The Blessing of St. Francis

Every year we come the end of what is called Creation Time, or the Season of Creation, in the church year and I wonder if I've said enough or done enough to honour Creator and Creation during these five weeks. I'm not in the pastorate anymore but our congregational home, Trenton United, followed this theme this year and we felt that our pastor, son Isaac, did a great job of upholding Creation.I do have the forum of this blog, and a couple of weeks ago I preached a Creation Time sermon in another congregation. 

This day is the conclusion of Creation Time because it is the traditional Feast of St. Francis of Asissi, a monk born late in the 12th century who walked away from the prosperous life of his family to take up a life of poverty and care for outcasts. He was soon surrounded by others who were drawn to his example and in his lifetime the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic church was established.

Francis was formally named as the patron saint of ecology, ecologists, and animals by Pope John Paul II in 1978. He had long been recognized as such because Francis had an affinity with all living things and included references to critters in his sermons. According to tradition he preached to the birds and had a conversation with a wolf. He is given credit for creating the first Living Nativity with various beasts. Giotto, one of the great painters of his era showed him holding forth of a variety of birds. 

                             St Francis preaching to the birds- Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

During my ministry I often held a Blessing of the Animals service to give opportunity for folk to bring their companion animals. It was a lovely, tactile occasion in the church year and I'm grateful that a was never asked to be a snake handler. Blessing of the Animals services were put on hold in most churches during the pandemic but I see taht some have returned this year. I chuckled that the service held by a group of Franciscans invited all "socialized" animals.I've mentioned before that years ago I came upon St. Francis with a prairie dog (above) in a park in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

We are aware that the catastrophic climate events of our time including floods and fires displace millions of humans. What about the birds and the beasts? The word ecology refers to the branch of biology that deals with the interrelationship of organisms to one another and their environments. Maintaining that balance is a sacred trust for people of faith, including those of us who are followers of Jesus, the Christ, and who want to honour the legacy of Francis. 

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