DETROIT ─ Gesu Parish celebrated the Season of Creation 2026 by taking up Pope Leo XIV’s call to recognize Christians’ duty to protect the environment and ensure everybody has adequate access to safe drinking water.
The Season of Creation began Sept. 1 and runs through Oct. 4, with Pope Leo making this year’s theme access to clean water, both in the U.S. and around the world.
Gesu Parish in Northwest Detroit, led by its volunteer “Green Team,” which promotes sustainable practices on the parish and school campuses, completed various sustainability initiatives, such as a book club discussion on sustainability and a grade school presentation on the work Gesu School is doing for creation.
A Season of Creation prayer card was distributed through the church, which the assembly prayed at each Mass throughout the Season of Creation, and a special prayer of the faithful for raising awareness to protect God’s creation was prayed during the special intentions of the prayers of the faithful.
The altar was decorated with Michigan-native plants, and an art installation about creation was on display in the parish hall. Throughout the month, a weekly reflection on more specific information about water issues was offered for the community to contemplate.
The Green Team organized a retreat at St. Suzanne/Gate of Heaven Parish in Detroit for Reflection Day on Water, which included prayers, guest speakers and a tour of Rouge Park.
The Green Team will be sponsoring a work day on Oct. 3 for cleaning up the campus and planting new plants.
The Season of Creation celebration will end with a special blessing of pets on Oct. 4 after the 10:30 a.m. Mass.
This is the ninth year of the Gesu Green Team organizing special actions, displays and prayers, reflection on the need to care for God’s creation, with over 150 people participating in making a shared commitment to address scarcity issues of the Earth and honoring the Season of Creation.c
