St. Francis Prayer ~ Final

We have reached the end...both of the prayer and St. Francis' final thought.  He ends by reminding us that in dying we are born to eternal life.  Which I am sure, your thought might be, "Thanks for that uplifting reminder on this Friday!"

We don't talk about death very much today.  Yet, death is a part of every day.  We don't always see it or name it that way.  But today, I am shedding skin cells that have died.  I am witnessing leaves fall from branches.  I eat food that was harvested from the ground.  I hear stories about grief and loss.  My kids are growing older.  Each day brings grief.  Yet, in the blur of modern day, where we will distract ourselves with our cell phones the second we stand in line, we don't always see the death around us.

Sometimes the deaths are of a relationship or a position.  When we quit a job, there is grief.  When we have to go to the doctor, there is grief because our bodies are not as immortal as we think.  All around us creation and everything within us is a on a constant cycle of death and rebirth.  I am amazed that St. Francis saw something that we are actually blind to.

Yet, we are so disconnected from the cycles of the earth that it is easy to miss this.  I don't harvest my own food.  I can turn on a light when it gets dark.  My air conditioning keeps me cool and comfortable when the summer creation is telling me to slow down.  To listen to the earth is a kind of death of our own ego ~ that we are in constant control and complete charge of everything.  That might be the hardest death of all to face.  The world doesn't revolve around me.  Yet, it is only through journeying in that valley...that I can come out and say, "Thanks be to God."  Thanks be to God that I don't have to be so in control and in charge.  Thanks be to God that I can be one part, a microcosm, of a greater macrocosm.  I long to be part of something bigger than me. 

I pray that in the moments of brokenness and grief we might find some blessedness and goodness.  That we might find ourselves being opened to the love, understanding, and empathy that are fruits of the Spirit.  That we might find ourselves living off a different script than what the world offers.  For it is in such profound and powerful moments we discover God's amazing presence that does make all the difference.

Many blessings ~~