From 1 September to 4 October we celebrate the Season of Creation.
“Hope and Act with Creation” was the theme of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, held on 1 September 2024. The theme is drawn from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25), where the Apostle explains what it means for us to live according to the Spirit and focuses on the sure hope of salvation that is born of faith, namely, newness of life in Christ.
"We know that the first fruit of the Spirit, which sums up all the others, is love."
Hope is an alternative reading of history and human affairs. It is not illusory, but realistic, with the realism of a faith that sees what is unseen.
This hope is patient expectation, like that of Abraham.
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Dear brothers and sisters!
“Hope and Act with Creation” is the theme of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to be held on 1 September 2024. The theme is drawn from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25), where the Apostle explains what it means for us to live according to the Spirit and focuses on the sure hope of salvation that is born of faith, namely, newness of life in Christ.
1. Let us begin with a question, one perhaps without an immediately obvious answer. If we are truly believers, how did we come to have faith? It is not simply because we believe in something transcendent, beyond the power of reason, the unattainable mystery of a distant and remote God, invisible and unnameable. Rather, as Saint Paul tells us, it is because the Holy Spirit dwells within us. We are believers because the very love of God “has been poured into our hearts” (Rom 5:5) and the Spirit is now truly “the pledge of our inheritance” (Eph 1:14), constantly prompting us to strive for eternal goods, according to the fullness of Jesus’ authentic humanity. The Spirit enables believers to be creative and pro-active in charity.
