Season of Creation: ‘Living Water’ - Marists across the Province share what water means to them
Updated: 20 hours ago
For this year’s Season of Creation, the Laudato Si’ Action Committee of the Star of the Sea Province has prepared a short liturgy and accompanying video exploring the theme ‘Living Water’.
As a Province made up largely of island nations, water holds a special significance for our communities. It is not only essential for life, but is deeply woven into the culture, traditions and daily lives of our people.
In the video, Marists - both Brothers and Lay Marists - from across the Province reflect on what water means to them and to their communities, and why this precious gift of creation is so important.
The Season of Creation runs from 1 September to the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4 October. We invite you to use this liturgy during this season as an opportunity to pause, pray and reflect on the gift of water and our responsibility to care for our Common Home. If possible, you might like to pray the liturgy together as a community or individually, ideally near a body of water.
The video has been created to accompany the liturgy, but it can also be viewed as a standalone reflection.
Jenifer Miller
Chair, Laudato Si’ Action Committee
The prayer is also available as a PDF for use by individuals or communities.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to everyone gathered. Call to mind the presence of God. + Sign of the Cross
The theme for the Season of Creation this year is ‘Living Water’, which is taken from Ezekiel 47:9 and 12.
SACRED TEXT
Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live… Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.
Leader: May the Word, as living water,
All: Make everything live.
Reader 1: Holy God, whose Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning, we gather as part of your community of all creation, thirsty for your grace. We give thanks for the gift of water, the veins of our common home, that sustains the cedar and the whale, the pasture and the city. We are grateful for the local waters that nourish our homelands and our fellow creatures. We give thanks that in your well-watered garden, every drop is a sacred testament to your love.
Reader 2: Yet, we confess that we have treated this gift as a mere commodity. We have choked the seas with our waste and watched the warming tides rise in judgment. We lament the cracked earth of the drought-stricken and the salty tears of the climate refugee. Melt our frozen hearts, O God, and let the waters of repentance flow.
Reader 3: Lord of all Life, you promised that wherever the river flows, everything shall live. Stir in us a calling to care for the waters — to protect the watershed, defend the rights of water and honour the dignity of the thirsty. May your Word be a spring within us, gushing forth for the healing of the nations.
Reader 4: May God our Father who brought water from the rock sustain us in the desert. May Christ our Lord who is Living Water refresh us for the work of restoration. And may the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
All: We have a shared calling to care for the gift of water.
Leader: This bowl of water is a sign of renewal and a reminder of their commitment to protect and cherish water as a sacred gift of God. We thank you God for your love in all creation, and especially the gift of water to sustain and cleanse all life. Christ is the living water, cleansing, refreshing, and making all things new. So now we offer our thanks for the waters that bring beauty to all that we enjoy, the wild places, the bush, the mountains, coast and the sea. We give thanks and praise for all good lands, for the trees and pastures, for our plentiful crops, and for the living water that quenches them. We praise you for giving us life through water, and for all waters everywhere. We especially praise you for the waters that sustain us in the Star of the Sea province, our common home.
Leader: We give you thanks, O God, for in the beginning you created us in your image and placed us in a well-watered garden. In the desert, you promised pools of water for the parched, and you gave your people water from the rock. When we did not know the way, you sent the Good Shepherd to lead us to still waters. At the cross, you washed us from Jesus’ wounded side, and on this day, you shower us again with the water of life. You bathe us in your forgiveness, grace, and love. You satisfy all who thirst and give us the life only you can give.
May the Word, as living water.
All: Make everything live.
Reader 5: God of living waters, today we pray for a wounded world where waters are exploited, polluted, and withheld. We pray for places where plastics, toxins, and oil spills blacken creeks and wetlands, for communities whose fishing waters are contaminated and whose children drink from polluted streams. Heal what has been poisoned. Bring justice where profit has silenced truth.
Reader 6: Convert our hearts, O God. Where we have treated water as a commodity, teach us to receive it as a sacred gift. Where we have consumed without thought, teach us simplicity. Where we have used water without reverence, teach us to protect it as a gift entrusted to every generation and honour water as a source of life for all. Where we have been silent and tolerant of injustice make us courageous protectors of rivers, defenders of seas, and companions to those who suffer water injustice until justice and mercy flows like the river of life.
All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.
FINAL BLESSING AND SENDING
Leader: May the God who sprung water from a rock, quenching the thirst of those who wandered in fear, spare us from the drought of a senseless life. May the God who flows from the wells of salvation, and who is Living Water to the foreigner, the stranger, and the unknown, keep us in peace. May the God who rolls on like a river, changing the course of the world with streams of righteousness that guide the Church's vessel in this world, empower us to work for transformation. And may the blessing of our merciful God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, keep us and preserve us in eternal life.
All: Amen.
CALL TO ACTION
Trees absorb carbon pollution, prevent erosion, reduce flooding, provide food and medicine, and cool urban environments. Trees bring healing to the nations and therefore growing trees is an integral part of our spiritual lives.
You are invited to contribute to the Star of the Sea ‘Buy A Tree’ project. For more information on this project or to make a contribution to plant a tree either in Mittagong or the other projects around our Province, please click here
Download the Liturgy PDF
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