On 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Church in Canada celebrates the National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. This project, with the approval of the Bishops of Canada, has been coordinated since 2002 by the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council (formerly the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council). This year, the reflection by the Council centres on the theme Healing of the Earth. “Together we share one common home, Mother Earth, and we are all dependent on her for our existence. We continue to face very real threats to our ecology and way of life, which has never been more apparent as we live through the present Covid-19 pandemic. We must come together as one human family. Pope Francis reminds us in his encyclical Laudato Si that: ‘Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.’ We turn to the Earth for sustenance: for shelter, food and medicines. And when we die, our bodies will return to the Earth where our ancestors reside as we await to be with God in Heaven forever.”
2020 Message of the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council
O God, Great Spirit and Faithful Creator, with humility we your children acknowledge the relationship of all living things.
For this we thank you, we praise you and we worship you.
We call on you, Great Mystery, the Word made Flesh –our teacher, prophet and brother – to open our hearts to all our brothers and sisters, and with them to grow in the wisdom, honesty, courage and respectfulness shown in The Sacred Teachings.
Give us the honesty to recognize that the Earth provides us with life sustaining breath, nourishment and healing, and give us the strength to proclaim by our words and actions that the Earth is a blessing for all peoples.
May we avoid the sins of exploitative personal power and profit.
May we seek the righteous way of love, service, and healing in all things.
Father, as we walk our journey on this Earth, may your life-giving Spirit protect and guide us with your Wisdom so that we might live in right relationship and harmony with all humanity.
May we pass on to future generations this Earth and all your gifts as you have provided them to us. +Amen