There’s a new garden next to St. Joseph School in Penfield, filled with native plants that feed our native pollinators, an effort to help sustain the threatened bees and butterflies that are essential for our own food supply.
The garden is the inaugural effort of the newly-formed St. Joseph’s/Holy Spirit Creation Care Team as they “seek to provide information and opportunities for our two sister parishes to see and respond to the needs of the poor and all creation.”
While the garden will provide many opportunities for school children to learn about nature’s complex web
of interdependence, right now it’s being used as an invitation for parishioners to celebrate the ecumenical Season of Creation (https://seasonofcreation.org/ ), which begins on September 1, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.
Throughout the month-long celebration, Christians are encouraged to come together in an ecumenical celebration of prayer and action for our common home around this year’s theme, “Let Justice and Peace Flow”.
Fall is a time for many people of faith to reflect on both the bounties of nature and its fragility. We invite all to take time on September 1 and throughout the Season to be present to the beauties of nature and hold the well-being of all who share this earth inn your hearts.
Creator of All,
We lament the loss of our fellow species and their habitats,
we grieve the loss of human cultures, along with the lives
and livelihoods that have been displaced or perished,
and we ache at the sight of an economy of death, war and
violence that we have inflicted on ourselves and on the Earth.
Bless us once again with your life-giving
waters so that the Creator Spirit may let justice and peace
flow in our hearts and overflow into all creation.
Open our hearts to receive the living waters of God’s justice
and peace, and to share it with our suffering brothers and
sisters, all creatures around us, and all creation.
Bless us to walk together with all people of good will so
that the many streams of the living waters of God’s justice
and peace may become a mighty river all over the Earth.
Praise be to you!
Amen.
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