The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with God and all of Creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment. This annual ecumenical season invites everybody to pray and act together for our common home.
Our Biblical text for this year is Isaiah 32:14-18. The prophet Isaiah pictured the desolated Creation without peace because of the lack of justice and the broken relationship between God and humankind. This description of devastated cities and wastelands eloquently stresses the fact that human destructive behaviors have a negative impact on the Earth.
Our hope: Creation will find peace when justice is restored.
There is still hope and the expectation for a peaceful Earth.
To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, metanoia (repentance), and solidarity.
If you are unable to join the Dominican Sisters and Associates in person during Sunday Assembly at Marywood Chapel of the Word in Grand Rapids Michigan, we invite you to begin this Season of Creation with this online Prayer Service and the two prayers that follow. View more coming up with the Dominican Sisters
Following is an image, reflection, and prayer you might integrate into your personal expression of Love for all God’s Creation this September 1 – October 4, 2025.
Reflect:
The Symbol for 2025
is the Garden of Peace
The symbol is characterized by a dove carrying an olive branch bringing life to the Garden of Peace.
In the Biblical story of the flood, the dove plays the role of the blessed messenger: The dove sent out by Noah returns to the ark with a fresh olive branch in its beak, signalling that the flood is receding.
As the flood story begins with a situation where “the earth is filled with violence” (Genesis 6:13), the return of the dove with the olive branch came to be known as a sign of new peace.
Prayer
God of Life,
heal your wounded Earth.
Empower us to choose the road that leads to life.
Guide us in the paths of righteousness, for your name’s sake,
so that we may experience once again
your Shalom in the land and in the sea.
This we ask in the name of the one
who came that we may have life in abundance—
your Son, our Saviour, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
©2012 Rev. James Bhagwan, Fiji
source: https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/prayer-cycle/oceania
#SeasonOfCreation
