St. Francis has been standing watch over the animals here for a long time. Many of the stories that surround the life of St. Francis deal with his love for animals.
It is said that, one day, while Francis was traveling with some companions, they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds".
I believe that the little statue in the garden is symbolic of the live that we have for all the creatures here on the farm. There is an opossum that comes to feed at night from the seeds dropped by the many birds that come to the feeders. Bobcats and deer roam the woods. Snakes, turtles and frogs enjoy the wetland near the house. Every creature lives without fear of us harming them.
It would be great if we could live in harmony and respect as described in the following prayer:
"You created the world to serve humanity's needs and to lead them to You. By our own fault we have lost the beautiful relationship which we once had with all your creation. Help us to see that by restoring our relationship with You we will also restore it with all Your creation. Give us the grace to see all animals as gifts from You and to treat them with respect for they are Your creation. We pray for all animals who are suffering as a result of our neglect."
Beautiful, Syd.
ReplyDeleteIf we could only have the respect for each of the animals (except spiders) and then take it further and have respect for each human. Wonder what kind of world that would be.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, and a great reminder of our place in this world...I have a statue of Saint Francis with his bird sisters sitting in my kitchen...it was my Mom's, who was sober for over 35 years when she passed away....love reading your posts! ox
ReplyDeletewhat a very sweet sentiment, there is a stray cat here on my block and she is pregnant and abandoned, my neighbor has taken her in. there was a family that lived 2 houses down from us they had a siamese male, not fixed, cat. they moved and he is still here.
ReplyDeletei think my neighbor and myself are going to chip in to get him fixed before any more trouble happens.
you know it is funny we are talking about just taking this strange cat and having his manhood chopped off like it is nothing, but do that to a human and all hell brakes loose!!
funny little parallel i just went to. has me giggling, if only we could take care of the child pervs in such a way as this poor stray cat...
It's the same way around my home. We have a woodchuck living under our shed. One of our neighbors pointed her out to us. We just shrugged and said that's Woody. Deer, skunks,raccoons, and possum all visit our yard. The deer love the wild apple and pear trees we have.
ReplyDeleteThe most amazing thing is all the animals tolerate the stray cats we feed and none of them attack each other. (Hugs)Indigo
St. Francis has such a wonderful story. I believe he was one of us.
ReplyDeleteAh what a wonderful world it would be, if Saint Francis's spirit were alive and well in each of us....
ReplyDeleteI love that prayer! We have all the same animals in our backyard, but they don't live fear-free. Our two little 12 pound dogs bark at them (from inside the screened enclosure) until they retreat back into the woods (except the bobcat, he just smirks) or I get the dogs back in the house!
ReplyDeleteAll animals are wondrous, amazing all God thought up - just go to an aquarium, it's mind-blowing the varieties, each with their purpose.
God bless.
We have a statue in our yard of St. Francis, its about 3 feet tall and stands on a little flower covered area. I love what Techno Babe said and agree except for the spider part (I like spiders!)
ReplyDeleteSt Franics stands guard among the shrubs and flowers in our garden, watching over our furry and feathered visitors as well...
ReplyDeleteAmen
ReplyDeleteI have met 3 people in the past couple of weeks who have opted for dedicating their lives to animals.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to take all of us...
Blessings and aloha...
I have a St. Francis statue too. It was, believe it or not, knocked off a little end table last night, either by a gust of wind, or by the nocturnal runnings of a silly kitteh. And wound up about half a foot by the cat's food bowl, as if I should see it first thing in the morning reminding me that St. Francis would not be pleased that the cat finished the noms in her bowl during the night and her bowl is now empty.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, because I don't know what St. Francis is doing in a lasped Jew's house, but I like the statue, it's nice, and it makes me feel good. And obviously the cat really likes it.
Thank you for this piece Syd.
That totally reminds me that I need to go clean out my chicken coop. Whoops!
ReplyDeleteSweet one, dear Syd.
mmmmm, i think its much easier to live with animals than with some people....
ReplyDeleteI learn so much from God's animals. I just wrote about an experience with some birds on my blog on 4/8/10. Weird. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Many blessings,
ReplyDeleteMarie
What a beautiful prayer.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a lot about animals today in the blogosphere.
I see so much of God in nature and animals....people too.
PG
Lovely post, Syd.
ReplyDelete