Rome (Italy). On 1 September we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, called by Pope Francis and celebrated by the Catholic Church in union with Orthodox brothers and sisters, and with the support of other Christian Churches and Communities.

It is an opportunity to open up as a believer in a mystical-contemplative attitude towards creation, challenged by the environmental emergency, which deeply touches our common home.

This year in particular, the month of September is dedicated to the initiative of the Ecumenical Movement “Time for Creation” until October 4th, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. It was the Dicastery for the service of integral human development to promote adhesion, to encourage Christians on all continents to work to put into practice in daily life the encyclical “Laudato si ‘”.

The Councilor for Youth Pastoral, Sr. Runita Borja FMA, in a communication for the educating communities of the Institute, invites us to commemorate the Day of September 1, “dedicating time and space to prayer, study,  sharing, action, and deepening knowledge of this very important theme, and involving friends and acquaintances. We recognize that young people are very sensitive to this field, open and available for commitment.

Think of Greta Thunberg, the teenager from Sweden, who started a series of large demonstrations with teenagers and young people to raise awareness about climate change, global warming, and the necessary personal and social choices, and to urgently move governments and politicians to responsible action for our mother earth.

“… We must speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable this may be. You only talk about an infinite growth of the green economy, because you are too afraid of being unpopular. Just talk about going ahead with the same misconceptions that put us in this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to say things as they are, even this burden is left to us children. I, on the other hand, do not care about being unpopular, I care about climate justice and the planet. Civilization is sacrificed to give a small circle of people the ability to continue to accumulate huge amounts of profits. Our biosphere is sacrificed to make rich people in countries like mine live in luxury. It is the suffering of many that guarantee the well-being of a few” (from the speech by Greta Thunberg to the COP 24).

“Many young people, even those of the educating communities, make their voices heard to question political and economic choices, and commit themselves to concrete projects for the care of the common home ”.

It is hoped that the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the care of creation will render contemplative the gaze of the educating communities on the reality of creation and, at the same time, proactive, creative, industrious, since, as we read in the encyclical Laudato si ‘, “the world is something more than a problem to be solved, it is a joyful mystery that we contemplate in joy and praise”(n. 12).

The conviction grows in the Institute that the educational mission is a privileged space to form people who are responsible for being administrators responsible for the common home (see Laudato si ‘116).

The FMA provinces have adhered to the “I can” Project of OIEC (International Catholic Education Organization), through the project initiative “Together, we can”. Sister Runita Borja continues, “it is a concrete response to the call to take care of the common home and a process of integral education that forms the mind (convictions), moves the heart (emotions), makes the hands active (action), moves the feet (commitment)”.

With interest, enthusiasm, and dynamism, educators, families, children, adolescents, and young people try to live ecological spirituality passing “from consumption to sacrifice, from greed to generosity, from waste to the ability to share” (Laudato si ‘9) putting the Preventive System into practice in today’s history.

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