On Sunday, September 1, parish priest of Toco-Matelot, Fr Raymond Francis celebrated Mass at the Assumption Church, Mission Village to mark the start of the month-long ‘Season of Creation’ (See page 7).
The ‘Canticle of the Sun’ was chosen as the entrance hymn and the Canticle, Daniel 3, ‘All creation bless the Lord’ was sung for the Responsorial Psalm – both appropriate selections for this Liturgy.
A special presentation was done by representatives from The Franciscan Institute: Analisa Ramsahai, Sr Fortunata Abraham SSM and Sr Natania Antoine SJC. They spoke about The Web of Life as this year’s Season of Creation theme, Laudato Si’ by Pope Francis and why it is important to look after all of creation in our earthly home.
Our responsibility is to exercise humility (a virtue we heard about in the day’s readings) in caring for our environment and to respect every segment of God’s creation, not just the ones we choose. We know that all future generations will need not some, but all of God’s creation that was intended for them.
The congregation also witnessed the launch of the Toco-Matelot 3H environmental club which embraced the challenge of looking after the environment and encouraging others to do so, agreeing to neither despair nor give up on their efforts. They immediately showed their commitment by doing a beach clean up after Mass.
Plants and seedlings were distributed to parishioners who were asked to nurture and return them on October 4, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi which will mark the close of this year’s ‘Season of Creation’.
We thank the Franciscan Institute for their presence and support of this event, the young people and our parish priest for taking up the mantle of this worthy and noble exercise.
—Maria Pereira