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DIOCESE
Praying for creation with spirit of hope

BY KENNETH SADLER and a responsorial psalm. The Prayer for Creation was also
blessed with the presence of choral director John Horton
riday 4 October was the feast of St Francis of Assisi; and members of the diocesan choir who ably led the
it was also the last day of the ecumenical Season of singing.
FCreation 2024. On that day, at the Roman Catholic The first reading was the well-known passage from St
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Mannofield, Aberdeen, Paul’s letter to the Romans on creation waiting with eager
Catholics from Scotland’s most northerly diocese longing for the revealing of the sons of God. The subsequent
gathered to pray for the earth, our common home, hear responsorial psalm had the whole earth singing to God
the word of God, the Lord of Creation, and recommit with joy. The Gospel from Matthew described the tireless
to working for the good of Mother Earth in a spirit of teaching, proclaiming, and healing action of Jesus and his
Christian joy and hope. compassion for the people, his flock. The passage ended
The theme of this year’s Season of Creation was ‘To Hope with the Lord’s famous words contrasting the abundance
and Act with Creation’, and this intention was reflected in of the harvest with the paucity of the labourers, exhorting
the service, which was led by Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB with his listeners and us to pray for labourers for the harvest.
contributions from Kenneth Sadler, Diocese of Aberdeen Following the Gospel, Bishop Hugh delivered his homily
representative on the National Commission of Justice and – a striking exegesis of the New Testament first reading
Peace Scotland and coordinator of the St Mary’s Cathedral from Romans – with his characteristic insight and flashes of
Justice and Peace group. wit and humour. He observed that the ‘groaning’ that Paul
In his welcome, Kenneth observed that it was a special speaks of can be positive, prayerful, and even a dynamic
grace to hold the service on the feast of St Francis of Assisi, act expressing a profound hope for better things. If both
one of the most universally loved of saints, and a man with creation and ‘we ourselves’ participate in this groaning, it
a great concern for God’s creation as well as for the poor shows that we should not dismiss creation as something
and for the outcast. Kenneth noted that a year previously, dead or inert but take seriously our responsibility of loving
on the feast of St Francis in 2023, the Holy Father, Pope stewardship. For Bishop Hugh, ‘groaning’ stands opposed
Francis, felt compelled to issue his apostolic exhortation to ‘moaning’ as the latter is not prayerful and encourages
Laudate Deum, in which he shared his deep concern about attitudes of negativity, hopelessness, and self-indulgence –
the lack of progress in addressing the climate crisis. Yet this things we must resist in the face of the climate crisis.
sober realism from the Pope was not to generate feelings A striking feature of the prayer service came when
of futility or despair, but to function as a spur for further everybody recited as one the Canticle of St Francis of Assisi
action. (‘Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures’), making
The Prayer for Creation service was a powerful and the great saint’s poetic words and deep love of created
moving liturgy of the word which included hymns, prayers, nature their own. Fittingly, this was followed by the renewal
a penitential rite, intercessions, as well as scripture readings of an act of commitment to respect the earth, one another,

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