The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has designated September a month of prayer for the care of creation. In Rome, he presided at an open air prayer service on September 1. For the month of prayer, he wrote the following prayer:
Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand;
they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!
Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,
you became part of this earth,
and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature
in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!
Holy Spirit, by your light
you guide this world towards the Father’s love
and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!
Calling upon all three persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Father highlights the different roles that God plays with regard to the planet we call home. God the Father is named as the Creator. Jesus is praised for becoming part of our world through the Incarnation. Using the writings of St. Paul, the Holy Father also emphasizes that God the Father used the image of Jesus as the starting place for His creative work. Finally the Holy Spirit is called upon as the guide leading all of creation to the Father and as the One who continues to dwell within us.
This prayer would be classified as a prayer of praise. While most of us have no difficulty asking God for the things we need, we have also been taught since the time we first learned about prayer that praise is also a form of prayer along with thanksgiving and sorrow for our sins. As we praise God for the gift of creation, implicit in the prayer is our desire to protect our home, our environment, our ecological treasure. One way to use the prayer is as a conclusion to one of the Psalms of Creation (Psalm 104 or Psalm 148). It is traditional to conclude the psalms with the Doxology (Glory be . . .). This prayer of Pope Francis could stand in its stead.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator