September 1, we celebrate Creation Day, also known as the Feast of Creation or World Day of Prayer for Creation, together with other Christian Churches. This is a day to praise God as Creator, commemorate the great mystery of Creation in Christ, and inspire us Christians to care for God’s handiwork. While the celebration is becoming increasingly popular around the world, the story about its origins is not as widely known as it deserves. It was ten years ago that this day came to the attention of the universal Church. But the way it happened was unexpected. In June 2015, the Laudato Si’ encyclical was unveiled to the world in a Vatican hall packed with journalists. While the attention was centered on the novelty of the papal letter, there was another seed planted in that momentous occasion – one which went unnoticed that day, but which has proven to be of huge significance as well. 

One of the speakers in that press conference was the Orthodox bishop John Zizioulas of Pergamon, since the encyclical quoted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew extensively. The great Zizioulas took advantage of the opportunity to introduce the significance of September 1 as the first day of their liturgical year and as a moment to pray and reflect on creation. He reminded the audience that it was in 1989 that the Orthodox first invited “the whole Christian world” to pray together on that special day. Unexpectedly, he renewed the invitation: “Might this not become a date for such prayer for all Christians?” The Holy Father was quick to accept. A month later, he officially proclaimed September 1 as World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church. 

While it was a new thing for most Catholics, it was not new for us Filipinos. As it happens, our Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines already began promoting the celebration of Creation Day back in 2003 – over two decades ago. That year, the president of our conference – then-Archbishop and now Cardinal Orlando Quevedo – published a prophetic pastoral letter on behalf of the bishops, titled “Celebrating Creation Day and Creation Time”. It stated: “Today, September 1, in many parts of the world Christian churches are celebrating ‘Creation Day’... We wish to introduce this period to our Catholic faithful and acknowledge ‘Creation’, that priceless gift of the Almighty and Loving Creator.” Since Pope Francis instituted the day of prayer globally, momentum has accelerated even more. It has become immensely popular and widespread.

Over the decades, we have witnessed that Creation Day was an incredibly precious gift from the Orthodox Church – both a pastoral gift and a theological-liturgical gift. On one hand, as our 2003 letter stressed, the desecration of God’s Creation “is a matter of life and death” for us in the Philippines. Not only are we worried about the local destruction of our ecosystems, but perhaps most importantly, we are alarmed about the global climate emergency and how it is ravaging our islands. In recent decades, hurricanes have become much more frequent and deadlier due to human disruption of our climate, hitting the poorest hardest. Creation Day is helping heal our broken relationship with creation, which is an existential pastoral imperative for so many of us in the global South.

On the other hand, Creation Day is also a theological gift, grounded in its ancient roots in Orthodox liturgy. Since the 5th century, this day has symbolized God’s creation of heaven and earth. Thus, Creation Day helps bring our gaze to a great mystery of our faith that has received inadequate attention. As Benedict XVI put it, “The renewal of the doctrine of Creation and a new understanding of the inseparability of Creation and Redemption are of supreme importance.” Since the link between both mysteries is Christ, 2025 is an even more special year to celebrate the Feast of Creation – or, even better, the Feast of Creation in Christ. Namely, we now have the added ingredient of the commemoration of the 1700 years of the ecumenical council of Nicaea. At the heart of the Council and the Creed was precisely that decisive affirmation of the divinity of Christ. As we proclaim in the Creed, “through [him] all things were made”, echoing the Prologue of John. Creation Day can help us to celebrate much more intentionally this overlooked aspect of the mystery of Christ. 

This year, for the first time in history, we have a Mass formulary – the Missa pro custodia creationis – that allows us to celebrate Creation Day around the altar, with tailored liturgical texts for the occasion. That first step by the Holy See allows us to start fulfilling the day’s huge pastoral and liturgical potential, which is why our bishops’ conference is animating all parishes across the Philippines to mark the day. When we gather around the Eucharistic table to celebrate this feast, we will joyfully sing “the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps 104:24), recommitting to care for it, and we will praise Christ since “all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). Moreover, we will thank the Lord for this Byzantine gift and we will pray for the Holy Spirit to guide the various Christian churches to celebrate together more intentionally the great mystery of Creation in Christ.