For the 11th World day of prayer for the care of creation, Pope Leo XIV has chosen the the following Scripture from the prophet Isaiah.

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4)

The following text is an extract from the message of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.

The prophetic call to “beat swords into plowshares” (Is 2:4) is therefore not only a vision for nations, but a call to each person. It invites us to transform harm into life. Yet this transformation cannot be achieved through external change alone. It requires, through cooperating with God’s grace, a deeper personal and collective conversion — a returning to God, who will reorder our desires, heal our wounds and help us grow in virtue.

Without this inner transformation, peace will remain fragile and short-lived. But where hearts are renewed, new possibilities begin to open. What has been used for destruction can be redirected toward life, toward the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation. This is the path of authentic ecological conversion, where the effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us (cf. Francis, Laudato Si’, 217). Peace, then, begins in the heart and flows outward to our relationships, communities and the broader world.