Dear Friends,

As we approach the Feast of St. Francis and our Annual Blessing of the Animals on Sunday afternoon, I am reminded how important this ritual has become to our congregation and to our neighbors. Last year, we couldn’t gather in the churchyard due to COVID constraints, so we took a chance and offered our blessings “on the go” at the corner of 24th and Broad. Surprisingly, we had our highest attendance yet – dozens and dozens of pets and their “parents” from the community made their way to us, and words cannot express the joy that was shared. All of us, beloved creatures of God, all of us connected.

What we experienced is something that St. Francis knew and celebrated throughout his life, God’s loving presence in all of creation. In stories of his life, Francis is quoted as talking to animals and natural elements. He does not speak to them just as birds or wolves, but as mutual spiritual beings who are worthy of being addressed. He was always telling them who they are, why they should be happy, and why they make him happy. He said they give glory to God just by being who they are! He addressed inanimate creation too, as if it were indeed ensouled, which we know because his Canticle of the Creatures includes fire, wind, water, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and, of course, “our Sister Mother Earth” herself.

This Sunday in church, we will be reading these words from Psalm 8 (“The Psalm of Creation”) which I venture to say was among Francis’ favorites:

"You have given [human beings] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”

Unfortunately, we human beings don’t have a good track record when it comes to honoring our vocation as stewards and caretakers of creation. We have tended to exchange “dominion” for domination, stripping, extracting, and exploiting, the very places where God wants us to plant, cultivate, tend, and nourish. Unlike St. Francis, we’ve neglected to see the interconnectedness at the heart of God’s creative design, our dependence on the wellness of the earth, and the earth’s dependence on our tenderness and generosity.

In the words of Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, “This one community, this common home, has been created by God and given the vocation to love, serve, and honor the Creator by loving, serving and honoring one another. Humans and the creaturely world have as their vocation the duty to support and complete one another, not to compete against and destroy one another. We are co-responsible with and for one another, especially for the poor and excluded. We are co-responsible for the life of the natural environment, showing gratitude and respecting nature’s proper limits, not pushing the planet to the brink of ecological disaster."

As we approach the Feast of St. Francis, I invite you to consider what it means for you to be entrusted with the care of God’s creation. And then go and bless a creature of God.

In Christ,

Amelie+