The intercessions below were written by Nicholas Whereat for St Francis Day. Offered during the College's St Francis Day Eucharist, they reflect on care for creation, environmental stewardship, and the challenge of living faithfully in today's world.
Intercession for the Feast of St Francis
Heavenly Father, the whole of creation praises you, with silence or song,
with hooting and howling, with croak and chirp, with buzzing and bellowing.
Lord, teach us to enter deeply into praise and worship,
with our sisters and brothers, raising our voices with them.
We pray especially for those gathering for the pre-COP meetings in the Pacific,
that they will boldly challenge the global community to work with haste,
especially transforming our reliance on carbon fuels.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, breathe your Spirit into our nation,
that we might lament with shame our rate of animal extinction,
the highest of any nation.
Teach us to celebrate the kaleidoscope of endemic species
in this extraordinary land.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Spirit of the Living God,
hover over this campus that all students,
being modelled like clay figures into saints,
will delight in being dirt and
will never lose sight of the call
to treasure and safeguard the integrity of creation.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Most merciful God,
it is easy for us to call to mind
friends and relatives needing healing and comfort.
(I invite you now to hold those people in prayer during a moment of silence.)
Yet today we hold before you our brothers and sisters
whose lives are endangered by us;
Numbats, Gouldian Finches, Mountain Pygmy-possums,
Regent Honeyeaters and the Orange-bellied Parrots.
We can't even name them all.
Turn our hearts to repentance,
producing a new love burning within us like Francis
for all manner of creation.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, you wept with Mary and Martha,
we barely weep even though more than 100 species
of Australian animals have been made extinct since 1788.
Fill us with remorse and invite us again into your resurrection life.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Almighty God, you have promised to hear our prayers.
Grant that what we have asked in faith
we may by your grace receive,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The phrases describing the sounds of creation ("hooting and howling", "croak and chirp", "buzzing and bellowing") are drawn from prayers for creation in the Common Grace study book for the Season of Creation 2026.
https://www.commongrace.org.au/season_of_creation_bible_study
with hooting and howling, with croak and chirp, with buzzing and bellowing.
Lord, teach us to enter deeply into praise and worship,
with our sisters and brothers, raising our voices with them.
We pray especially for those gathering for the pre-COP meetings in the Pacific,
that they will boldly challenge the global community to work with haste,
especially transforming our reliance on carbon fuels.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, breathe your Spirit into our nation,
that we might lament with shame our rate of animal extinction,
the highest of any nation.
Teach us to celebrate the kaleidoscope of endemic species
in this extraordinary land.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Spirit of the Living God,
hover over this campus that all students,
being modelled like clay figures into saints,
will delight in being dirt and
will never lose sight of the call
to treasure and safeguard the integrity of creation.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Most merciful God,
it is easy for us to call to mind
friends and relatives needing healing and comfort.
(I invite you now to hold those people in prayer during a moment of silence.)
Yet today we hold before you our brothers and sisters
whose lives are endangered by us;
Numbats, Gouldian Finches, Mountain Pygmy-possums,
Regent Honeyeaters and the Orange-bellied Parrots.
We can't even name them all.
Turn our hearts to repentance,
producing a new love burning within us like Francis
for all manner of creation.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, you wept with Mary and Martha,
we barely weep even though more than 100 species
of Australian animals have been made extinct since 1788.
Fill us with remorse and invite us again into your resurrection life.
Creator God, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Almighty God, you have promised to hear our prayers.
Grant that what we have asked in faith
we may by your grace receive,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The phrases describing the sounds of creation ("hooting and howling", "croak and chirp", "buzzing and bellowing") are drawn from prayers for creation in the Common Grace study book for the Season of Creation 2026.
https://www.commongrace.org.au/season_of_creation_bible_study