Bring to your attention all the insects—bees, dragonflies, lightning bugs, butterflies—all the little creatures that inhabit our planet. Think of all the services they provide us—they who help pollinate the flowers and plants, who help break down waste, who enrich the soil—all of them playing crucial roles in the interconnected mystery of life on our planet. Bring to mind the other winged creatures—sparrows, songbirds, bluebirds, great birds of prey. Bring them into your circle of awareness, all of God’s creatures being breathed by life right now in this present moment. These creatures around us are, indeed, gifts from God.
—from the book Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth
by Ilia Delio, OSF, Keith Douglass Warner, OFM, and Pamela Wood
