“God, our neighbor, & the Earth itself”: First Mass for the Care of Creation

“God, our neighbor, & the Earth itself”: Pope Leo XIV’s First Mass for the Care of Creation

by Franci Revel Eckensberger, Lead Editor

On July 9, Pope Leo XIV donned emerald damask in the Laudato Si’ Village, an ecological center located at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. His vestments were made by House of Hansen, a small supplier of clerical attire and liturgical goods in the Holy Father’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. An ornate gold altar, the occasional pink burst of waterlilies, grounded magenta flowers and deep green shrubbery, a few white taper candles wreathed in pink and yellow blossoms, an unadorned wooden crucifix, dark and sobering. Each color stood boldly against a towering statue of Our Lady as the Holy Father celebrated the inaugural Mass for the Care of Creation. The scene had a simple elegance.

The sun shone on the small, private gathering of Vatican staff, reflecting off the small pond that spread before the altar. In his homily, our Pope said that “This setting [before a pool of water] in some way resembles the ancient churches of the early centuries, where there was a baptismal font that one had to pass before entering the church . . . The symbol of passing through water to be cleansed of all our sins and failings, and then to enter into the great mystery of the Church is something that still speaks to us today.” 

The Holy Father called it a “cathedral of nature.” Looking at the photos, he was right–the garden’s lush simplicity, the austere crucifix, and the statue’s looming presence all culminated, for me, in an element of the sublime.

Newly added to the Roman Missal, the Mass for the Care of Creation is one of seventeen Masses dedicated to “civil needs.” It is heavily influenced by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, which takes its title–Praise be to You–from St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures. The encyclical addresses environmental degradation and destruction, calls the Church and the world to care for “our common home,” and examines our relationship to God, one another, and the planet in view of these topics. The Vatican’s decree on the Mass reminds us that “the mystery of creation is the beginning of salvation history.” Appropriately, the mass begins with the entrance antiphon from Psalm 19: The heavens tell of the glory of God, / the work of his hands announces the firmament. The Vatican’s press release is worth reading, as it lays out each prayer and reading in the Mass’ formulary. “The Book of Wisdom,” the press release states, “invites us to recognise the beauty of the Creator in that of creatures,” while the hymn from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Colossians “affirms that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth. The Responsorial Psalm is a song of blessing for God’s creative work.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said that “the Vatican’s liturgy dicastery was responsible for the new Mass formulary, requested by Francis and approved by Leo.” According to Czerny, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity “were also happy to collaborate on the project.”

Ten years after the publication of Laudato Si’, this new Mass “takes up some of the main positions contained in Laudato Si’ and expresses them in the form of a prayer within the theological framework that the encyclical revives,” says Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola. According to EWTN, The Archbishop “described Francis’ encyclical as an ‘eco-social’ text, rather than just ‘ecological’” which emphasizes the relational aspect of environmental stewardship. 

We see, in the Holy Father’s homily, this “eco-social” essence woven into the Mass’ intention and execution. The fundamental values of peace, safekeeping of creation, and care for those most vulnerable are not only intertwined, but perhaps symbiotic–they mirror and disclose one another, inform and rely upon one another. They are made achievable through love of God and Other. His creation is built into the beginnings of our relationship with Him–as the Holy Father reminds us, we pass through water. This is to say nothing of our participation in creation and creating via parenthood, agriculture, art, and any number of vocations. The call to honor this symbiotic nature is a call to turn away from that which contributes to its disintegration. The movement away from God, the sin of apathy or despair, can slip its fingers into each aspect of our ability to truly care for anything, wrongly convincing us that we and others are unworthy of reconciliation. It is also a call to orient ourselves toward the Source and Summit of our faith. In the Eucharist, we honor the fundamental relational gift that God provides between us and Christ. Perhaps this sharpens our vision so that we might see and honor the importance of virtuous, peaceful union of all kinds. Through relational love, healing finds a foothold. In his homily, the Holy Father says that “the Eucharist we celebrate sustains and gives meaning to our work.” He goes on to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist to our relationship with creation, quoting Pope Francis:

^{It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures. The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter. He comes not from above, but from within; he comes that we might find him in this world of ours. (Laudato Si’, 236)} 

In considering all that this Mass inspires, my mind is also on evangelization. This Mass contains a prayer for conversion. After his comment on baptism, Pope Leo added that “we should pray for the conversion of the many people, inside and outside the Church, who do not yet recognize the urgent need to care for our common home.” Though not referencing evangelization to the Church, given his later comments on the ecological crisis being brought on by the “breakdown of our relationship with God,” one is easily left with a dream of Christian peace that we might expect of children, but really need to be interrogating ourselves about as adults. What might bringing others closer to God do for our worldwide relationships with each other and the environment? How do we do such a thing in a gentle, heartfelt, effective way? What does it mean to evangelize by example, through our daily actions, both large and small? How can we let others into our own complicated journeys of faith? By asking these questions privately and in conversation, we can focus on and bolster our faith in the power of relationship, which is integral to evangelization. Encouraged by this Mass, we can look forward to the upcoming Season of Creation, which spans from the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1th) to the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4th). In the meantime, in honor of our shared home and our relationship to our Creator, perhaps some prayers for the true, moment-to-moment witness of Christ’s light are in order. 

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the firmament proclaims the works of his hands.
Day unto day pours forth speech;
night unto night whispers knowledge.
There is no speech, no words;
their voice is not heard;
A report goes forth through all the earth,
their messages, to the ends of the world.
He has pitched in them a tent for the sun;
it comes forth like a bridegroom from his canopy,
and like a hero joyfully runs its course.
From one end of the heavens it comes forth;
its course runs through to the other;
nothing escapes its heat.
Psalm 19:1-6

Further reading:
Holy Mass for the Care of the Creation Homily of Pope Leo XIV – 9 July 2025

Press Conference to present the new formulary of the Missa “pro custodia creationis” – 3 July 2025

Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home

Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace – 1 January 1990

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Writer and editor Franci Revel Eckensberger holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Cornell University. With years of experience as a copyeditor for academics, fellow writers, and various small businesses, she takes pride in maintaining clarity, consistency, and beauty in each client’s voice. 

Franci finds grace and insight in the Catholic Church’s rich relationship to language and invites that relationship to influence both her literary and editorial work. Saint Cecilia and Catherine of Siena continue to play a vital role in her journey to the faith as an artist. She lives in coastal Delaware with her husband.