Pope Leo XIV Prayer for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2025
The Season of Creation, observed from 1 September to 4 October each year, calls Christian communities into a time of prayer, attention, and responsibility. This year marks the tenth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and Pope Leo XIV’s message comes with the quiet urgency that this milestone requires.
The theme, Seeds of Peace and Hope, draws directly from the language of Jesus, who so often spoke of seeds when talking about the Kingdom of God. Pope Leo returns to this image as a way of grounding hope in something real and living: the quiet, persistent work of renewal that begins beneath the surface. He recalls Christ’s words about the grain of wheat that falls to the ground, and in dying, bears fruit. The image draws our attention to the hidden reality of growth, which often begins in struggle and loss. Yet life presses forward, and in death, it takes seed once again.
The Pope writes with honesty about the many places, both physical and spiritual, that have become barren. He names the deep harm inflicted on the earth and on people, pointing to the violations of human rights, the widening inequality, and the environmental degradation so prevalent in the world today. These issues are exacerbated by habits of exploitation and indifference. Too often, those who live closest to the land – indigenous communities, small farmers and those already on the margins -are the ones who are most affected.
This is a reality many of our Sisters witness in mission contexts in local communities across Africa. Climate change disrupts livelihoods, deepening poverty and forcing migration. The land, once a source of sustenance and cultural identity, becomes a site of conflict or environmental collapse. The Pope’s reminder that the earth is a shared inheritance entrusted to our care calls us to recognise the interconnectedness of these crises. They are not separate from the injustices many people endure daily.
There is no suggestion here that the Church should remain a passive observer. Pope Leo speaks directly to those who follow Christ, reminding us that the earth is not a backdrop to our lives. It is a shared inheritance entrusted to our care. An inheritance to be honoured through relationship rather than control. He draws from Laudato Si’ to emphasise that the scriptural command to “till and keep” the garden carries within it a mutual responsibility: to cultivate and to protect, to work and to watch over.
This year’s message is both pastoral and political, without using either label. The Pope does not offer solutions in the policy sense. Instead, he calls for a shift in posture, a different way of seeing the world and our place within it. He identifies the destruction of ecosystems and the commodification of nature as moral and spiritual wounds as well as failures of governance. These are symptoms of a deeper disconnection with God, with one another, and with the land itself.
We see this disconnection in the widening gaps between rich and poor, in conflicts over natural resources, and in the loss of biodiversity that sustains life. In our globalised world, the consequences of environmental degradation are unevenly felt, with the poorest suffering most. Pope Leo insists that environmental justice cannot be separated from social and economic justice. What harms the land often harms the vulnerable. What benefits the powerful frequently comes at a cost borne by others.
Yet the message is not driven by alarm. It returns again to the possibility of renewal. A renewal that comes through steady, committed effort rather than grand gestures or short-term solutions. The seed, after all, does not grow overnight. It requires soil, time, care, and the willingness to wait without certainty. Pope Leo suggests that the work of ecological conversion must be patient and shared. Something cultivated in community, through love and persistence.
He mentions the Borgo Laudato Si’ project as one expression of this commitment: a local initiative shaped by the vision of integral ecology. But the larger point is not about a single project, it is about a way of living. About how people can be formed and formed again by what they value, how they work, and how they care.
The message closes with a prayer that the Spirit might be poured out, that what has been planted will grow, and that this growth will embody peace and hope, conditions made real through justice, solidarity, and faith.
The Season of Creation asks nothing superficial of us. It is not a campaign or a trend. It is a call to pay attention to the earth, to one another, and to the Spirit at work in the world. In doing so, we take part in the slow and deliberate work of repair, sustained through commitment rather than relying on perfection.
For our community and those we serve, this call demands honest reflection. How do we witness to these seeds of peace and hope amid challenges that can seem overwhelming? How might we support those most affected by environmental and social injustice? The Pope’s message challenges us to embrace patience and persistence, to nurture relationships grounded in care, and to recognise that transformation happens through faithful presence over time.
As we look forward to this Season of Creation, we acknowledge that hope is a living reality that grows in the soil of our shared responsibility and shared humanity.
Pope Leo XIV’s full message for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation can be read here.