The day of Saint Francis is a time to celebrate the life of one of the more renowned saints. Saint Francis is known as the patron saint of animals (pets) and the environment or natural world. He was canonized in 1228. While Saint Francis has become quite popular in modern times, he did not live a long life, dying at the age of forty-four.
As the patron Saint of animals, Saint Francis’ feast day is often celebrated with animals. In modern times the blessing of pets has become an important part of some church’s celebrations. The blessing of the pets often sees congregants bring their cats, dogs, and other animals to church to be blessed. Our pets, and animals are such an important part of our lives, whether for companionship or safety (I think of working dogs), or for nourishment (Thanksgiving turkey). We often bless food in our house before consumption, however the broader church rarely has the opportunity to make this acknowledgement. As a result, Saint Francis Day brings something to our worship that is of great importance, but is often neglected.
Today there is lots of talk about creation in the church, creation theology, natural theology , the environment. However, despite all the rhetoric there is little worship outside, few church groups that are involved in gathering outside. Often interaction with the natural in the church sense is limited to lawn or garden maintenance around the church. As stewards I feel that there are much larger ways that the church can become involved: nature hikes, gardening, or using the church lawn to create a community garden, raising environmental awareness, pushing for more recycling/composting, etc. There are so many ways that we can become better stewards of our natural world.
Finally, there are ways of incorporating nature into church worship. There are often flowers, or palm fronds on Palm Sunday, but what about other ways we can bring nature in? What about using trees in worship, or water, rocks? There are so many worthy natural symbols that could be brought in. What about during children’s times? Sometimes it is easy for the church to become disconnected with the secular world outside it’s walls, but sometime it is easy to become insulated from the natural world in which we live. As a church, I think it is time that we made more of an effort to integrate all of God’s creatures.