Beside my bed for many years, gifted to me by a child whom I sponsored for Confirmation, was a framed copy of the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi, also known as the Prayer for Peace. The first line is a daily reminder to me of my mission, my reason for being “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”. I have always believed that when we have peace, within our soul, within our family, within our community, within our land, then we can work towards the betterment of all peoples, so I have tried to do this, albeit not always successfully, but I try. I try to spread love, I try to spread joy, I try to spread light.

I have always been drawn to St Francis and St Clare of Assisi and one of my favourite travel experiences was in Assisi, where I spotted a small twig and straw bird’s nest in the palm of the statue of St Francis, way down in the catacombs. As I marvelled at its location and wondered if the nest was real or a tourist attraction, the head of a very small baby bird popped over the edge and looked at me. There was no fear in the little eye, just the tilted head of curiosity. I spent a moment in mutual curiosity and admiration, then a large group of people came through and the little head disappeared below the nest line. That evening, over wine and bread and cheese, I questioned others I was travelling with as to whether they had seen the nest, no one except me had noticed it. I’ll admit to being that person when travelling that often stops; to gaze with awe and wonder, to absorb the beauty of nature or the mastery of architecture. To think of those who have walked, lived, worked and died on that land, who created, who cared for, who loved. I felt so privileged to have had that wonder filled experience and twenty-one years later it is still a memory I treasure. In that trip to Assisi, I was able to truly understand St Francis’s Canticle of the Sun, especially the third stanza
“Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures;
especially Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom You give us light.”

Ten years after my trip to Assisi I was excited to note that our new Pope had taken the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi. Peace and love for all God’s creation was what I envisioned for his Papacy. “Laudato Si’, On care for our common home,” Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, has a section titled “My appeal” which says “The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home."1

 It has taken time, but in the last few years we have seen the seeds that Pope Francis scattered with “Laudato Si” start to blossom. In 2022 a film, titled “The Letter” was released. It is a documentary that follows people who received a letter from Pope Francis, inviting them to join him in conversation. This letter, this invitation, gives a voice in the global conversations around the environmental crisis to representatives of the poor, the indigenous, the youth and the wildlife workers. The film asks us to think about how our spiritual values call us to take action on the planetary emergency. The film reminds us that we are called to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

You Are Invited to join us for Formation Friday to watch “The Letter”. We will meet on 4 October 2024 at 1pm. Together we will watch and discuss the film to consider how we, in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, can listen more deeply and take further action.

For more information, please email Mary O’Connor, Diocesan Librarian at domnlibrary@mn.catholic.org.au or call 024923 0682

Register here: https://forms.office.com/r/yqm1Z2tJAH

[1] Francis, Pope, “Laudato si’: On care for our common home”, section 13
Laudato si' (24 May 2015) | Francis (vatican.va)

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