Saturday, September 1, 2018
In 2003 the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines issued the call to celebrate Creation Day and Creation time.(1) In the letter, the bishops urge that our different liturgies celebrate the beauty and pain of our world, our connectedness to the natural world and the ongoing struggle for social justice. In 2015, Pope Francis, following the lead of the Orthodox church establish September 1st as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation”.
GCCM-Pilipinas together with partner organizations and institutions, organized the Walk for Creation last year to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and open the Season for Creation.
This year, GCCM-Pilipinas and its partner organizations and institutions will again have a Walk for Creation on September 1, Saturday. It will be held from 6:30 AM to 10:00 AM, at the Shrine of Jesus the Divine Word or Christ the King Mission Seminary, E. Rodriguez, Quezon City.
The celebration will start with a symbolic walk where we reflect on the different issues that are threatening our common home. During the walk we will draw our hope from the creation story of the book of Genesis. The walk will culminate with the celebration of the Eucharist to inspire all of us to embrace and to celebrate the beauty and pain and our interconnectedness with all of creation.
In his address to the International Conference Marking the 3rd Anniversary of the Encyclical Laudato Si2, Pope Francis said:
“All these actions presuppose a transformation on a deeper level, namely a change of hearts and minds. In the words of Saint John Paul II: “We must encourage and support an ‘ecological conversion’” (Catechesis, 17 January 2001). Here the religions, and the Christian Churches in particular, have a key role to play. The Day of Prayer for Creation and its associated initiatives, begun in the Orthodox Church, are beginning to spread among Christian communities throughout the world.”
We hope that this event will inspire and forge in us new consciousness that will bear attitudes of care for each other and all of creation.
1 http://cbcpwebsite.com/2000s/2003/celebrating.html
2 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/july/documents/papa-francesco_20180706_terzoanniversario-laudatosi.html
