Mass for care of creation added to Roman Missal

By CathNews New Zealand

July 8th, 2025

Copies of the third typical edition of the Roman Missal in Latin (CNS photo)

A new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for a Mass “for the care of creation” is being added to the Roman Missal. Source: Catholic News Service.

Texts and prayers will be added among the “civil needs” section of the “Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions” listed in the Roman Missal. The current missal, approved by St John Paul II in 2000, lists 17 “civil needs” for which to offer Masses and prayers.

Pope Leo XIV will use the new formulary for a private Mass on July 9 with the staff of Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology project at Castel Gandolfo.

The formulary began development during Pope Francis’ pontificate in response to “requests for a liturgical way of celebrating the meaning and the message of Laudato Si’,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said the new formulary “receives some of the principal themes contained in Laudato Si’ and expresses them in the form of prayer within the theological framework that the encyclical revives”.

The Mass formulary begins with the entrance antiphon from Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims works of his hands.” The Collect prayer asks God “that docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly care for the work of your hands”.

The prayer after Communion asks for increased communion with God “so that, as we await the new heavens and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures”.

The proposed biblical readings include Wisdom 13:1-9, Colossians 1:15-20 and selections from the Gospel of Matthew that recount Jesus calming the storm and calling people to trust in divine providence through the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

Cardinal Czerny said the new formulary “calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us, not only in daily choices and public policies, but also in our prayer, our worship and our way of living in the world”.

FULL STORY

Church adds Mass ‘for care of creation’ to missal, pope to celebrate | USCCB (By Justin McLellan/CNS)