All of creation invites us to unify seemingly contrasting energies. Robin Hines and his dog, Odie, faithful friends of Prairiewoods, daily walk the woods and prairie. To Robin’s surprise, Odie and this deer held each other’s gaze for a solid five minutes, extending hospitality to one another. Odie and Robin stop and greet every person and creature they meet along the way. Together they extend and receive healing energy to the woods and prairie on these 70 acres and beyond through spring, summer, fall and winter.
Crises we experience today—spiritual, ecological, political, global—signify that we have lost consciousness (and perhaps conscience) regarding the sacred at the heart of all life. The Season of Creation invites us to re-awaken and transform the way we choose to live, relate and engage with creation.
The celebration was birthed in 1989 when the Eastern Orthodox Church recognized a Day of Prayer for Creation (Sept. 1), other Christian European churches, the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Assembly and Philippine Catholic Bishops embraced the effort. Pope Francis, too, signed on in 2015 launching Laudato Si’. In fact, the Season of Creation, between Sept. 1 and Oct. 4, the Feast of St. Francis, is now recognized as a liturgical season, when all Christians unite annually in worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home.
This year’s theme, “A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos (home) of God,” calls us as Beloved Community to reshape spiritual, political, social, economic systems to manifest just, sustainable economies of life, respecting the life-giving ecological limits of Earth.
Response to this challenge was a Season of Creation. Derecho damage covered 90,000 square miles, home to over 20 million people across the Midwest, causing $13 billion damage.1 And this, just one of numerous, world-wide, natural disasters Earth suffers: fire; hurricanes; tornadoes; oil spills; air, water and light pollution …
Globally, we can foster the ecological conversion that Pope Francis calls for: “We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the underprivileged, and at the same time protecting nature.” 2
How might you participate in the new story that is shaping the future of this planet? What calls for radical hospitality in your local area?
See possibilities for engagement in the Season of Creation at https://seasonofcreation.org/
—Ann Jackson, PBVM, Prairiewoods spiritual services coordinator
1 NOAA National Weather Service report, July 31, 2021
2 Laudato Si’, paragraph 139
photo of deer by Robin Hines and Odie