Prayer: God of all creation, as we look at the environment, your

divine power and immense love are ever present. We thank you
for the beautiful creation and abundant resources you have
provided your children. We ask for your help in revealing how
we can be better stewards of your creation. Help us to use only
the resources we need, never being selfish by taking more than
necessary. Please give us the opportunity to appropriately share
our wealth with those who are less fortunate instead of disposing
of our surplus. Help us to remember that the environment is
home to all life and that we must take up the responsibility to
ensure all life is respected. We thank you for this day and ask for
your blessing on this journey.
Amen.

A Prayer for Our Earth (from

Laudato Si')
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and
peace. Amen.

A Thanksgiving Prayer
God of all blessings, source of all life, giver of all grace:
We thank you for the gift of life:
for the breath that sustains life,
for the food of this earth that nurtures life,
for the life-giving love of family and friends.
We thank you for the mystery of creation:
for the beauty of the Earth that the eye can see,
for the unfolding universe that draws us beyond our imaginings.
We thank you for the communities to which we belong:
for families, for friends,
for neighbors and for companions at work.
We thank you for the strangers who welcome us into their lives
and whom we invite to be part of ours.
We thank you for our brothers and sisters of all ages, all races,
all nations and all faiths.
We thank you for the multitude of ways that you call us to
steward the gifts of creation and to serve others in your name.
We thank you for this day, for the companionship we share and
the bountiful goodness of the bread we break together.

God of all goodness, we pray in thanks for your presence among

us as we gather together, and your promise to be with us now
and always. AMEN.

Suggested Scripture Readings

Old Testament
Gn1; 2:4-7God's Wonderful Creation Is Good
Gn 2:15God Instructed Us to Tend Creation
Gn 9:8-17God's Covenant with Noah and All Creation
Lv 25:23-24The Land Is God's
Ps 8 The Majesty of God
Ps 65Thanksgiving for God's Blessings
Ps 104Praise of God the Creator
Ps 146Trust in God Alone
Ps 147Zion's Grateful Praise to Her Bountiful Lord
Ps 148Hymn of All Creation to the Almighty Creator
New Testament
Mt 6:25-34Learning to Trust in God as Does Nature
Jn 1:1-5Through Him All Things Came into Being
Rom 8: 18-25From the Beginning until Now, the
Entire Creation Has Been Groaning in
One Great Act of Waiting for Redemption
Col 1:15.23In Chris All Things Have Their Being
Rv 21:1-5Promise of the New Creation

Prayers of Petition
O Lord, grant us the grace to respect and care for Your creation.
Lord, hear our prayer.
O Lord, bless all of your creatures as a sign of Your wondrous love.
Lord, hear our prayer.
O Lord, help us to end the suffering of the poor and bring healing to all of your
creation.

Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord, help us to use our technological inventiveness to undo the damage we have
done to Your
creation and to sustain Your gift of nature.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Pledge of Commitment
To Protect and Heal God's Creation
This Pledge of Commitment may be read in unison or in alternation:
We have come to renew our covenant with God and with one another in Christ
Jesus, our Lord.
We have come to help protect God's creation.
We have come as followers of Jesus to commit ourselves anew to one another and
to heal
injustice and poverty.
We have come to stand together against all threats to life.
We have come to discover some new beauty every day in God's creation: the
sunrise and sunset,
birds, flowers and trees, rainbows in the sky, the stars, the many forms of life in the
forest.
We have come to listen to the "music of the universe"- water flowing over rocks, the
wind, trees
bending in the wind, raindrops pattering the roof.
We will remember always that God speaks to us through the beauty of his creation,
and we will
try our best to answer God's call to reverence all that he has created.

Hymns
One of the following may used to conclude the service:
All Creatures of Our God and King
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Come Rejoice Before Your Maker
Earth and All Stars

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the Fruits of This Creation
For the Healing of the Nations
God We Praise You
God Whose Farm Is All Creation
God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens
Great God Our Source and Lord of Space
His Voice Is the Thunder and the Storm
How Marvelous Gods Greatness
Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
Let All the Earth Their Voices Raise
Let All Things Now Living
Let the Heavens Be Glad
Let the Whole Creation Cry
Many and Great, O God, Are Your Works
Morning Has Broken
O God Beyond All Praising
Over the Chaos of the Empty Waters
Praise the Lord; Ye Heaven
Sing to the Lord of Harvest
Sing Out, Earth and Skies
The Works of the Lord Are Created in Wisdom
This Is My Fathers World
We Plow the Fields and Scatter
A Reflection on a Gathering or Meeting

Leader
Our time together here has been marked by rich and deep conversation around an issue about
which each of us feels very passionately. As we close this conference, let us pause to reflect on
one moment in which we experienced a new insight, a new understanding.
(Pause for reflection)
Leader
Lord, we thank you for opening our minds and hearts to new learning. Like the disciples after the
miracle of the loaves and fishes, we gather all of the fragments of our time together that not one
blessing from our common conversation should be lost. As we go forth from this place, we ask
that you help us to hold onto the wisdom that has been shared in this room and move the ideas
expressed here forward, continuing to grow and develop them in our individual, on-going work
in this field.

All
Lord hear us. Hear our prayer.
Leader
Let us also pause to call to mind a moment in which we did not feel at harmony with one another
a moment perhaps when an idea was expressed that concerned us deeply; that troubled us.
Perhaps a moment in which we felt that we were misunderstood. And let us hold that moment in
prayer, too.
(Pause for reflection)
Leader
Lord, we thank you for the words of challenge that have been part of this gathering. We know
that the conversations that we have had with one another have been graced, but they have also
been difficult. Though we now prepare to part one another's company, we ask nevertheless that
you weave us ever closer together as a community of leaders, marked by growing understanding,
charity, patience, and commitment to dialogue.
All
Lord hear us. Hear our prayer.
Leader
As we close our time together, let us lastly call to mind one patient or patient's family from our
own organization that we know is currently facing painful decisions. Let us place these persons
into God's shepherding hands.
(Pause for reflection)
Leader
Lord, we know that you know each and every one of your sheep by name. In the Psalms you tell
us that you provide us with all we need, even as you walk with us through the darkest of valleys.
Be with the patients whom we have entrusted to your care. Be with their families and their
caretakers. May our work always serve their greatest good.
All
Lord hear us. Hear our prayer.

Closing Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for your presence with us this day. As we depart from this space now, we ask
you to bless us throughout the remainder of the day and guide us safely home. Do not let the

learning and conversations of this gathering die, but, instead, may they continue to ruminate
within us and bear fruit in our ministries throughout the year, until we find ourselves together
again. We ask this in the name of Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Doers of the Word

Call to Prayer
Leader
As we prepare to enter into the significant work of this meeting let us pause for a moment to
listen to a reading from the epistle of James and invite the words of the apostle to permeate our
conversation.
Reader
"Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then
goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of
freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts; such a one shall be
blessed in what he does.
"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion
is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans
and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
James 1:19-27
Leader
O Lord, we gather here as those who wish to be doers, and not only hearers of your Word. In our
work here today we ask you to hold the mirror up before us, that we might see in ourselves the
potential for doing good that you see in us. Created in your image, we want to know ourselves as
collaborators in your plan for a just and charitable society.
We ask you to draw near and be with us in our meeting today. Shape the conversation that we
have here gently guiding the steps that we take together as a group, moving us toward a new
commitment to serve our communities. We pray together in the words of Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, whose life was given to the care of "orphans and widows":
All
Lord by your grace, let the poor who see us be drawn to Christ and invite him to enter their
homes and their lives. Let the sick and the suffering find in us angels of comfort and consolation.
Let the little ones of the streets cling to us because we remind them of him, the friend of all little
ones.*

Leader
We pray in Jesus' name,
All
Amen.
*Mother Teresa, 1910-1996
From The Harper Collins Book of Prayers, compiled by Robert Van de Weyer (New York:
Harper San Francisco, 1993, p. 352)

As We Gather

Creator and Source of All Being,

We give you thanks for the beauty of this day,
For the gift of this world,
And for the gift of each other.
We especially give you thanks for the gift of our vocation to Catholic health care.
We thank you for the ways in which you become present to us in our service of the sick and the
suffering, the poor, and the outcast.
As we gather here at this meeting, we ask you to be with us as we continue to reflect on this
unique vocation and seek to live it more fully in the world.
Open our eyes that we may see what you wish us to see.
Open our ears that in our dialogue we may hear what you want us to hear.
And, open our heartsthat we may feel as you feel toward those in greatest need of our services.
Bless all that we do here in our gathering; may it be a holy work done in your name.
We ask this in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit.
Amen.
International Human Solidarity Day, Dec. 20 (2015)

Download the Word version

"The development of all peoples demands, above all, on a recognition that
the human race is a single family working together in true communion,
not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side-by-side."
- Pope Benedict XVI,
Caritas inVeritate, 53

Solidarity is one of the fundamental and universal values that should underlie relations between
people in this century and beyond. International Human Solidarity Day, Dec. 20, was founded by
the United Nations to eradicate poverty and promote human and social development in
developing countries, in particular among the poorest segments of their populations.
Hear the inspiring words of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for
togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell
the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor,
educated, not educated, male, female, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this
human family, God's family.
Let us pray together for the sake of those who are left behind in economic development:
migrants, the unemployed, indigenous peoples, those with disabilities and so many others.
"The Tears of Solidarity"
God of compassion, Pope Francis challenges us to learn how to cry, to brave that pain, and so
enter into true solidarity with your people.
With those who face hunger, who face war, who face exploitation, who face displacement,
I stand in solidarity.
With those who face unjust discrimination, who face indifference, who face a lack of
opportunity, who face a lack of health care,
I stand in solidarity.
But in truth, I stand a little reluctantly. And I stand a little far off; detached and apart from the
great human drama, lingering in the orchestra, even as you call me to the center stage. Lord, help
me to look again at what has been done to your people, to their lives and to their dignity, so that
slowly, and then more strongly, I will allow myself to cry. For it is only in those tears that we
truly become one. My trepidations fall away and I step forward and stand anew. Teach me to cry.
Amen.
"The Tears of Solidarity" is a prayer by Catholic Relief Services. It is available online.
Related information:
International Human Solidarity Day United Nations

 View the 2013 prayer