Praying at home today:
The Season of Creation – Pope Francis’s Laudato si’

For four weeks, following the first Sunday in September until the day before Harvest Sunday, we will be focussing on the season of creation, in preparation for the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.

Although we will follow our usual form of prayer, our readings and some other material will follow those given in Daily Prayer of the Scottish Episcopal Church for this Season of Creation.

This is a good time to be grateful for our beautiful, yet fragile world, and to dedicate ourselves anew as faithful stewards to its protection.

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A warm welcome to PrayingAtHome.com, where you can find worship resources for praying at home today or wherever you are.

We hope these readings, prayers, music and the short reflection will help you stay in touch with the Church and to sustain you on your journey through life.

If this is your first visit to this website, then you might like to read about the common elements and the suggested structure for each day’s prayer.
Everything’s optional!

Opening to the Word

You can spend a few moments in silence,
focussing on your breathing
to become more mindful of the present moment
and to open yourself more fully
to God’s presence within you.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
And it was very good.

Genesis 1:1,31

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

All things came into being through the Word,
and without the Word not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

Short reading

You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.

Qui fundasti terram super stabilitatem suam:
non inclinabitur in saeculum saeculi.
Abyssus sicut vestimentum amictus ejus;
super montes stabunt aquae.

Il a établi la terre sur ses fondements:
elle ne sera jamais ébranlée.
Tu l’avais couverte de l’océan comme d’un vêtement,
l’eau recouvrait les montagnes.

Psalm 103(104):5f

The Liturgy of the Word

Here is today’s Bible reading.

• Psalm 103(104):1-23

Short Reflection

During these next four weeks, I am reading Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato si’, mi’ Signore – Praise to you, my Lord (LS) – and I hope to share a few nuggets from his thoughts on Creation and our stewardship of this planet we call our home.

Francis reminds us (LS16) that there is an intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, everything is connected (as indeed Daniel Barenboim has told us), there is a need to critique new forms of technology.

Furthermore, we need forthright and honest debate if local and international policy will help us to deal with the throwaway culture.

Above all, we need a new lifestyle (LS16).

What is happening to our common home

Change is good but there are dangers if it overtakes the naturally slow pace of biological evolution; it can cause anxiety when it causes harm to our world and human beings’ quality of life (LS16). 

Francis tells us that we need to be informed, not merely for the sake of being informed or to satisfy curiosity but so that we may “become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it” (LS19).

Pollution and climate change

People daily experience pollution, much of which produces health hazards and the premature deaths of millions of people. The sources of these can be atmospheric, from transport and industry, as well as substances contributing to the acidification of soil and water, including fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and agrotoxins.

As well as these human-made causes, there is also the problem of waste, with hundreds of millions of tons generated yearly from homes and businesses, construction and demolition sites and other sources.

Francis notes that the “earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth”, with beautiful landscapes covered in rubbish.

Not only are these mountains of waste an assault on the eyes, they frequently lead to illness in the local populations (LS21). Our throwaway culture, including single-use plastics (and face coverings) is an immense cause for concern, breaking natural ecosystems.

Although some progress has been made in bringing about circular models of production, this progress has been both limited and late (LS22).

Climate as a common good 

The climate belongs to all and is meant for all. We are all responsible as stewards of Mother Earth, and yet in real time we are witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system, with a rise in sea levels, flooding and fires.

Although there are other factors, a great deal of scientific study shows that most global warming in recent decades is due to greenhouse gases released due to human activity.

Adding to this problem is the intensive use of fossil fuels and deforestation for agricultural purposes (LS23).

All this affects the availability of needed resources, including drinking water. This is coupled with a melting of the polar ice caps, the destruction of rainforests and other mitigators of climate change.

Rising sea levels may not at first sound that serious until we realise that a quarter of the world’s population (including those in megacities) lives on or near the coast (LS24).

Changes in climate cause huge challenges for the poorest in society, who often have to leave their homes, with consequent loss of any financial security they might have had (two billion people are unbanked), together with a loss of any proof of their identity.

As refugees from their homeland, they are often treated with indifference by those of us fortunate to have been born in more secure parts of the world. And our lack of response to our brothers and sisters points to a loss of sense of responsibility upon which civic society is built (LS25).

It’s not all doom and gloom. Steps are being taken but these are largely too little and the danger is that perhaps they are too late (LS26).

What can we do?

The danger is that we give up, thinking that the little that we can do makes no difference.

And yet, every little that is done to alleviate the problem is a step in the right direction, helping to break the vicious circle. When we choose to buy our energy from renewable sources rather than from fossil fuels, we are helping.

When we recycle, reduce and reuse, we are helping to prevent waste.

When we thoughtfully choose what we eat, this helps the soil.

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Ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
Ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being.

Job 12:7-10

Music for reflection

Prayer Suggestions

We continue our journey in faith today:

• for all preparing for the COP26 Climate Conference
• for those in most danger from the climate emergency
• for our sisters and brothers driven from their homeland seeking refuge
• for all seeking to preserve our oceans, our forests and our land
• for scientists and politicians
• for all who inspire us.

(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for Robert Nellist our Treasurer.)

For all who have asked for our prayers.

a moment of silence

Pray for us all
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

We can say the Lord’s Prayer in any language or version we choose.
Here it is, in English, Latin and French.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours, 
now and for ever.
Amen.

Pater Noster

Pater noster, qui es in cælis;
sanctificetur nomen tuum:
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie:
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris:
et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.

Quia tuum est regnum,
et potestas, et gloria, in saecula.
Amen.

La Prière du Seigneur (2017)

Notre Père, qui es aux cieux,
que ton nom soit sanctifié,
que ton règne vienne,
que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donne-nous aujourd’hui notre pain de ce jour.
Pardonne-nous nos offenses,
comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation
mais délivre-nous du Mal.

Car c’est à toi qu’appartiennent le règne,
la puissance et la gloire
pour les siècles des siècles. Amen.

L’Église Catholique de Paris

Concluding prayer

God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth,
you created humankind in your own image
and entrusted the whole world to human care:
give us grace to serve you faithfully,
that we might be trustworthy stewards of your creation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for the Season of Creation

Returning to the world

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Benedicamus Domino.
Deo gratias.

Thank you for joining us in praying at home.
Oremus pro invicem.

In these strange times, we are called to trust

* You can find more organ music from Holy Trinity Church, Stirling
on Alistair Warwick‘s website and on SoundCloud

There are several books by Brother Roger of the Taizé Community from many booksellers.

You can buy The Complete Chronicles of Narnia at Bookshop.org

Praying at Home Today: Acknowledgements

The lectionary for weekdays is taken from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

In that lectionary, the readings are in the following order: Old Testament reading, Psalm, New Testament reading; we have changed the order to the more usual OT, Psalm and NT.

English Bible texts are usually from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Latin Bible texts are from Biblia Sacra Vulgata, and are in the Public Domain.

French Bible texts are usually from Version Segond 21, copyright © 2007 Société Biblique de Genève by Société Biblique de Genève.

Images, unless otherwise stated, are from lockdown in Scotland, by Alistair Warwick.

Music engraved by The Art of Music.

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