The public is welcome to open the 2025 Season of Creation by celebrating Mass with the Dominican Sisters at Sacred Heart Convent at 9:00 a.m., Monday, Sept. 1.
“This day marks the opening of a month long, global, ecumenical celebration of the gifts of God’s Creation,” said Sister Sharon Zayac, OP, who chairs the Springfield Dominican Sisters Laudato Si’ Action Platform committee. “We are happy to welcome all who want to join us.
“In fact, we are celebrating multiple converging events with these observances,” she continued.
2025 marks the:
- 800th Anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures, a poem often attributed to St. Francis
- 25th Anniversary of ministry at Jubilee Farm
- 10th Anniversary of the papal encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home
The year is also a year of jubilee for the global Catholic Church, under the theme of Pilgrims of Hope. Along with this jubilee celebration, a large number of Catholic and environmental groups in the U.S. have initiated Pilgrims of Hope for Creation, encouraging participants to make a pilgrimage to sites of beauty and even sites of environmental degradation.
More Resources for the Season of Creation
In addition to the opening event, the Dominican Sisters are encouraging all who wish to make their own pilgrimage of hope for creation. “Pilgrimages are not like vacations,” said Sister Sharon, “but more like intentional journeys of transformation to wholeness. We encourage everyone to make such a pilgrimage.
Those with the resources might make a multiday journey. More likely, the type of pilgrimage available to everyone could be as short as a 30-minute reflection in the back yard or a nearby park.”
This PDF explains in more detail types of pilgrimage anyone can make.
Other events scheduled for the Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation include:
Twenty-five years of ministry at Jubilee Farm: An open house, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, 6760 Old Jacksonville Road, just 3.5 miles west of Veterans Parkway, Springfield.
Celebrating the Canticle of the Creatures: 9:30-10:00 a.m., Sat., Oct 4, at the Butterfly Garden at Sacred Heart Convent, 1237 W. Monroe St., Springfield, IL 62704. Outdoors, rain or shine.
Those who are interested in learning more about this event are encouraged to visit seasonofcreation.org, where they can can find resources for their own celebrations.
Roman Catholics began observing Sept. 1 as World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2015, encouraged by Pope Francis the year he released his groundbreaking encyclical, Laudato Si’ On Care for our Common Home. In 2019 Roman Catholics joined much of the global Christian community by celebrating the Season of Creation, organized first by the World Council of Churches, and closing on October 4, each year, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecology.
The Dominican Sisters of Springfield welcome all who want practical tips for caring for creation wherever they live to subscribe to their monthly Laudato Si’ Action Platform Newsletter.
What is a pilgrimage? How do you make one during the Season of Creation?
The Latin root of pilgrim is peregrini: stranger. So the nature of a pilgrimage is to allow yourself to be a stranger, whether in a place you’ve never been, or one you’ve frequented. That is, being a pilgrim allows you to see a place anew and let it transform you, even if you’ve been there before.
During the Season of Creation Catholic communities across the United States are organizing local pilgrimages as sacred opportunities to pray for the grace to encounter Christ in Creation and renew our relationships with God, the Earth, and one another. You can organize one of your own, using the resources provided by Catholic Pilgrims of Hope, or you can step out your own back door and make a very informal, personal pilgrimage without any fanfare. Catholic Pilgrims of Hope advises that whatever you choose, this journey is meant to help you:
- witness God’s presence in the world,
- renew your commitment to protecting and preserving the beauty of creation for future generations, and help you
- consider the ways humans have harmed God’s gift of Creation and find inspiration to do better.
By inviting you to make a pilgrimage during this Season of Creation (Sept 1-Oct 4 2025) we are inviting you to step outside yourself and see with new eyes in a way that can transform your own heart and mind. We invite you to think in new ways about the creation that surrounds you and what it means to you.
