04 Oct If St. Francis Could Talk to Animals, What Might He Say to Us Today?

Dear Westwood Church Family,

Today, October 4, is St. Francis Day – celebrated in many parts of the Christian church for the ways Francis of Assisi shaped our understanding of our relationship to our world and all its inhabitants. Born into wealth in late 12th Century Italy, he voluntarily took on poverty and simplicity, and cultivated a deep relationship with the world around him. Stories tell of him talking to animals, and his prayers help us see that all creatures — and even the sun, moon, and wind — have the capacity to praise God. If the world around us can praise God, we become siblings to one another, joined in the family of God.

In the midst of a contemporary climate catastrophe wrought by human activity, the necessity of remembering our deep and divine connection to the planet (and beyond!) is even more urgent. Our faith gives us tools that have the capacity to change our ways of thinking and acting: it gives us a holy vocabulary to use in describing why it matters that we value the dignity and integrity of creation.

Dr. Carter and I both have a deep love for St. Francis–not just the beautiful sweet version like you might set as a statue in your garden, but also for the revolutionary way he understood our relationship with all things. Like his colleague, Clare of Assisi, his faithfulness led him to an entirely new relationship with things, money, and all of creation.

Our own Methodist ancestor in faith, John Wesley, preaching in 18th Century England, likewise proclaimed the necessity of seeing our connection to the world around us: “The great lesson that our blessed Lord inculcates here…is that God is in all things, and that we are to see the Creator in the glass of every creature; that we should use and look upon nothing as separate from God…who pervades and actuates the whole created frame, and is, in a true sense, the soul of the universe.” (from his sermon “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount”)

So, today, in honor of Francis, I encourage you to look deeply at some small piece of the world around you. Choose something majestic like a tall tree, or something persistent like a plant growing through a crack in a sidewalk, or something very alive like a bird you hear calling. Watch and listen for the ways that it offers praise to God, and add your own word of gratitude. Let this moment of worship change how you see everything.

grace and peace,
Pastor Molly