A Catholic Season of Creation

2nd Sunday 24 C Sunday Ordinary Time

Reconcile the world

My sacrifice is a contrite spirit Ps 50

We believe: All matter is transformed in Christ.

Read the Lectionary Ecologically Ex 31; Ps 50; 1 Tim 1; Lk 15

dignity distinguishes the poor in spirityour people whom you broughtout of Egyptby your own self you swearI will rise and go to my fatherwash me more and more from my guiltJesus came into the world to save sinners in Christ you reconcile the world to yourselfhe welcomes sinners and eats with themcelebrate … he was lost and is found.

ecological conversion … offering ourselves to

God ‘as a living sacrifice’.

#220 Laudato Si’

GreetingBoth to be forgiven and to forgive are graces of God. We start by recognizing that we have sinned. We draw down the mercy of God who time and time again has relented as we zig zag our path through life. The natural world itself is the first revelation of God’s mercy and it too has often forgiven human follies. Being forgiven by Earth itself invites us to change our ways.

Dismissal In this Eucharist we have remembered and given thanks for the graces of being forgiven and having the power to forgive. We can go forth with confidence to bring the good news of reconciliation with others and within the world where we live.

Prayers of the Faithful1. God of Mercy, you are like the

forgiving father of the prodigal son. Help us to bury our pride and take the initiative in seeking reconciliation with others.

2. God, in your son Jesus you have reconciled the world to yourself. Forgiven, lead us to change our business practices and laws to stop ecological abuse of your earth.

3. God of Mercy, you were with your people on their migration out of Egypt. In our day be with migrant people forced to flee ecological collapse in their homelands.

4. Jesus taught that is was right to celebrate the prodigal son come to life. Creator God, may we celebrate the new environmental social teaching of Pope Francis.

Season of CreationThe Church’s liturgical seasons evolved gradually. They draw on nature’s four seasons to provide time frames linked to winter, spring, summer and autumn. The seasons remind us that humanity is part of the planet community. Onto these frames Jewish accounts of salvation history and Christian remembrances was grafted. Vatican II’s liturgical reform is a model of what has grown in modern times so that introducing a new Season of Creation to remember God’s creative acts would be in an evolutionary line.

Our relationship with the environment can never

be isolated from our relationship with others

and with God.

#119 Laudato Si’

Image: Charles Rue

Image: Charles Rue

For further information: E: pej.cmi@columban.org.au or Ph: 02 9352 8001 www.columban.org.au

MysticismBy mixing their contemplative and active lives, many saints grew as leaders of reconciliation. Saints Columbanus and Catherine of Sienna actively challenged Popes and kings alike to better serve their peoples. Today, many activists make the link between peace, social justice and ecological justice. They welcome the spiritual tone of the environmental encyclical on Care for Earth as our Common Home. It grounds their activism.

Creation CovenantsJesus shows he is familiar with the love of God expressed in the workings of the natural world. Jesus saw his Father’s ‘Covenant with Natural World’ in the lilies of the field and even the sparrow. Jesus saw himself as the grain of wheat that dies so that it might yield a hundred fold. Mk 4.1-9,13-20. He said he was like a hen gathering her chicks under her wing. God’s loving covenant extends to all creation – God, humans and Earth in a loving communion as Pope Francis expressed it.

Earth Champions Saint Hildegard of Bingin led a Rhine River monastery in the middle ages. She formed the nuns to celebrate a verdant God in poetry and song, and practice herbal medicine. The commitment of female environmental leaders in Australia often grew from the values Sisters and Catholic schools imbued in them when young. goo.gl/pNd2Zc

HymnMake me an instrument of your peace.

Ecological InsightEcological processes work methodically. Nature tests new emergences over eons and sometimes dramatically with asteroid showers and volcanic action. Large scale geological upheavals and life extinctions are integral to its methods. From cosmic events to the birth of Earth and diverse life forms, nature has developed its own time scales. The first to challenge nature’s time scale are modern humans. Their actions may even derail nature’s processes and force a new epoch.

Local CultureLand helps form people. The Murray-Darling River Basin is a large geological area in the interior of southeastern Australia, one seventh of the Australian land mass, twice the size of France. Over millennia it has nourished Aborigines and foreign settlers, helping mould their cultures.

The Basin is largely flat, receives limited rainfall and depends on flows from mountains in its eastern rim. Its rich soils helped form four states and many agricultural based towns. But river flows and towns are under environmental threat from excessive use of water by industrial scale farming and the mining sector. goo.gl/i0PswL

It is your land of smiles: the wattleScatters its pollen on the doubting heart;The flowers are wide awake; the air gives ease.James McAuley Terra Australisgoo.gl/wycP1C

Murray River songs goo.gl/rF3nQP

What can I do?• Find out what happening

ecologically with your local council

• Send leaders a letter about your local ecological concerns

Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful

pilgrimage, woven together by the love God

has for each creature.

#92 Laudato Si’

Creation is of the order of love. God’s love is the

fundamental moving force in all created things.

#77 Laudato Si’

Image: Evansville Interfaith Community Alliance

Image: Charles Rue