With bare feet, Employees and staff of ACD together with the Missionaries of the Assumption, processioned around the school’s ground as the community launched this year’s Season of Creation last September 8, 2020.
“The season of creation is a time to care for the most vulnerable, and restore the connections that make us whole,” Pope Francis wrote in his letter on the care of creation.
The celebration is themed, “ Jubilee for the Earth: New Rhythms, New Hope” which commemorates four Sundays of September before the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi– October 4. Sr. Concepcion P. Gasang enlightened:
“One important aspect of Jubilee is rest. So, we are challenged to let the earth rest so that it will continue to provide us with what we need in our existence.”
Since the Ecozoic Learning and Living Program in 2007, the ACD community has been imparting the same call of importance to the creation in our survival, she added.
Pointing the CoVid19 pandemic as a wake-up call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption, she reminded of the principle of Ecozoic Living: we are to return to our proper place in the order of creation, not as a superior being but a part of the whole of creation.
Sr. Flora M. Secuya shared in her reflection that this kind of activity is done so that we can remember that there is a crisis of life.
“Our advocacy for Creation is not just simple advocacy but trust that we have to commit our own life here on Earth…to always Choose Life,” Sr. Flora emphasized.
An intercession was performed by Ms. Mary Jane Bajenting, Mr. Aldrin Dais, Mr. Jovie Mirontos, and Mr. Jorge Manzanillo, Jr. as a thanksgiving to the creation of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water to sustain Mother Earth– our common home.
With green handprints, the ACD community expressed its official Statement of Commitment for the Season of Creation.
Relating to the importance of the call for saving our home, the students in the Christian Living Education of Mr. Marvin Torrenueva created the face of A Good and Bad Earth in a collage.
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Mr. Torreneuva described the activity as a way to remind their responsibilities as young stewards of life.
The Day of Prayer for Creation began in 1989 with the Eastern Catholic Church and was adopted by Pope Francis in 2015 following his encyclical letter, Laudato Si. This year, the Jubilee for the earth is a time to Remember, Return, Rest, Restore, and Rejoice.