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.

Skip introduction

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.

O God, you created the heavens and spread out the earth
You gave breath to all people
and spirit to everything which walks on the earth.

Isaiah 42:5

The Lord is a great God, and a sovereign above all gods.
In God’s hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are God’s also.

The sea is God’s, for God made it, and God’s hand formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Psalm 95:3-6

Short reading

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for God will speak peace to his people.

Audiam quid loquatur in me Dominus Deus,
quoniam loquetur pacem in plebem suam.

J’écouterai ce que dit Dieu, l’Eternel,
car il parle de paix à son peuple et à ses fidèles.

Psalm 84(85):8

The Liturgy of the Word

Here is today’s Bible reading.

• Psalm 84(85)

Short reflection

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

In this second week, he explores what theology (Faith seeking understanding) has to say, with particular reference to the Bible (LS62).

Conviction of believers

The climate emergency is a complicated issue and many resources will be needed to deal with it effectively. Throughout the globe, we all have a voice, and as well as scientists, this includes artists and thinkers (LS63).

The light offered by faith

Religion too has a voice that can contribute usefully to the problems we face.

Those who do not believe have much to contribute; people of faith (Christian or otherwise) can also participate in this dialogue, just as they have contributed to previous synergies (LS63).

If the simple fact of being human moves people to care for the environment of which they are a part, Christians in their turn “realize that their responsibility within creation, and their duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of their faith”.

Pope John Paul II: 
Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, 15
AAS 82 (1990), 156
(quoted in LS64)

The wisdom of the Biblical accounts

Without repeating accounts of Creation, Francis refers to the accounts in Genesis. Culminating in the creation of man and woman, made in the image and likeness of God, God saw that it was very good (LS65).

The sabbath principle (one day rest every week) applied not only to human beings but also to animals and to the land.

This sabbath also extended to the seven-year sabbath, in which fields were left to rest, and to the seven-weeks-of-years, in which there was a Jubilee every fifty years, providing a great reset for all people, with debts forgiven and an opportunity to restart (LS71).

In times of trial, we can find renewed strength in the writings of the prophets concerning the all-powerful God, in whom strength and loving care are intrinsically entwined. The God who liberates and saves us calls us to trust (LS73).

While the Israelites were in exile, a time of great spiritual crisis, many of the Bible’s redemption themes evolved, resulting in a greater understanding of God’s loving purpose for all.

This exile was mirrored in another crisis, the Roman occupation of Palestine in Jesus’ lifetime and beyond; the faithful found great consolation and hope in entrusting themselves to the compassionate and all-powerful God (LS74).

What is clear is that the earth was given (lent) to humankind so that we might till it and keep it, terms reflecting stewardship with mutual care and respect (cf. LS66).

Reduce – reuse – recycle

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The Lord, God of hosts, touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn.
And all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;

The Lord builds upper chambers in the heavens,
and founds vaults upon the earth;
And calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth.

Amos 9:5f

Music for reflection

Prayer Suggestions

As the Church remembers Cyprian of Carthage (bishop and martyr, 210-258),
we continue our journey in faith today:

• for the National Health Services and equivalents in our various countries
  providing medical care and relief
• for nurses and ancillary staff
• for all preparing for the COP26 Climate Conference
• for those in most danger from the climate emergency
• for scientists and politicians,
  artists and musicians
• for all who inspire us.

(In Holy Trinity, Stirling, we invite you to pray today
for vulnerable minority Christians.)

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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