His Holiness Pope Francis has invited Christians to add two new items to the traditional 14 spiritual and corporal works of mercy to combat ecological destruction and global warming.

​In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Francis said Christians should consider adding “care for our common home” to the traditional set of works first described by Jesus as part of the criteria used to determine who will go to Heaven.

The pope also called on individuals in the various countries of the world to push their governments to make good on recent international agreements aimed at halting the warming of the atmosphere and encouraging sustainable development.

The works of mercy, normally listed as seven corporal and seven spiritual directives, were first taken from Jesus' words in Matthew's Gospel, when he says the ones who enter Heaven will be those who have given food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, and have clothed the naked and sheltered the homeless.

Repeating his call from his June 2015 ecological encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis said: 'If we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces. Obviously "human life itself and everything it embraces" includes care for our common home.'

The Pope added: 'Human beings are deeply connected with all of creation. When we mistreat nature, we also mistreat human beings.' It was time, he said, for humanity to 'repent of the harm we are doing to our common home'.

He continued: 'So let me propose a complement to the two traditional sets of seven: may the works of mercy also include care for our common home. 

'As a spiritual work of mercy, care for our common home calls for a "grateful contemplation of God’s world" which "allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us".

'As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires "simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness" and "makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world".'

For more information, visit the story on National Catholic Reporter.

September 1 marks the start of the Season of Creation and a month of eco-contemplation for Christians around the world. 

The Season of Creation is a month-long prayerful observation of the world, its beauty and the ecological crises that threaten it and all its inhabitants, including issues around water and sanitation. It runs from the World Day of Prayer for Creation, on September 1, through to October 4, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi.

Last year, Pope Francis placed it on the Catholic liturgical calendar, officially bringing the globe's estimated 1.2 billion Catholics into the annual celebration for the first time, although the Season of Creation has been celebrated by other Christian denominations for decades.

In 1989 Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed September 1 as a Day of Prayer for Creation in the Orthodox church, and adopted by major European Christian churches in 2001. 

From there, faith communities began extending the celebration until Feast of St Francis - known as the patron saint of ecology - on October 4. In 2007 the Third European Ecumenical Assembly adopted it, with the World Council of Churches following suit the next year.

For more information as well as resources and prayers, there are a number of websites available. Here are a few:

• Anglican Communion Environmental Network
• SeasonofCreation.org 
  
• SeasonofCreation.com 
• Letallcreationpraise.org
• UMCdiscipleship.org 
• WebofCreation.org​