'O Lord, how manifold are your works!' World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
O Lord , how manifold are your works! Psalm 104 [103]:24 [ Tagaytay, Philippines] In a letter dated 6 August 2015 , the Feast of the Transfiguration, Pope Francis established the First of September each year as World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation . He stated that the Catholic Church will be following what the Orthodox Church has been doing for some time. The letter states: The ecological crisis thus summons us to a profound spiritual conversion: Christians are called to 'an ecological conversion whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them'. For 'living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience'. The quotations are from the Pope's recent encyclical Laudato Si' , Nos 216 and 217 respectively. You make springs gush forth in the valleys;