- Feb 5, 2002
- 185,223
- 67,907
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
COMMENTARY: St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer to the Author of Life offers ample inspiration to celebrate this day.
The Basilica of St. Francis stands over the countryside surrounding Assisi, Italy. (photo: Brad Ingram / Shutterstock)
Sept. 1 brings us “Creation Day,” also known as “Feast of Creation” or “World Day of Prayer for Creation.” This moment returns, like the seasons, timely, routine, but not taken for granted. It invites us to reflect on creation, a mystery that marks us deeply. It is the wonder in which everything is born. It is the wonder of the flowers and the glaciers, of the sparrows and the cetaceans.
“Look at the birds in the sky; look at the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:26-34). This invitation from Jesus to observe what is around us with an amazed and grateful eye stimulates us to study the musical score of the universe and listen to the great concert of the world — to try not to be, as unfortunately we are, the note out of tune.
Experiencing this in Assisi means letting ourselves be given the “la” by our singer par excellence, the Poverello. Eight hundred years ago — next year is the eighth centenary of “The Canticle of Brother Sun” — Francis of Assisi became a “maestro” even of our troubled era, an educator never followed enough by our gaze, so that it becomes a contemplative gaze, capable of inspiring the logic of prayerful gratitude and thoughtful care. We will ponder all of this, the heart of the ecological challenge — as Pope Francis proposed in Laudato Si — during the “Season of Creation,” which experiences its beginning on Sept. 1.
This date has a very ancient history in the Judeo-Christian tradition. For a long time, it has symbolized the creation of the world. In the Eastern Church, Sept. 1 was considered the moment in which God began the creation of the universe, a reason why it is the beginning of their liturgical year. It parallels the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which also falls in September, albeit on a mobile date. On this feast, some Jewish liturgies proclaim: “Today is the day of the creation of the world.”
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Sept. 1 brings us “Creation Day,” also known as “Feast of Creation” or “World Day of Prayer for Creation.” This moment returns, like the seasons, timely, routine, but not taken for granted. It invites us to reflect on creation, a mystery that marks us deeply. It is the wonder in which everything is born. It is the wonder of the flowers and the glaciers, of the sparrows and the cetaceans.
“Look at the birds in the sky; look at the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:26-34). This invitation from Jesus to observe what is around us with an amazed and grateful eye stimulates us to study the musical score of the universe and listen to the great concert of the world — to try not to be, as unfortunately we are, the note out of tune.
Experiencing this in Assisi means letting ourselves be given the “la” by our singer par excellence, the Poverello. Eight hundred years ago — next year is the eighth centenary of “The Canticle of Brother Sun” — Francis of Assisi became a “maestro” even of our troubled era, an educator never followed enough by our gaze, so that it becomes a contemplative gaze, capable of inspiring the logic of prayerful gratitude and thoughtful care. We will ponder all of this, the heart of the ecological challenge — as Pope Francis proposed in Laudato Si — during the “Season of Creation,” which experiences its beginning on Sept. 1.
This date has a very ancient history in the Judeo-Christian tradition. For a long time, it has symbolized the creation of the world. In the Eastern Church, Sept. 1 was considered the moment in which God began the creation of the universe, a reason why it is the beginning of their liturgical year. It parallels the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which also falls in September, albeit on a mobile date. On this feast, some Jewish liturgies proclaim: “Today is the day of the creation of the world.”
Continued below.
Celebrating Creation Day and ‘The Canticle of Brother Sun’
COMMENTARY: St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer to the Author of Life offers ample inspiration to celebrate this day.
