23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time –

Dear Parishioners,

“Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation …” These are the words spoken by the priest as he offers the bread and wine at the offertory of the Mass. This offering not only represents the bread and wine which will become the Body and Blood of Christ, but also includes all of God’s creation given to us in abundance.

This month of September, leading up to the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, 4^th October is designated the Season of Creation. This is an annual celebration of prayer and action for the planet, for ‘our Common Home’ as Pope Francis speaks of in his Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’.

The symbol of the 2022 Season of Creation is the Burning Bush experienced by Moses as he tended his flock on Mount Horeb. The bush is on fire, but not consumed, reveals the presence of God. Fires still rage, animals flee and people are forced to migrate to the ‘fires’ of injustice raging in our world. The fire of Moses’ bush, affirms that God hears the cries of the earth and the cry of the poor – but we as humanity are often deaf to their cry of distress.

That is why during this month we are invited to marvel at God’s creation and proclaim how wonderful God must be for giving us such a tremendous gift but also reminds us that we are Stewards of his Creation. It is given us in trust, so that we care for it – and not abuse it – and leave it better than we’ve found it. We need to think of the future generations and leave them a world that is habitable and thriving. Our actions to date are not ideal. We have taken so much for granted. We need to renew our efforts:

1.  Pray that we would understand what being Stewards of Creation means.
2. Revisit/ revise what our LiveSimply Group have been doing: look at our carbon footprint, etc.
3. Is there any way, that we as a community could share the necessary wisdom to deal better with rising food prices, energy and cost of living in general?
4. Row in with those who are leading/guiding us on questions of ecology, climate change, biodiversity etc.
5. Look again at Pope Francis’ ‘Laudato Si – the Care of our Common Home’.
6. If you can, look again at last Monday’s BBC’s Earth programme with Chris Packman.
7. Tackling Global food crisis (see note on CAFOD).
8. Watch David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet II, Sunday 11^th September at 8:00pm.
9. We are aware of the effects of Climate Change – our recent heat waves; floods now in Pakistan after 50^oC heat earlier in the year – yet we have some climate sceptics!

1. Let’s think about COP 15 on Biodiversity in Montreal. Canada from 7^th December onwards.

1. Donations to the Catholic Worker (see note on Harvest Thanksgiving)

What a challenge! Yet, we owe it to God our creator, ourselves and future generations to be good stewards of creation.

Have a blessed week, Fr Joe