Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Care of Creation’ Mass Offers Liturgical Lesson for Priests

National Catholic Register, 9 July 2025

The Holy Father’s use of the optional Mass during Ordinary Time should spur priests worldwide to do the same.

Pope Leo XIV offered the Holy Mass today at the Laudato Si’ Village at Castel Gandolfo, where he has resumed the custom of spending a few weeks at the papal summer residence. The Holy Father used a new Mass formulary in the Roman Missal for the “Care of Creation.”  

While there are parts of the Mass that don’t change from day to day — the “ordinary” parts — each Mass has parts that are specific to that day. The Mass “formulary” is that set of prayers: Entrance Antiphon, Collect, Prayer Over the Offerings, Communion Antiphon and Prayer After Communion. Sometimes the formulary includes a specific Preface, too. 

Catholics know well that the scriptural readings for each Mass change from day to day. Some Mass formularies also include specific readings, but most do not. The new creation formulary does include a specific Gospel text — that of Jesus calming the storm at sea, prompting the apostles to ask who Jesus might be, that the “wind and the sea obey him” (Matthew 8:27).  

“The evangelist Matthew describes the storm as an ‘earth-shaking’ (seismos),” preached the Holy Father: 

“Matthew will use the same term for the earthquake at the moment of Jesus’ death and at the dawn of his resurrection. Above this shaking, Christ rises, standing: Here the Gospel already allows us to glimpse the Risen One, present in our history upside down. The rebuke that Jesus addresses to the wind and the sea manifests his power of life and salvation, which surpasses those forces before which creatures feel lost.” 

The decree for the new formulary for the “Care of Creation” was signed on Pentecost (June 8) this year to mark the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si, the ecological encyclical of the late Pope Francis, which he signed on Pentecost 2015 (May 24). Pope Leo XIV personally used it for the first time today. 

The new formulary is a reminder to priests that there are more than 50 such formularies in the Roman Missal that can be used. Grouped together as “Masses for Various Needs and Occasions,” they are especially apt for Ordinary Time.  

Each day, the priest must decide which formulary to use in the offering of Holy Mass. Often, the choice is mandatory. For example, last Sunday the required formulary was for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time — unless you were in a parish dedicated to St. Maria Goretti, in which case the formulary for the saint would be used on her feast day (July 6).  

The previous Sunday (June 29), the formulary for Sts. Peter and Paul was mandatory, rather than the 13th Sunday. All of that is laid out in the norms for the liturgical calendar, which requires study for priests to know well. 

There are many days that do not have a mandatory formulary, so the priest may choose. This happens most often in Ordinary Time. In many places, the formulary from the previous Sunday is simply repeated. That’s tedious if done often and deprives the faithful of the riches of the many Mass formularies in the Roman Missal.  

Many people likely heard Mass formularies from the “Various Needs and Occasions” section of the Missal recently, as there is one “for the election of a pope.” Parishes likely used that in the days leading up to the conclave. There are also formularies for the anniversaries of the pope, the bishop or the priest himself. 

The bishops of various countries may seek approval for special formularies. In Australia, there are four special Collects for bushfires, droughts, floods and cyclones. The Roman Missal already has a formulary for rain, as well as “for seedtime” and “for after the harvest.” 

In the United States, the bishops have a formulary “for giving thanks to God for the gift of human life.” It is often used at the time of the March for Life.  

While not a specific American addition, there is also a Mass “for those in prison,” which might be suitable as the United States has by far the highest incarceration rate of any democracy in the world. That Mass is for anyone in prison, but there is another one, “for those held in captivity,” which is for those unjustly imprisoned. It could be offered, for example, to pray for Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai, the world’s most prominent Catholic political prisoner. 

The Mass formularies can be very specific. There is one “for time of famine” in general, and another one to be prayed by “those suffering from hunger.” 

There are prayers “in time of war or civil disturbance,” as well as a formulary “for promoting harmony.”

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