Centenaries 2023-2026

Francis never praises God’s works of creation; rather, he praises God the Creator per, or through, his works. When Francis looked at creation, he saw the Creator. Thomas of Celano emphasized this point: “In art he praises the Artist; whatever he discovers in creatures he guides to the Creator. He rejoices in all the works of the Lord's hands, and through their delightful display he gazes on their life-giving reason and cause.” (Second Life, Chapter 124, 165).

You may be familiar with and donate to the H2O Project, the international project that helps promote Christian solidarity, advocacy and financial support for poor communities who have no access to clean drinking water.

We live in Hawaii, so the stanza on Brother Wind is particularly meaningful for us here. We are blessed to have the trade winds, which Hawaii is well-known for and which we experience very often in profound and beautiful ways.

When I think about these events, I remember the amazing natural wonder of the eclipse and seeing the sun’s corona, but each one of these events was a time of human togetherness and shared experience. ... I think St. Francis would approve the idea of praising the glory of God’s creation with family, friends, and anyone else in the vicinity!

Francis’ stigmata were the culmination of many sufferings with Christ over his lifetime. Many of those sufferings came from life with his brothers, as indeed it does for all of us. It is important for us to recognize that the problems we face today in living in fraternity are very similar to the problems that Francis and his brothers faced. Human nature has not changed!