Pope Francis invites Christians around the world to celebrate Laudato Si’ Week from May 16-24, 2020. This is in connection with the fifth anniversary of his encyclical about "our common house". The vision of interconnectedness which clearly appears in Laudato Si’ is strongly echoing particularly in this moment. We are in the midst of a global crisis due to the corona virus outbroke. It affects all, but especially the most vulnerable people. We are connected as humanity and only by working together we can cope with this crisis. The Dutch Religious Conference (KNR)  therefore prepared a theme of the Laudato Si Week namely "Everything is connected". Inspired by that theme, I tried to make a little bit modification and found another theme: “Together We can Create A New Earth”.

Those themes have no significance different because both are to emphasized the interconnectedness which is the primary vision in the Laudato Si’. Our theme, however, underlines the role of us as a community of human beings, in restoring the nature that is in a deep crisis. We, as the image of God, have been given authority to cultivate and care for nature, but we tend to abuse our power and bring about destruction to the nature. That is why, there is no other party should take the responsibility in creating the new earth, but we.

Even though it is called Laudato Si’ Week, however, it is going to take place for nine days. KNR invites us to participate in this special novena prayer during the Laudato Si’ Week. The structure of the Novena, following the guidance given by the KNR, is sustained by two pillars: 1) nine “Morning Prayer Service” and 2) Common Prayer for the 5^th anniversary of Laudato Si’ (see p.42-43). For the morning prayer service, each day has it’s own theme. We shall have a reading taken from the Scripture, a short text from Laudato Si’, combine with hymn, psalm/canticle, reflection, and petitions. For the evening prayer, we are going to pray “Common Prayer for the 5^th anniversary of Laudato Si’ before praying Breviary.

The Laudato Si Week is not a one-off event, but for the Church it marks the beginning of a year-long process of reflection and prayer for a world that has a future. So, our prayers is actually just a media to provoke a movement towards the nature, which can be started at the individual level and hopefully it will grow broader so together we can create a new earth.