St. Francis and The Natural World

Francis and the Natural World: Weekly Summary
Saturday, October 10, 2026

Sunday
Creation itself was Francis’s primary cathedral, which then drove him back into the needs of the city. It’s very similar to Jesus’s own movement between desert solitude and small-town healing ministry. —Richard Rohr

Monday
Where were we to experience this incarnation? Precisely everywhere and all the time, not just in places defined as sacred, special, churchy, or religious. —Richard Rohr

Tuesday
The Canticle of Creatures was composed in 1225, one year before [Francis] died. It took Francis a lifetime to realize that he was truly brother to the sun, moon, stars, fire and water, that is, to the whole cosmos. —Ilia Delio

Wednesday
Through intuition Francis discovered what we now know empirically, that all living things are brothers and sisters because they have [nearly] the same genetic code. —Leonardo Boff

Thursday
The natural world is its own good and sufficient story, if we can only learn to see it with humility and love. —Richard Rohr

Friday
This is what contemplation should lead to—vulnerability. Not withdrawal from the world but deeper engagement with it. Not escape from suffering but the willingness to sit with it long enough to see clearly what is ours to do. —Randy Woodley

Week Forty Practice: Moving Toward Integral Ecology

Keith Douglass Warner, Ilia Delio, and Pamela Wood suggest that we can develop deep attentiveness to creation by following Francis’s example.

Francis observed God’s creatures and learned from them. From the birds, he realized that he had the responsibility to preach to them, to care for them, to share his essential identity as creatures of God with them. From the earthworm, he learned humility. He lived simply and close to the soil and the earth. From the bees he learned community, conviviality. He praised their hard work and their cooperative living.

Francis understood himself as brother to all creation. If we understand our identity to be that of sister or brother to all creation, what do we need to do?…

Making choices to simplify our lives—to lessen our use of resources—is fundamental to developing a Franciscan ecological consciousness.

The United States has the highest rate of resource consumption on Earth, so in our household choices we carry power to express concern for creation on a daily basis. But ultimately, we can make a greater impact by engaging others.

Franciscan spirituality is a common project, lived out in relationship to other humans and creatures. Francis can inspire us to speak on behalf of God’s other creatures, to take action to protect their habitat, and to promote policies that protect the integrity of life on Earth.

Learning how to live in relationship is fundamental to following the patron saint of ecology. Francis was open to relationship—to receiving from all, whether leper, human brother and sister, worms, birds, bishops, water, fire, wind, or Blessed Mother Earth.

Francis recognized the Incarnate Word of God in all living creatures. His openness meant he could recognize the blessing of being brother to all, and his response was humility.