Forget about trying to be Jesus. Now be creator.
. . . teaching our children how to cooperate with God in the work of creation is a perfectly fitting job for us as Catholic parents.
Genesis points out five tasks given the human race in the Garden: marriage, fruitfulness, rule, work, and worship. In all these tasks, we become more fully human and, for the baptized, become more profound participants in the life of the Blessed Trinity through Christ. Let’s look at them briefly.
Hasn’t Mark read his catechism? Every Western Christian knows the difference between creation and providence:
315 In the creation of the world and of man, God gave the first and universal witness to his almighty love and his wisdom, the first proclamation of the “plan of his loving goodness”, which finds its goal in the new creation in Christ.
316 Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation.
317 God alone created the universe, freely, directly and without any help.
318 No creature has the infinite power necessary to “create” in the proper sense of the word, that is, to produce and give being to that which had in no way possessed it (to call into existence “out of nothing”) (cf DS 3624).
319 God created the world to show forth and communicate his glory. That his creatures should share in his truth, goodness and beauty – this is the glory for which God created them.
320 God created the universe and keeps it in existence by his Word, the Son “upholding the universe by his word of power” (Heb 1:3), and by his Creator Spirit, the giver of life.
321 Divine providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end.
322 Christ invites us to filial trust in the providence of our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 6:26-34), and St. Peter the apostle repeats: “Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you” (I Pt 5:7; cf. Ps 55:23).
323 Divine providence works also through the actions of creatures. To human beings God grants the ability to cooperate freely with his plans.
But when you give them an inch a co-mediatrix, they take a mile a co-creator.
Old Life 
Pro-creation or co-creation? To borrow from Mathison, what a difference a prefix makes. But if worldviewers can co-redeem, why can’t paradigmers co-create?
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Genesis points out five tasks given the human race in the Garden: marriage, fruitfulness, rule, work, and worship. In all these tasks, we become more fully human…
Worldviewers speak this way as well. So, does this mean that those who are unmarried, without children, more ruled than ruling, unemployed, and/or unbelieving are less than fully human? But isn’t this also the pro-life set who also want every life on every spectrum dignified and preserved? If so, what’s with the “more fully human” language?
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Lewis or Tolkien (I can’t recall) always used the term sub-creative for human activity. I like that. So much of what is called “creation” this days is just mix and match…a monkey could do it. Create a blog. Create a task list. Create a t-shirt. Pshaw!
Come to think of it monkeys create little monkeys, too. Right? See, easy.
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good blog post and comments, just saying thanks, here.
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C-dubs, per Shea it was Tolkien. But since nobody wants to go around saying, “Sub-create a grocery list, etc.,” maybe “create” is supposed to be shorthand for “assemble/make/produce a thing using materials previously created ex nihilo by the Creator,” which is to say “creatures don’t create or even co-create.”
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