The ecumenical process that has accompanied the development of the Season of Creation as a common Christian celebration has taken a significant step forward in recent months. From the historic Assisi Conference in March 2024 to the recent Ecumenical Conference for the Nicene Centenary held in May 2025, a broad consensus has emerged around the proposal to establish this date as an official liturgical feast, shared by the Christian Churches that follow the Western calendar.
Along this journey, our Superior General has played an active role, invited by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences to contribute as a biblical scholar to the drafting of the final document. This document, now officially approved, includes the proposal for a liturgical formulary for the “Mass for the Care of Creation”, with carefully chosen biblical readings and prayers.
This is not merely an administrative or symbolic gesture. It is the mature fruit of a faithful reading of the signs of the times, and a prayerful and sacramental response to the cry of the earth and of the poor. In the words of Sister Rekha: “To celebrate creation as a salvific mystery is to proclaim God’s original love, to renew our awareness of being creatures, and, like Mary, to guard and help grow what does not belong to us.”
From a theological point of view, this new Mass is based on a fundamental insight: creation is not a secondary theme of faith, but the very place where salvation history begins, and where the Word became flesh. The liturgy, which always makes the Paschal mystery present, is also the space in which creation is received, offered, and transformed.
The proposed readings reflect this clearly. The Book of Wisdom (Wis 13:1–9) invites us to discover the Creator’s face in the beauty of creation. The hymn from Colossians (Col 1:15–20) offers a deeply Christological vision of the cosmos, in which all things were created “through Him and for Him,” and all will be reconciled through His cross. The Gospel of Matthew—whether in its invitation to trust divine providence (Mt 6:24–34) or in the scene where Jesus calms the storm (Mt 8:23–27)—reminds us that creation is in the Lord’s hands and invites us to live by faith, not by fear.
The Roman Missal, with the approval of Pope Leo XIV, has included this new formulary among the Masses for Various Needs, allowing it to be celebrated in specific pastoral contexts. But beyond the liturgical norms, this opens up a spiritual and communal opportunity to renew our relationship with God, with others, and with the earth. As Laudato si’ emphasizes, these three relationships are intimately connected, and their rupture is also a form of structural sin.
Incorporating this celebration into our liturgical life is not only a response to an environmental urgency. It is a way of looking at reality with contemplative eyes, like Saint Francis of Assisi. It is to receive bread and wine as fruits of the earth and of human labour, knowing that their ultimate destiny is to be transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is to open ourselves to a Eucharistic conversion of our way of inhabiting the world, one that urges us to live with simplicity, justice, and tenderness.
As Religious of the Assumption, we are called to live this dimension of our faith deeply. Our spirituality invites us to discover God present in history, in peoples, in bodies, and also in the earth. Welcoming this new liturgical feast with responsibility and joy can thus become a concrete way of responding to our vocation today.
Those who have taken part in this process—such as Sister Rekha and Sister Carmela, who contributed to the workshops on Scripture and ecological Lectio Divina—have witnessed the shared desire of many Churches to walk together toward deeper communion, also through care for creation. This ecumenical journey is not just a visible gesture of unity, but an act of hope in the midst of the climate crisis.
Saint Marie Eugénie, so passionate about a Christianity that transforms the world, would surely rejoice in seeing us collaborate in this ecumenical sowing. As a religious family, we are called to become involved, to be formed, and to share this spirit of reconciliation with all creation. The Kingdom we proclaim also bears the face of a land that sings the glory of God.