Remember, please, to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing behind but footprints.
“Our struggles with COVID demonstrate to all how interdependent we are as we work to find optimal solutions,” the message continued. “These lessons of interdependence also apply as we respond to the shared threat of environmental degradation. Pope Francis said, ‘a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.’” (Laudato Si’ #49)
