In September prayer intention, Pope Leo prays for all to have safe drinking water access

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for September calls Catholics to protect water as a gift from God and defend access to clean drinking water for those without it.

The intention, “for the care of water,” is featured in September’s installment of the monthly “Pray with the Pope” video series produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

“Lord of Life, You have given us the gift of water, source of fruitfulness, freshness, and hope,” Pope Leo prayed in this month’s intention. “It quenches thirst, nourishes the earth, and heals wounds.”

In the prayer, the Holy Father pointed to the place of water in the Christian life as a sign of God’s grace.

“We thank You, because it is also a symbol of Your grace and love that renews us through Baptism,” he said. “Today we ask You to teach us to safeguard it with gratitude, justice, and responsibility.”

Pope Leo connected that responsibility to the suffering caused by water scarcity. 

“Forgive us for turning it into a commodity, forgetting that it is a universal gift, a right without borders, meant for all your children,” the Pope said. “We see with pain so many brothers and sisters who lack clean water, who walk for miles to find it, who become ill due to its scarcity.”

The intention comes during the Season of Creation, an annual observance Pope Francis began celebrating in 2019 that unites Christians in prayer and action for the care of creation. Pope Leo opened this year’s season Sept. 1 by encouraging the faithful to contemplate and protect the natural world.

That call comes amid stark inequalities in access to safe drinking water, with about 2.1 billion people lacking safely managed drinking water and 106 million relying entirely on untreated surface water, Vatican News reported, citing U.N. agencies.

In the September prayer, Pope Leo asked the Holy Spirit to help Christians live more simply and oppose the waste and pollution that threaten those resources.

“May your Spirit make us pilgrims of the essential, able to live with simplicity, denouncing waste and pollution, defending the right of every brother and sister to drink without fear and without inequality,” he prayed.

The Holy Father concluded by calling care for creation a labor of love.

“May our care for water be a sign of love for the Creator and a commitment to the lives of the poor,” he said, “educating new generations to value and protect the Earth’s resources.”