By Rowan Wyatt —
I have felt the pull to visit the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi since I first heard about him when I was a child. There was a book in the children’s section of the local library, “The Ladybird First Book of Saints”, with Francis on the cover. Coming from a very lapsed Catholic family I had no essence of faith in my life at all, until I found this little book which was already well-thumbed and rather frayed, and my life was changed. In fact I hoped to become a Friar when I grew up but it seems God had other plans for me.
This article is not going to be a synopsis of the life of Francis or a collation of his famed writings and deeds but a look at the ways his life, faith and influence have inspired, encouraged and invigorated the lives of countless Christians since his death on October 3rd 1226.
Throughout history there have been many women and men who have become figureheads. Loved and admired, they have engendered followings and supporters from far and wide, but I would argue that none have had the same impact as Francis, ironically a humble man of God who would have shuddered to observe the Basilica which bears his name, a man who fought brothers in his own order over the building of monasteries and the developing of a rule.
There are many ways that he and his legacy have affected thinking throughout the ages but I want to cover two that affect our lives significantly in these modern times, ecology and poverty.
Environment
We have all read, or at least know of, the “Fioretti” or “Little Flowers” of St Francis, a collection of tales and stories which are mostly that; just tales, but probably steeped in truth as well. The story of the Wolf and the Town, preaching to the birds etc. were all wonderful to me as a child and still are now. Francis said that it was the responsibility of all men and beasts to worship God and act as stewards of his creation, the Earth.
Sadly there is not much stewarding going on lately. Since the industrial revolution, the planet, Gods creation, has been under siege and is in a fight to save itself from attack from the very people it has nurtured and protected. What a bizarre people we are, choosing to poison the air we breathe, pollute the waters we drink and fill our food with chemicals, with governments who look upon pollution with an uncaring eye. Francis with have looked on us as fools, and not fools for God either.
Thankfully movements abound in the world who are dedicated to being just what Francis said we should be, “Stewards and protectors” of the environment. Often these groups will acknowledge inspiration from Francis, especially animal welfare organisations, which is encouraging me that there is still hope for a greener world. I encourage you as you celebrate this feast day to include these groups in your prayers.
Poverty
It is universally known that the message of Francis was one of poverty and simplicity, choosing to own nothing, even the clothes he wore.
Poverty is always with us (Matthew 26:11) but we can act like Francis and do something about it. We shouldn’t be like him in his early years, stealing expensive cloth from his father to give away. Whilst the thought is commendable, the act of stealing was one of compulsive passion, something I love about Francis.
He was mocked by his family, friends and contemporaries for giving away all his money and finery to the poor and for roughing it with them and learning compassion for them. This is the way we should be towards the poor, compassionate and generous. We are lucky in this day and age where even the lowly and downtrodden have the provision for food, shelter and warmth, it is for us to spread this, it is for us to help wherever we can.
My wife and I sponsor a child in Ethiopia through Compassion UK and despite ill health cutting our household finance by three quarters at least we manage to find the money to continue sponsoring her. We bless her with our money and time, she blesses us by accepting it. It is a sacrifice we are blessed to be able to make, through love not obligation. Like Francis we have been mocked for giving so much away.
I once spent some time with a man named Justice who was from a small village near Maseru in Lesotho. We spoke about the poor a great deal as he was from an area where poverty and hunger were prevalent, and about what we could do to help. One of the things we discussed was the trend by Western Christians to give up food in solidarity with them, and his response amazed me. He was angry, stating food was a gift from God and if we have it we should eat it, it was an insult to God and to the starving to not eat the food you have. This taught me how important it is to listen to the poor and live with gratitude.
The environment and poverty are just two areas of Francis’ life and teaching that can inspire us to act today. I do not have the space here to do even one of them justice let alone include any others, but on this feast day where we celebrate the life and works of Francis of Assisi we should search ourselves more deeply to see how much more we can be like him in our devotion to God and our duties to our fellow man and the planet we live on.
Closing prayer: Almighty God. Thank you that you placed Francis in our world, that you inspired him and taught him, that you grew him and nurtured him so he could nurture, teach and inspire us. Open our hearts to your teaching lord that we should help the poor, the hungry and develop compassion for the environment and our brother and sister animals. As we celebrate this day may we keep Francis in mind and be taught by his example. In the name of Christ, Amen.
By Michael Moore —
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil;
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Spent this afternoon and evening sitting by the bedside of yet another precious one who is close to slipping the bonds of this earth. The Shepherd’s Psalm has brought much comfort these past few months as we prayed it together.
Praying for the Lord’s complete healing and peace… praying for those who mourn… be present with us, Lord, as you are present in the breaking of the bread. Be present with us on this sacred journey through the Valley of the Shadows…
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
by Christine Sine
On October 4th we celebrate St Francis Feast Day, one of my favourite celebrations of the year. Yesterday we took our puppy Goldie to church for an animal blessing and heard about how St Francis called the sun brother and the moon sister. He loved the animals, even those we find offensive. When a hut in which he took refuge for a night proved to be infested with mice, after an initial expression of displeasure, Francis welcomed his “brother mice” with joy and hospitality. That is a little of a stretch for many of us, but I think that some of his other attributes were even more of a stretch.
When he abandoned his father’s business and embraced poverty and service, the townspeople called him crazy. For years he wandered through his native city following a path that no one understood. He gave away his worldly possessions, embraced lepers, welcomed women and walked a path that most of us would find impossible.
I sometimes wonder if we like to focus on Francis blessing the animals at this time because that gives us a warm fuzzy glow. The thought of embracing his life of poverty and hardship is much harder for us to consider.
Yet Francis seems to have lived life with a child like zeal and love for God that most of us lack. His delight in the beauty of nature, and open embrace of those at the margins disarmed many. His aching heart for peace and reconciliation set an example that puts most of us to shame. What I wonder would Francis say today about our response to those who are oppressed or the victims of natural disaster. How would he respond to the victims of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rican, to those impacted by the earthquake in Mexico or to the black NFL players “taking the knee?” Would he think that compassion fatigue is an acceptable response?
The challenge of St Francis feast day is to find a new perspective on the world – Francis perspective of open embrace, enthusiastic love, generous giving and joyful abandonment to God. Perhaps if we look through his eyes we would indeed see our world transformed as God wants it to be.
What do you think?
You call, and so often,
amid the bustle of our day,
we’re distracted
and fail to hear your voice.
You knock, but our lives
are untidy, unprepared,
and so we pretend
we never heard the sound.
Forgive us, Lord,
who look to you for guidance,
but only on our terms,
– when we call you –
and so often your need of us
is in the ‘now’ of our busy-ness,
which can be ‘inconvenient’.
Forgive us, Lord,
may the door of our hearts
be open, and our ears attuned
for that unexpected call.
by Lilly Lewin
I often don’t know what I am going to paint when I buy a canvas. So at art class this week I was working on one painting and while it was drying, I primed another canvas and contemplated what I might paint on it. I covered the canvas with a loose layer of my favorite blue color and I decided that I wanted to paint the Ryman Auditorium on the canvas. The Ryman was and is the home of the Grand Ole Opry here in Nashville. It’s a landmark. It’s known as “The Mother Church of Country Music.” It was originally built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 to be a spiritual hub for the city. So the Mother Church of Country Music, started out as a real church.
That led me to think that this canvas needed more than paint. Rather than just painting a picture of the building, I decided that a mixed media art piece would be better! I have a zip lock bag filled with pieces of paper, and clippings that I can use for collage and I just happened to have some song sheets left over from an Easter service. These weren’t just printed words, but were copies of old hymns. Perfect! I will cover the canvas with the music! Great idea, but I was having trouble getting the hymns to stick to the canvas. I was using the wonder craft of Modge Podge but it was not drying well and some of the hymns were tearing. One of my classmates walked by and said ‘well it usually helps if you let it dry in between layers.”
WOW! Light bulb moment! Or as Oprah says “ A HAH “moment. This is such a metaphor for my life!
I don’t like to wait for things to dry.
I don’t like to wait.
I want to make things work fast, and often I take short cuts.
Most people measure things, I just eyeball them. Some people sketch out something first, I tend to dive in and see what happens.
This can be both a gift and a curse. When the picture I’ve hung is crooked or the frame has to be returned to the store because it wasn’t the right size.
But I digress, this lesson from God was about my inability to be patient, my inability to wait and be in the process.
In my very human view, God is always slow. God’s timing tends to be much later than mine.
I often say that God is always late. But this is because I cannot see the way God is at work and because I am so in a hurry!
There was a book in the 80’s called “I Gave God Time”
I used to say that “I gave God a deadline!”
And it’s so true! I tend to give God deadlines rather than being willing to wait, rather than enjoying the journey or the process.
Ugh! This seems to be a cultural thing too. Especially now that we all hold smart phones and have instant access to the world.
Why is it that we want everything now?
We live in such an instant society. We don’t know how to wait.
We have lost the art of slowness.
We have lost the art of process.
I think this is why so many people are going back to crafts and making things, and why slow cooking and back yard farming are growing among people in their 20’s. It’s reclaiming the process rather than the instant!
We tend to avoid slowness and avoid process because it gives us time for reflection.
Process and slowness, waiting, rather running ahead, allow us time to think and if we have time to think this often gets scary.
We tend to get busy so we don’t have to think.
We run ahead because we cannot see the next steps and we don’t trust that God has a plan.
How are you with letting things dry?
How are you doing with being in the process of things?
Are you running ahead today?
Or are you willing to wait for the hymns to dry?
The “a ha” of the of the hymns not drying…
I need to pause, I need to stop, and i need to be present to the process.
I need to be present to the waiting.
I need to trust that my Creator sees the finished product and knows what I long for.
And I need to remember that God has the pieces in hand and actually has the next steps ready if I will just wait.
What are you longing for in your life?
What are you waiting for?
What things are you impatient about right now?
Are you willing to pause and be in the process? Are you willing to be willing?
God, help me remember that you hold the pieces of my life in your hand. Help me remember that you have not forgotten me. Help me remember that you have the next steps ready if I will just wait and be still. help me to let the hymns dry! AMEN
freerangeworship
I had hung up my harp
but my God still demands a song.
How can I draw a note I asked
my heart within grown cold.
I have weighed justice and mercy
until mercy has hardly registered,
and bitterness become a weight
that kept me counting my losses.
But we are asked to hold all things lightly.
Despair and hope can both draw notes
in hands that recognise the qualities
of height and depth, light and dark needed to make music.
Have you hung up your harp?
Will you take it up again with me?
Together we can extract the gold
we can yet mine from sorrow.
And hope can rise from the ashes of today
to make a brand new song.
Together we can draw meaning from all
that befalls us, good or ill.
We have stilled our hearts,
but God can thaw the fingers which refuse to bend.
Until they move again,
as dancers on the strings,
of harps, which because of hope we have taken down.
Because hope, unlike anything else we encounter
springs eternal in our souls;
that we might each, always have a song.
By Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
September 2017
By Jenneth Graser ––
Your mercy spreads like waves
relentless over the faintness of my soul.
How long, Oh Lord, is the question
that rises from deep within.
Because it is only while I am alive
that I can be the expression of
your love and light into the world.
Deliver me by the mercy that keeps on
coming.
Deliver me, by your mercy that alone
can save.
I receive no comfort from my futile efforts.
I cannot continue in groaning or tears.
All evil, flee, all darkness go!
For you, Oh Lord have risen upon me
and you have heard my every cry.
You receive and hear the prayers
I offer.
All darkness will turn back and return
to the place from which it comes.
It will turn back from the threshold of the door.
Your mercy will comfort me.
Your acceptance will soothe and re-create
my soul.
Your discipline will not consume me for
I am the Father’s pleasure
and you have borne me into true delight.
Your enjoyment is upon me with
the soakings of mercy, filling, my every
broken place with your love.
Amen.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!