Saint Francis of Assisi
Isidro Pereira Lamelas

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

Praised be 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.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste…”

What Francis of Assisi left us was a vision on life that is not only a simple worldview or philosophical system but, rather, a worldview in the full sense of the term, filled with intuitions about Man’s place and destiny in the cosmos.

With the cosmos, it is possible to re-establish a fraternal and “maternal” relationship. The world ceases to be evil, adverse, or an accumulation of dark and blind forces and becomes an open book in which we see ourselves as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father and of the same Creation. Material and inanimate things become signifiers of the “sign”, “image”, and “presence” of Someone related to us.

Click here to read the Canticle in the original and translation.

Cantico delle creature (Librivox recording by Riccardo Della Martera)

Click here to read the related article by Isidro Lamelas.

Article originally published in the journal Religions, January 2024. Original audio file at Librivox. Republished here with thanks. More information on the Franciscan way can be found on this link.