Newsletter - September 13th
The Jubilee Year of St Francis of Assisi
All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing…
O brother wind, air, clouds, and rain, by which all creatures ye sustain…
O sister water, flowing clear, make music for thy Lord to hear…
Dear mother earth, who day by day unfoldest blessings on our day…
O praise ye! Alelluia Francis of Assisi (1181-1204)
The Incarnation of Christ transformed humanity’s understanding of the natural world. God entered fully into the Earth and the Earth became itself part of salvation not just the setting where the story unfolds. Repeatedly Jesus invites us to go back to nature to find there the purposes of God.
And that is, precisely, what St Francis did. He underwent a profound spiritual conversion, embraced poverty and spoke of kinship, “Brother Sun”, “Sister Moon”; a vision of a family woven together by the love and friendship of its Creator.
This vision is relevant today because, thanks to technological progress and scientific endeavour, we have come to see ourselves as standing outside the natural world community, taking from it what we think we need and throwing away what we don’t. This detachment hardens our hearts and stops us from listening attentively to the heartbeat of creation. Christ is the heart of Creation and in Him all things hold together. Francis’ heart loved nature and learnt its rhythm from the heart of Christ. It was a dialogue of heart to heart.
Ecological conversion begins in the heart, but cannot end there. It must flow outward – into how we care for one another, respond to injustice, and protect our common home.
Creator God, from our sister water flows all life, may the water of our Baptism send us forth to become bearers of Living Water in a thirsty world, a thirst for peace in places marked by war, a thirst for justice where Creation has been exploited.
Perhaps there is also a thirst within each of us – a longing to rediscover God’s presence in Creation, and to remember that we are not separate from the Earth, but deeply connected to it.
“On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing”.
Ezekiel 47:12
Helena Worley
Focus of the week
PARISH LAUNCH DAY
Sunday, 20 September
This will be an opportunity for us to reconnect and for newcomers to join us. Additionally, we will have the chance to discover all the groups and activities available in our Parish.
Notices of the Week
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