James Hug SJ
For the last several years, Father James “Jim” Hug SJ, has been preparing homily notes, analysis, and prayers for the Sundays of the Season of Creation (1 September through 4 October) to help focus those liturgies on the themes of care for Creation and God as Creator of the Universe. These are compiled in a 47-page booklet titled Season of Creation 2025: Peace with Creation, A Catholic Liturgical Guide and is available for downloading here. Father Jim reminded us that “we need attention to care for the planet desperately these days!” RAOEN shares this excerpt from the liturgical guide.
The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, 1 September, opens the Season of Creation each year. Since adding this day to the Catholic liturgical calendar in 2015, Pope Francis issued an official message each year, offering his reflections on the Season of Creation ecumenical theme.
This year, 2025, he took a slightly different path. He chose a theme to complement and support the ecumenical theme of Peace with Creation, and his theme is Seeds of Peace and Hope.
Then, as we know, on 21 April, Easter Monday, Pope Francis died, rising with Christ to a new life of profound peace and prophetic hope.
While Francis selected the Catholic theme for this year’s Season of Creation, he left the reflection and official message to his successor.
Pope Leo XIV begins his reflection by noting how appropriate this theme is during this Jubilee year in which we are being called to be Pilgrims of Hope.
He then notes Jesus’ frequent use of the image of seeds, even applying it to himself as a grain of wheat that must die to bring forth its fruit. In the mystery of their death, seeds are transformed and new life, new beginnings emerge. In Christ, he writes, we too are seeds – seeds of peace and hope.
Here he draws into his reflection this year’s ecumenical theme based on Isaiah 32:14-18 – the promise that “a spirit from on high will be poured out on us” and the desert created by so much injustice and abuse of Earth will be transformed into a fruitful field, a garden of beauty and peace.
That desert of devastation however – from deforestation and pollution to the loss of biodiversity and ever more frequent and intense storms, fires, and even wars – is still with us. It hurts the poor, the marginalized, the excluded, and indigenous communities the most. And all these wounds are the result of sin.
Pope Leo insists then that environmental justice is an urgent need, a matter of social, economic, and all-around human justice. And it is above all a duty born of faith since the Universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ. We must sow many seeds of justice to contribute to the growth of peace, offering us new hope.
He closes his message with these words:
I pray that Almighty God will send us in abundance his “Spirit from on high” (Isaiah 32:15), so that these seeds and others like them, may bring forth an abundant harvest of peace and hope. The Encyclical Laudato Si’ has now guided the Catholic Church and many people of goodwill for 10 years. May it continue to inspire us and may integral ecology be increasingly accepted as the right path to follow. In this way, seeds of hope will multiply, to be “tilled and kept” by the grace of our great and unfailing Hope, who is the risen Christ. In his name, I offer all of you, my blessing.
An ecumenical prayer service is available in the Season of Creation Celebration Guide, pp. 16-27, for use on 1 September and 4 October and can be downloaded at the Season of Creation website.