Through the Windows of St. Francis

By Michelle Kaiser and Larry Petrovick

Through the Windows of St. Francis is an invitation to connect more deeply with God’s Creation through the Franciscan tradition of kinship with the natural world. St. Francis of Assisi had an intimate relationship with the natural world. He called the sun, Brother, the moon, Sister, the Earth, Sister Mother Earth.

In Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), Pope Francis not only addresses Catholics but all people in the world, and asks us to do two things: care for people AND care for God’s Creation. No pope has exclaimed this with such vigor. As a way to listen to Pope Francis’ words and act, Through the Windows of St Francis is an opportunity to deeply pay attention to God’s gifts of creation, contemplate and pray about what God asks of us and to take action to protect people and the planet.


As a start, this contemplative journey of prayer and action starts in places on the parish grounds of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Raleigh, NC. Each of these locations have different themes and are based in different spiritual traditions found in Catholicism. The basic goal for all of these areas is to stop, observe, listen, and connect to God through His/Her many subjects of the natural world.

Location 1: The Franciscan Community Garden - Oikos

Location: The Franciscan Community Garden is located just south of Leesville Road, in front of San Damiano House. If you Google 11501 Leesville Road, Raleigh, NC it will also take you to the garden location. There is some grass parking off the gravel drive off of Leesville Road, however there is also a parking lot above the garden near the St. Mary of the Angel’s Chapel.  

 

Theme: A Home for All

Quote for Reflection:

“Praised be you, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth.

She sustains and governs us,

and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”

By St. Francis of Assisi from the Canticle of Brother Sun.  https://hnp.org/about-us/franciscan-prayers/#brothersun

Background:

The St. Francis Community Garden (SFCG) has been growing organic produce for the past 10 years and donates it to the Plant a Row for the Hungry program with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh. This year alone the garden has already donated over 2,000 lbs of fresh produce! Additionally the garden has been chosen to be a site in a pollinator study being conducted at NC State over the next couple of years.

Activity: Biodiversity Survey/Relationship Mapping

  1. To explore how the garden serves as an example of “Oikos” (the Greek word for home), spend 10-15 minutes walking around the garden and recording different plants, birds, pollinators, insects or other creatures that you see. You do not have to know the names of all of them. Just keep a running tally of the number of different species you find. We invite you to sit at the white bench near the log house, or the picnic tables at the garden entrance for a few minutes and wait for other animals to emerge in the silence.
  1. Add up how many different species you saw! Though the garden is not how we usually think of as a ‘natural’ area, how many different plants and animals make their home here, and are thriving in this place?
  2. Now think about these individual species and their relationship with each other. How do the plants and animals interact? The pollinators and plants? The insects and the animals?
  1. We now can easily see all of the nature contained in this space, but this space was created by people! Next we’ll explore the relationships of people to this place. Who were the first people that shared this place? Go to: https://native-land.ca/  and type in 11501 Leesville Rd. Raleigh, NC and see who lived on these ancestral lands.
  1. How do all of the plants and animals you’ve found interact with people? How do people interact with the plants and animals?  
  2. What are the different ways people interact with each other through the garden?
  1. How is God present in this space? What events in the life of Jesus took place in gardens?

It is easy to say that God is always present in ourselves and in creation, but think about all of the relationships you have discovered in the garden today. St. Bonaventure said all creation bears the fingerprints of God. What fingerprints of God do you see?

  1. In what ways is God’s love made visible in the garden?
  2. Reflect upon one of these scripture passages related to gardens.        
  1. Isaiah 61:11
  2. Isaiah 58:11

Location 2: Zaccheus’ Woods - God of Creation 

Location: Located just west of the Franciscan Community Garden, to the left of St. Damiano House if you face the garden area, is Zaccheus’ Woods. Read about how Jesus called Zaccheus down from a sycamore tree: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+19%3A1-10&version=NRSVCE 

Imagine Jesus walking by and calling you down from one of the trees. What would he say to you?

 On the edge of Zaccheus’s Woods, near the Franciscan Garden there is a three-part wooden compost box. To the right of the box is a small trail which goes into the trees and ends in a small opening several people can gather in. Bring your camp chairs and sit awhile and contemplate.

CAUTION: There are small amounts of poison ivy (they exhibit three leaves!) on the edges of the wooded area in some places. The directions given above should not have poison ivy in its immediate vicinity, but it is present in the general area. Please see the pictures below to help identify poison ivy and stay away from it!

Theme: Awareness and Awe

Activity: Vestigia Dei spirituality (Vestige or a Part of God)- feel free to bring a journal to write down some of your thoughts and impressions during your reflection.

  1. Listen to the song “So Will I” by Hillsong Worship here. While listening, look into Zaccheus’ Woods.. Take in the details of the trees, sky, plants, leaves, decomposing leaves etc. and the ground surrounding you.
  1. Choose one or two of the descriptions of God and nature in the song. What about these descriptions speak to you?
  2. The song encourages our response to the example set by nature and by God’s love for us. How do you feel called to care for people and the planet?

  1. Choose a plant or other living or nonliving subject in the area. Spend 10 minutes with your chosen subject.
  1. See/sense what the subject is telling/asking you. How can you listen to your subject of God’s Creation? What example could it be setting for us to emulate?
  2. Francis of Assisi, treated every creature, human, plant or animal as kin. What would it be like if you realized that you and your chosen subject are connected or kin? What do you share in common with your subject? How does kinship change your relationship with the subject?
  3. What unique gifts does your subject give to the world? What gifts can you give to the world?
  4. What insights/wisdom emerge from your visit with your subject?

Location 3: St. Ignatius of Loyola Prayer Garden - A Cannonball Moment

Location: The St. Ignatius of Loyola  Prayer Garden is located on the eastern side of the Church grounds, near the parish parking lot exit onto Leesville Road. Several benches can be found in the area to sit and view the area around the St. Ignatius statue.

Theme: Restoration and Action

Activity: Earth Examen (provided by the 2021 Season of Creation) - feel free to bring a journal to write down some of your thoughts and impressions during your reflection.

An examen is a way of beholding an object or being in prayerful wonder. Examens feature very prominently in Ignatiusian spirituality, and this Earth Examen takes inspiration from St. Ignatius’s Daily Examen. In this small area which serves as a memory of what the land used to be, invite the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind on what He/She wishes to reveal in this place.

 An important moment of St. Ignatius’ conversion story is when he is injured after a cannonball hit near him. This injury spurred his journey to conversion, but just as he could not control what could happen in battle, we can not fully control the impending consequences of climate change, but we need to live differently in a spirit of conversion of how to share more and live more simply in the future for our world home.  

To serve as a guide, we invite you to reflect on the following questions from the comfort of your camp chair or bench:

  1. Become aware of God’s presence in this place.
  1. How is God’s present in this place?
  2. How does all of the life you see exist in God’s Spirit?
  3. How do you feel knowing that you belong to this place, are made with the same carbon, breathe the same air, and are enlivened by the same Spirit of the Creator?
  1. Reflect on the Ecological Cycles of this place with gratitude for all it provides.
  1. Trees and plants take in carbon and produce oxygen. However these trees and plants need water, soil and sunlight in order to grow. What can you see as examples of the balance of these elements?
  2. What other creatures live in the area? How do they relate to the trees and the plants?
  3. How do all of these participants together make up the forest area as it exists today? How might they have looked in the past, and what might it look like in the future?
  4. For all that this place provides to nurture you and all that call this place home, let a feeling of gratitude fill you.
  1. Pay attention to what you feel as you contemplate the fragility and health of this site
  1. How is this ecosystem at risk?
  2. What are sources of stress that threaten the balance of this ecosystem?
  3. How do you feel when you consider the fragility of life that depends on the health of this place?
  4. What is your effect on this balance?
  5. What wisdom does the wind-thrown tree stumps have for you?
  1. Choose one feature of the area, pray for it, for its rest and renewal.
  1. When you consider the ways that this site is under stress what does it need for rest, restoration and renewal?
  2. Pray for this site and the wisdom to care for it.
  1. What can you do to ease the demands or promote the health of this ecological site?

For more resources on Ignatian action for Environmental Justice and Action see this link.