Pope Francis on the prayer for Creation Day: Protecting the environment is an “act of love”

Concern for creation, said the Pope, is not just an ethical question, but also a theological one. It is shaped by the “act of love” in which God created human beings.

“Hoping and acting with creation means, therefore, living an incarnate faith, a faith that can penetrate the suffering and hopeful ‘flesh’ of others, sharing in the expectation of the bodily resurrection to which believers are predestined in Christ the Lord,” the Pope said.

By living out this imperative, “our life can become a song of love for God, for humanity, with and for creation, and find its fulfillment in holiness,” he wrote.

The theme of the 2024 Day of Prayer is “Hope and act with creation,” with the motif taken from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans.

The Pope said in 2015 that the day offers believers “a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation as guardians of creation, to thank God for the wonderful work he has entrusted to our care, and to ask him for help in protecting creation and for forgiveness for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”

The introduction of this day in 2015 was also seen as a sign of unity with the Orthodox Church, which had introduced September 1 as a day to celebrate creation in 1989.