Image from Radio Veritas Asia
Did you know that a single drop of water can carry an entire sermon? This September, Japan’s Living Water message renews faith for Catholics across Asia Pacific, beginning with a river that flowed through a prophet’s vision twenty-five centuries ago. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan has issued its 2026 “Month for Protecting All Life” message, titled “Living Water,” inviting every believer to prayer, education, and ecological conversion.
Many Catholics want to care for creation but do not know where to start. Others wonder what faith has to do with water, typhoons, or wastewater. Here are seven powerful ways Japan’s Living Water message renews faith — and how you can let it renew yours.
A Bishop’s Letter from Tokyo
The message comes from Bishop Paul Daisuke Narui of the Laudato Si’ Section of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan. He signed it on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption, and the conference published it on August 19, days before the season opens September 1.
The timing is deliberate. The Catholic Church in Japan has marked this period as its Month for Protecting All Life since 2020, answering Pope Francis’ call during his 2019 visit. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by rooting a global ecumenical season in Japanese soil — a land that knows both the gift and the threat of water. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by speaking to a wounded world with unshakable hope. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith.
What “Living Water” Means in Japan’s Living Water Message
The theme draws from the prophet Ezekiel, who saw water flowing from beneath the temple threshold, growing from a trickle into an uncrossable river. “Where these waters flow they refresh; everything lives where the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:9).
For the bishops of Japan, this vision is not poetry alone. It is a diagnosis and a promise. The river shows that the interconnectedness of all life is rooted in God’s grace — and grace can heal what humanity has wounded. That is the first way Japan’s Living Water message renews faith: it teaches us to see creation not as a resource, but as a relationship.
1. It Begins with Prayer and the Mass
Bishop Narui places prayer first. Above all, he writes, the faithful should praise God’s work of creation and give thanks for the gift of life. This year brings a special gift: the new Mass for the Care of Creation, added to the Roman Missal by Pope Leo XIV.
In Japan, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is observed on the first Sunday of September. Parishes from Sapporo to Nagasaki will open the season at the altar. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith precisely here — at Mass, where gratitude becomes worship. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith each time the Church gathers.
2. It Calls Us to Ecological Conversion
The second way is personal. “Reflect on your own lifestyle,” the bishop urges. He asks whether we live “in a way that is worthy of this calling and in accordance with the will of the Creator”.
This is ecological conversion, a term Pope Francis planted in Laudato Si’ and the Japanese bishops developed in their 2025 document, Behold, It Was Very Good: An Invitation to Integral Ecology. Conversion here is not abstract. It means examining daily habits — what we waste, what we pour down the drain, what we take for granted. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by turning environmental concern into an examination of conscience.
3. It Names Japan’s Water Crisis Honestly
The message does not flinch. Climate change is driving record rainfall and drought, floods, pollution, and rising seas. Hundreds of millions lack safe drinking water. In Japan itself, “increasing severity of torrential rains and typhoons in recent years has made us realize that water, while sustaining life, can also pose a major threat when development proceeds without due regard for the environment”.
One fact deserves attention: about 60 percent of water pollution in Japan comes from domestic wastewater — from ordinary homes. The crisis is not only industrial. It is domestic, which means the solution begins in our kitchens and bathrooms. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by telling the truth plainly and letting the consequence follow. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith without despair.
4. It Connects Water to Baptism
Here the message turns deeply sacramental. Water, Bishop Narui writes, reminds Christians of the grace of baptism, through which we are born into new life and united to Christ’s death and resurrection.
Just as Ezekiel’s river flowed outward from the temple, the grace we received cannot stay within us. It must flow into our homes, our communities, and all of creation. This is the heart of how Japan’s Living Water message renews faith: every font becomes a headwaters, every baptized person a tributary of healing.
5. It Forms Children for the Age of AI
The bishop’s most striking line concerns the young. “We must create opportunities for children growing up in the age of AI to learn and gain experiences that will help them cherish the preciousness of life and its interconnectedness,” he writes.
Ecological education is the third invitation of the message. Screens can inform children, but only creation can form them. A river touched, a seed planted, a typhoon survived — these teach what no algorithm can. For parents and catechists across Asia Pacific, Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by giving formation a direction: outward, toward living things.
6. It Listens to the Cries of the Poor and the Earth
The fourth invitation is a question. Who is suffering around you? Where is the natural environment crying out? The bishop asks the faithful to keep both cries in one heart, for we live only through our connections with one another and with creation.
This pairing matters. The family flooded out of a home in Kyushu and the river choked with runoff are not two stories. They are one. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith by refusing to separate love of neighbor from care for our common home. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith when compassion becomes action.
7. It Flows into All of Asia Pacific
Finally, the message does not stop at Japan’s shores. The Season of Creation runs from September 1 to October 4, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, and Christians across Asia Pacific are joining in — from the Pacific island churches of CEPAC to parishes in the Philippines and Australia.
The 2026 celebration also falls within the Jubilee Year of Saint Francis, whose Canticle of Creation gave the season its closing feast. Small efforts, the bishop promises, can flow like Ezekiel’s stream into a great river. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith across borders, languages, and time zones — one Church praying for one common home.
How You Can Respond This Season
Start small, as the bishop asks. Pray the Season of Creation prayer each morning. Attend the new Mass for the Care of Creation if your parish offers it. Reduce the wastewater your household produces. Teach a child one name of one living creature. Then let those small efforts flow outward, into your home, your parish, and your community. Japan’s Living Water message renews faith through such small, faithful steps.
Conclusion: Let the River Reach Your Heart
“The water of life that God gives flows without ceasing, healing the earth we have wounded and renewing life that seemed lost,” Bishop Narui writes. That sentence is the whole message in one line — and it is addressed to you.
Japan’s Living Water message renews faith because it leads back to the sacraments, where grace actually flows. Bring your examination of conscience to Confession, and let the mercy of God wash what habits have soiled. Spend time in Eucharistic Adoration, sitting before the Lord as quietly as a riverbank at dawn.
Pray the Rosary, asking Mary — whose Assumption crowned the day this message was signed — to teach you her care for the life God entrusted to her. Hear Mass, especially the new Mass for the Care of Creation, and receive the Eucharist, the true source of the river. And read the Bible, beginning with Ezekiel 47, then John 4, where Jesus offers the Samaritan woman the living water that becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The river is already flowing from the temple. The question is whether we will step into it. This September, step in — and carry someone with you. For trusted Catholic news and resources, visit www.ewtnvatican.com.
