"Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart. Instill in me a correct faith, a certain hope and a perfect love; a sense and a knowledge, Lord, so that I may do your holy and true command." A Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Tomorrow, October 4th is the Feast Day of St. Francis. You will probably see a lot about him on the internet, and you may know all of this anyway. I just wanted to give him a little Love from the TLIO site also. St. Francis was joyfully in Love with God and all of God’s Creation. He embraced the connection and communion of all Creation and called everything in Creation (from people, birds, animals, the Sun, even Death) his Brother or Sister. He chose to live in poverty and purity; he gave assistance to the poor and sick; and basically lived in imitation of Jesus.
He is the patron saint of animals and animal welfare organizations among other things. Many churches have Blessing of Pets on October 4th or the closest Sunday to the 4th. Bailey and Loretta (a couple of nobody-cats who live with us) would have to go to work with me first to be able to go be blessed at my church tomorrow evening – not going to happen. I’ll have to bring some holy water home for them. Him and I get so much love and laughter from these two, they are blessings to us every day of the year.
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7 comments:
Keren, the story of St. Francis is remarkable. "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." It will make me smile to think of so many of God's furry creatures being blessed in honor of their patron saint. I'll say a blessing for my cat, Mrs. Jinx and Jim's dog Jack. :) How beautiful that St. Francis was drawn to communion, and feeling such love and connection with everything in Creation.
Good Morning Anne
Here is a link to the peace prayer you quoted.
http://www.beliefnet.com/prayeroftheday/prayer_one.asp?pid=1813 Prayer of the day on beliefnet.
I love St. Francis, Bailey and Loretta have a small poster of him feeding animals.
I read somewhere but cant find it now, that he called himself the "idiot of God". I relate to that, its more like "goofy for God"
Peace - Keren
Cool.
I like that he called everything in Creation his brother or sister.
I have always loved my pets but have felt even more this past year the importance of giving them more attention.
¨Thank you God for cats and dogs, for trees and stars above, for family and friends and food, and most of all for love.¨ Amen :)
Thanks Keren!
One of my favorite songs ever is "Make Me an Instrument" by A Ragamuffin Band, based on a prayer by St. Francis.
i've also felt a connection with St. Francis over the years, and appreciate his sense of community with all of creation. a book about him i greatly appreciate was, A Reluctant Saint by by Donald Spoto.
On the Saturday following St. Francis' feast day, I took a visiting guest to see an exhibition of combined art and literature celebrating the life and works of this man. I found both the painting and the writing to be thought-provoking, and at times I was moved to tears.
In several instances the tears of the saint were highlighted, both visually and in the stories about his many instances of weeping with compassion for the poor and the suffering, both human and animal. For me this was a sweet revelation: it is often difficult to give myself permission to be someone who weeps not with pity, but out of a deep sense of compassion and a desire to find release, both for the sufferer and the situation which creates the suffering.
I felt deeply honored for the opportunity to read and see the collaboration of these two artists. If anyone would like to see a few paintings from this exhibit, here's a link:
http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2007/09/darren_watersto_1.html
Change - Im sorry Im just now seeing this comment.
i looked at the link and love the art! Poignant, commpassionate.
One of the artists said
"This is a Saint that went looking for the divine in the dark places of the human body, soul, and psyche" oooo
Peace
Keren
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