Awe and Care for Creation

On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Leo XIV calls on people worldwide to pray and act for a better world. We should “beat our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks”. Just like in Isaiah’s time, our world is wounded by war and by “the disruption of the balance of Creation”. Climate change is a physical reality which calls all of us to think and to act. For Christians, the world was not just given to us, it was given to us with a purpose and a responsibility, comparable to the steward appointed to master the Father’s vineyard. Therefore, we are urged to intensify our prayers and our efforts to care for the planet and to establish God’s Kingdom.

The pope points out that ‘war’ and ‘war industry’ have disastrous effects on the environment. As a religious leader, he explains the deeper meaning of this ‘environment’. This environment is not limited to nature or to human structures, this environment goes all the way to the human heart. As a result, wars create vicious circles of hatred and violence, which can even lead to new wars. The solution to the problem, however, also resides in the human heart.

Real peace and real care for the creation can only be established through the conversion of the human heart. Only the conversion of the heart can change our daily attitude and our daily behaviour without force. We need to transform our world without the need of building new weaponry.

This World Day is only the beginning of an ecumenical Season of Creation proclaimed by many Christian churches. It starts today and ends at Saint Francis of Assisi remembrance day on October 4th. This initiative proves the Christian churches are capable of rediscovering their vocation in this world by observing present-day world challenges in a united way. And my prudent guess is that the care of creation observance period may find its rightful place in the liturgical year in the years to come.

I refer to my blogs Pray for Peace and Let so much suffering not be in vain.

Disclaimer: This is not a literal summary of Pope Leo’s letter. Although I believe to express the meaning of the letter in a faithful way, this text also contains some of my own free reformulations - interpretations of the Care for Creation letter.

Picture: made by Marie Lahaye in Berlin city gardens August 2026