World Environment Day will be held on 5 June. It is the day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. It is also a day for reflection and prayer.
Each World Environment Day is organised around at theme that draws attention to a particularly pressing environmental concern. The theme for this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June is ‘Air pollution’.
Only 12 per cent of cities have air quality measures that meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Ninety of 193 countries do not have vehicle emission standards and it is estimated that 4.30 million deaths are attributed to indoor air pollution.
Prayer resources for World Environment Day include:
Prayer for Creation
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen
(Laudato si’, 246)
See also An Ecological Examen.
Other prayer resources and suggested scriptural texts can be found at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or from Caritas.
A prayer for our earth (A further prayer from Pope Francis' 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.