Pope Francis has instituted a new day of prayer and celebration for the Church entitled the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” to be celebrated on September 1 each year.

Expressing hope that all Christians can work together toward common goals, he calls this day “a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvelous works that He has entrusted to our care…”

In conjunction with the World Day of Prayer, the Global Catholic Climate Movement is inviting all Catholics to celebrate the “Season of Creation” from September 1 until the Feast of St. Francis on October 4. The Season of Creation extends the spirit of the World Day of Prayer as a time of ecological conversion over a 5 week period.

The GCCM will be offering weekly reflections and a Webinar series during the Season of Creation to encourage individuals and communities to pray, reflect, and act in response to the gratuitousness of God’s love through creation and our vocation as “protectors of God’s handiwork” (Laudato Si, 217).