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Creation time 2020

Dear confreres,

Each year, from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites to celebrate the SEASON OF CREATION through prayer and action for the protection of our common home.

This year’s theme is JUBILEE FOR THE EARTH. We invite you to consider the integral relationship between rest for the earth and ecological, economic, social, and political ways of living.

For your preparation, we are already sending you some important information that may inspire you. The available sources are:

  • CELEBRATION GUIDE 2020 of SEASON of CREATION (Download the PDF at the bottom of the following frame)

In the document, you will find:

    • additional information;
    • ecumenical prayer service (p.15ss);
    • questionnaire to facilitate the reflection (p.25ss);
    • proposals for initiatives (p.26-34)

Season of creation 2020 Jubilee for the Earth

On this website, which is maintained by congregations and institutes of religious women and men from all over the world, you will have access to downloadable tools! You can even share your own documents, tools and implemented activities.

« Take action for Creation! »: We encourage you to register and announce on this site the events and activities you are organizing!

  • SOCIAL NETWORKS
  • “SEASON OF CREATION” is also part of the special programme for the “LAUDATO SI year 2020/21” launched to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the encyclical letter “LAUDATO SI”:

There are so many opportunities to engage together where we are, where we live, work and pray.

Let us celebrate together the SEASON OF CREATION in 2020 !

May the Holy Spirit show us the way !

Fraternally 

Andreas Göpfert

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Eco-citizen Day at Our Lady of Africa

Journée Eco-Citoyenne à Notre-Dame d’Afrique

Translated from an article of our confreres on the website of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers. 

The idea was in the minds of the White Fathers of the Basilica and in their conversations for months… as they saw the surroundings of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, one of the most visited places in Algiers, becoming increasingly dirty. Finally, encouraged by what is being done elsewhere, we launched an appeal inviting citizens to come and clean up for a few hours. The messages went on social networks…. We didn’t know how many people would come…  We were a little stressed!

On August 31, at 7:30 am, the first three volunteers arrived from Dely Ibrahim… by bike! Little by little, other people came: as a couple, with family, with friends, with colleagues from work, or on their own… I saw Algerians, Poles, Malians, Burkinabés, Brazilians, French, Ghanaians, Mexicans, Spaniards, and even the police and the city hall services (NetCom), as well as some tourists who were a little surprised. We also had a television journalist… from China!

We gave safety instructions, gloves, garbage bags (partly provided by NetCom) and each was assigned a zone. From time to time someone would scream, “Who wants “freshhh” water? Who wants “freshhh” water? ” Fortunately, because the heat was intense. For two and a half hours we worked in a cheerful mood, making new friends, sweating, but above all with the pride of helping to restore the beauty of the place!

A whistle blew to end the work. Everyone gathered so that we could tell them: “Thank you for coming to restore the beauty of this place. The fact that most of you are Muslims who have come to take care of a Christian church is also a beautiful act. God created nature so beautiful, so we as believers must keep it that way. Thank you for coming!  ». We took a few pictures in front of “the fruit of our sweat”: while being quite surprised that only two hours allowed us to collect so much waste!

We had ordered delicious cakes (sweet and savoury) and arranged everything necessary to offer tea or coffee to the 70 people and more who stayed until the end. It allowed us to regain our strength and make new friends. For some people it was the first time they came to the basilica and a “guided” tour ended the morning.

We are very grateful to all those who made this day possible. The ideal would be for us not to have to make an appeal again to clean the domain…. But if it were the case, now we know that we can count on the many friends of the Basilica.

Peter-Claver KOGH and José M. CANTAL
White Fathers at the Basilica

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The Pope challenged for Lent

A major international campaign unveiled on Wednesday, February 6, challenges the Pope to become vegan during the forty days of Lent, which begins in a month. If he accepts, the campaign launched by Million Dollar Vegan will contribute $1 million to the charities chosen by the Pope.

You can read the full story, very complete, instructive and challenging in the French Catholic Newspaper La Croix.

If you have no access, you can download here the PDF of the article (IN FRENCH)..

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Senegal: Using scarves on Palm Sunday

Of the West Africa website:

In order to protect nature, Bishop Benjamin Ndiaye, Archbishop of Dakar, asked the Catholics of his diocese to use scarves instead of palms for the procession of Palm Sunday and the Passion of the Lord.

In some parishes, the use of scarves in the place of palms is already nearly ten years old.

But in almost all the other parishes of Dakar, the Archbishop’s message was not well received.

“The people who are looking for the palms had already committed themselves to doing so,” commented Pierre Bassène, another Catholic. According to him, the instructions of the Archbishop of Dakar will be better followed next year.

As he said, the environment suffers from this cutting of palms every year. The most serious thing in Senegal is that there is no culture of reforestation. »

(Excerpts from “in Senegal, the Archbishop of Dakar suggests using scarves instead of twigs” by Charles Senghor, La Croix-Africa, 26/03/18.)

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Lenten Way of the Cross 2018

Here is a Way of the Cross prepared by the JPIC coordinators of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa and the Missionaries of Africa for Lent 2018.

You can use it individually for your own meditation and at your own pace. By default, the slides change every minute, but you can obviously force the progress.

You must be connected to the Internet to view this slideshow. However, if you want to use it in community M.Afr. or parish, you can download the PDF version here.

 

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Prayer for the end of Creation Season

“We are not consumers. For most of humanity’s existence, we were makers, not consumers: we made our clothes, shelter, and education, we hunted and gathered our food. We are not addicts. I propose that most addictions come from our surrendering our real powers, that is, our powers of creativity”.(Mathew Fox,Original Blessing). But our problem today is that we are in mad race to consume. We have almost exploited the planet earth. We have eaten up its bone marrow, liver, lungs, kidneys… We are endangering our existence and we are on our self destruction. […]

Download the prayer programme for celebrating the end of Creation Season :

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World Day of prayer for the Care of Creation

We invite you to take part in the 3rd Edition of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation which takes place on September 1st. This day was introduced by pope Francis on August 6th, 2015. According to Pope Francis, “The annual World Day of prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvellous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” We propose you the following elements for this special day.

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