23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - 9th September, 2018
1st September - 4th October, Feast of St. Francis
Our Common Home - Sponsored by Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development 2018. They summarise objectives and outcomes of the International Conference "Saving our common home and the future of life on Earth," held in the Vatican, 5th-6th July, 2018, held on the third anniversary of the publication of Encyclical Letter Laudato Si.
Pope Francis addressed the conference on July 6th, 2018.
He expressed his hope "that concern for the state of our common home will translate into systematic and concerted efforts aimed at an integral ecology."
"May St. Francis of Assisi continue to inspire and guide us on this journey, and may our struggles and concern for this planet, never take away the joy of our hope."
"That hope is based on our faith in the power of our heavenly Father."
"He who calls us to generous commitment and to give him our all, offers us the light and strength needed to continue on our way.
"In the heart of this world, the Lord of Life, who loves us so much, is always present. He does not abandon us, he does not leave us alone, for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and His love constantly impels us to find new ways forward. Praise be to Him!
"May God's love become more and more the force that guides and directs our freedom.
"May the Lord strengthen our efforts to care for our common home, and especially for water, a basic need, that must be protected and made available to everyone.
"The love of Christ, welcomed with an open heart, changes us, transforms us, and makes us able to love.
"We find ourselves facing a firestorm, that is apparently global, about the biblical plan for sexuality, marriage and family. How are we to act in relation to this disturbing phenomenon?"
September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
"This offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvellous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking our help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live."
Fr. Eamon Raftery, C.M.