‘Living Water’ flows through Season of Creation

Catholics around the world have officially entered the 2026 Season of Creation, beginning Sept. 1 with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and running through the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4, this year under the theme “Living Water.”

Christians were invited to unite in prayer and action for the protection of creation as Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass at the Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, at the beginning of the month. There, the Holy Father declared that it is not yet too late to “repair environmental destruction and care for our common home.”

Promoted and supported by various organizations, including the Laudato Sì' Movement and the World Council of Churches, Catholics are asked to honour the legacy of the late Pope Francis, largely through his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ and its call for collective action and hope in addressing ecological crises. 

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For Agnes Richard, the long-standing national chapter animator of Mouvement Laudato Si’ Movement (MLSM) Canada, the Season of Creation still excites her each year, as interest, active participation and the overall size of the movement in Canada keeps growing.

“We are seeing strong pockets in Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Gatineau, Ottawa, all of which are very encouraging to me,” she told The Catholic Register. “It means that the work that has been done to build a network is now starting to bear fruit.” 

This year’s “Living Water” theme, derived from the story of a prophetic vision of a life-giving river flowing from the newly restored temple in Ezekiel 47, hints at a strong link to the idea of integral ecology — Laudato Si’s reminder that care for creation is inseparable from care for people and social justice.

It also builds on momentum from last October's Raising Hope Conference, in which Pope Leo XIV opened by blessing a 20,000-year-old block of glacial ice from Greenland. Richard brought some of that blessed water back to Canada, where it has since sparkled at multiple events and captured the imagination of Canadian Catholics and clergy. 

“ I've been talking about water as a symbol for how the Holy Spirit works in the world, and on April 19, Archbishop (Marcel) Damphousse of Ottawa-Cornwall had a beautiful Mass and ceremony that connected our responsibility and indigenous spirituality to water. The Archdiocese of Gatineau also had a Blessing of the Waters event while other areas of Canada are continuing to talk about this theme,” she said. 

To Richard, the season’s theme can be especially endearing to Canadians. Noting how water is ever-present to all of us in some form across the country, as a non-polarizing symbol that can be related to our faith, is especially beneficial.

“Everybody can understand the use and need for water, but to tie all of that together with a spiritual and baptismal understanding is really powerful. It’s something we have an affinity for, when we think about people who have cottages on a lake as (hosting) their happiest times,” she said. 

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This year, however, has seen water take on another meaning due to major flood disasters, notably along the China-Nepal border last month, and Myanmar in July. Richard attests that public perception in North America has also changed, with people realizing they are no longer buffered in some cases.

“While we’re not a Pacific island that is physically going underwater, we are now feeling very strong effects, and our own people are being displaced as they're evacuated from places that they can't go back to,” she said, sharing that the growth of the MLSM Canada itself shows people are entering these conversations grounded in faith.

Pope Leo XIV’s liturgical celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation earlier this month represents his support of local churches in their efforts to care for our common home and promote new paths to achieve integral human ecology. Meanwhile, Richard continues to highlight and amplify campaigns and initiatives that local groups are running as steps towards such a future. 

This year, she pointed to the Seniors Climate Witness cross-Canada electric vehicle convergence on Parliament Hill in Ottawa from Sept. 19 to 24, as well as a collaboration with the Office for Religious Communities for Integral Ecology on a campaign for an extra tax on high oil and gas profits to fund renewables and a just energy transition. 

In a letter calling for faithful to be grateful for the gift of water and resolve to be good stewards, Ottawa-Cornwall Archbishop Damphousse wrote, “Starting this year, I strongly encourage you to avoid (or even ban) single-use plastic water bottles in our churches, at committee meetings and parish celebrations.”

Perhaps a superficial change in the grand scheme of climate severity, Richard assures that, with climate action feeling overwhelming when viewed as one huge problem, breaking it down this way creates concrete steps that make change accessible to everyone. 

Whether through small grassroots attempts or greater organized efforts, she hopes that this year’s Season of Creation gives faithful from across the country another opportunity to remember how to care for our planet through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. 

“(Former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario) Dianne Saxe once said that  if science, in fact, could have people develop policy that would help us mitigate climate disaster, it would've done it by now, but that it is people's hearts that need to be converted, and who can do that better than religious communities and traditions?” she said. 

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“We just have to relearn that past where ecology had always been (present) in a better understanding of what it meant to take care of creation and our place in it. We need to not just remember it, but integrate it so that we can act on it as well.”  

A version of this article appeared in the September 13, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "‘Living Water’ flows through Season of Creation"