In 2015, shortly after completing his encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis declared September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, as the Orthodox Church has done since 1989.
According to Pope Francis, “The annual World Day of prayer for the Care of Creation 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 his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”
Pope Francis’s message for 2019 calls us to rediscover our vocation as children of God, brothers and sisters, and stewards of creation. This is the season to be inspired anew by our closeness to nature, to reflect upon our individual lifestyles, and a season for undertaking prophetic actions, as we see many young people all over the world doing. You can read the Pope’s message here. You can read the full text here.