More than just thinking about the sibling connections Francis sang about in his canticle, I am now sensing these connections with the world around me on a deep, visceral level. This is what Francis was getting at: cultivating a rapport with this world that is not abstract or merely transactional, but instead experiencing the world viscerally without judgment or denial, without resistance or avoidance, as a brother and a sister with all the familiarity (and tension) implied in a family.
It is an experience that could make us vulnerable, which is why much of the time most people run away from this closeness and disregard or trivialize this way of being with judgment. But when the realities of life hit, and you have lost everything, what is left is the stunning beauty of our relationships with one another, with this world, and with our God.
—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “Living ‘The Canticle of the Creatures‘”
by Darleen Pryds, PhD
