Gospel & Universe ✝︎ Saint Francis

Canticle to the Stars

Sorella Luna - You Go Girls!

✝︎

Sorella Luna

Nessun Uomo è Degno di Menzionarti / No Man is Worthy to Mention You

(Saint Francis, "Canticle of the Sun") 

I don't pray to a God that doesn't exist, but to one that I hope does exist.

Why would my doubt bother God?

Fundamentalists say it does, but they chart a course that reason can't follow

because it circumvents science and history.

Why would God deny the facts of nature or the course of time?

Laudato si, mi Signore, per frate Uento
et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,
per lo quale, a le Tue creature dài sustentamento

Praised be to You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which
You give sustenance to Your creatures.

(Saint Francis, "Canticle of the Sun")

It may be necessary to apologize for a million things

but science, history, and nature aren't among them.

It may be necessary to apologize for blind faith 

but not faith itself

for faith is the other side of the coin

that the undecided toss

so many times

and it almost always turns up tails

and hooves

so many goats

and not so many lambs

so many questions and quandaries

and never a capitalized Answer.

I've resigned myself to the notion that I may never find

what other people are looking for

yet I also suspect that behind each of their prayers lies a question

and every question opens out into a realm of questions

large as this universe

and other universes yet to scan.

In our unending quest, religion gives us a pause

in which to explore a special form of charity, love, and sacrifice.

There's no arguing with that path.

But if along the Christian path one learns to limit God's love

to only that which one loves

or to only those who one understands

then one might pause again.

God isn't in the business of onlies.

One might think again of the cross and Saint Francis

and leave the judgments to God

or to his angels

or to the courts of this world.

One might help to make the laws more just,

to help make the world make sense

by helping others

not onto a limited path that few can follow

through the eye of a needle

but onto a path everyone can follow

down the thoroughfares of democracy

civility, forgiveness, and humility

second chances and open institutions

that call Sister J a Brother

like Saint Francis did

Laudato si, mi Signore, per sor'Acqua,
la quale è multo utile et humile et pretiosa et casta.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and the stars, in heaven you formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.

to call Sister Moon a priest and a woman the pope

opening the door to the other half of the human race;

to stop guarding privilege in the name of tradition

and to recognize that some aspects of tradition belong

in the wastebasket of time.

🎚

You Go Girls!

The painting above is by Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, also known as il Sassetta (ca.1392–1450 or 1451). Painted between 1437 and 1444, it is given the title, The Mystical Marriage of Saint Francis of Assisi (Musée Condé, Chantilly, Wikimedia Commons, photo source here). I first saw the painting in the February 7, 2019 Qspirit article, “Saint Francis rejoiced when all-female Trinity called him ‘Lady Poverty’,” by Kittredge Cherry (article here). The article argues not just for identifying Saint Francis here as Lady Poverty but also for identifying the three women in the painting as a female Trinity. You go girls!

✝︎

Next: The Apple Merchant of Babylon: The Genealogy of Mortals

Back to Top

Table of Contents - Annotated Contents - Layout - Core Beliefs