We Augustinian Recollects join the universal Church in celebrating Creation Day, September 1, a tradition that dates back to the 5th century in the Eastern liturgy and today has a profound ecumenical accent. Inspired by St. Augustine, we renew our gratitude for the gift of creation and our commitment to guard it with hope.
What do we celebrate on September 1?
The Creation Day commemorates the mystery of a God who, through Christ, “called all things into existence”. It is not an extended “Earth Day”: it is a feast of faith. feast of faith that places God at the center and embraces the entire created order-earth, sky, stars-as a gift that inspires worship and responsibility. From the Eastern tradition, this day symbolizes the “in the beginningbiblical “in the beginning”; in 1989 the Orthodox world invited all the Churches to pray together and the vast majority responded by joining in the annual celebration. It is a sign of Christian unity around praise and care.
This day also opens the Time of Creation (September 1 to October 4), a journey of prayer, conversion and commitment that culminates on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
A tradition that unites East and West
Creation Day, also called the Feast of Creation, has its roots in the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church since the 5th century, as a commemoration of the mystery of God’s creative act. In 1989, Patriarch Dimitrios I invited all Christian Churches to join in prayer on September 1. Since then, the celebration has acquired a profound ecumenical character, uniting Catholics, Orthodox and Christian communities in a common prayer to the Creator.
More than an environmental day, it is a feast of faith: to celebrate that God is the Creator of the whole universe, of the earth and the stars, of the visible and the invisible. Putting God at the center is the key to this day, which reminds us that creation is both gift and task, gift and responsibility.
The message of Pope Leo XIV
In his message for this day, Pope Leo XIV recalled that “the world needs messages of hope, and you are that message”. He invited the faithful to be custodians of creation and witnesses to peace, stressing that care for the Common Home cannot be separated from the proclamation of the Gospel and the building of a reconciled world.
The Holy Father stressed that this commitment also involves a spirituality of discernment, capable of recognizing God’s action in nature and in history, in order to respond with concrete gestures that defend the dignity of each person and the integrity of all creation.
St. Augustine: interiority, the order of love and care
From the Augustinian tradition, interiority y care go hand in hand. As the Augustinian Recollect recalls Enrique Eguiarte In Augustine’s spirituality, creation is a “sign” that leads us to the Creator. heartthe more we learn the ordo amoris (order of love) that puts God first and enables us to love all things rightly. The conversion is born within and becomes visible outside: respect for life, joyful sobriety, justice for the vulnerable and care for the common good. care for the common good.
For St. Augustine, moreover, the Church lives “with one soul and one heart turned towards God.one soul and one heart oriented toward God“community that listens, discerns and acts. acts. Caring for creation is an expression of this well-ordered charity.
An Augustinian view of creation
St. Augustine reminds us that “everything that exists bears in itself the imprint of the Creator”(Conf. X,6). From this perspective, Augustinian spirituality invites us to live the care of creation as an act of ordered love: to be grateful for the gift received and to use it responsibly, always orienting it to the common good.
Enrique Eguiarte in his reflections, for Augustine creation is not an end in itself, but the place where God reveals himself to us and where we learn to discover the order of love. To love creation is, therefore, to learn to love God in all things, and to serve him in the concrete and everyday of our lives.
How to live it in an Augustinian Recollect way
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Prayer and inner silenceThank you for the gift of creation; ask for new eyes to recognize Christ in the little things.
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Sobriety and justiceChoose concrete gestures (saving water and energy, avoiding waste, responsible consumption) that benefit the latter.
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Community on the moveJoin your parish, school or group in local initiatives of reforestation, cleanup, recycling or support to families affected by environmental crises.
Prayer with the whole Church
Today we Augustinian Recollects pray with the universal Church, giving thanks for the gift of creation and asking for the grace to guard it faithfully. We make our own the collect prayer of the new form of the Mass for creation:
God the Father, who in Christ, the firstborn of all creation, called all things into existence, grant that, docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly guard the work of your hands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit and is God forever and ever. † Amen.
With St. Augustine, we pray that this September 1 may find us restless for God, grateful for the Common Home and faithful in caring for the little things, where the greatness of our Christian vocation is at stake.