Saint Francis of Assisi

"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.