FAITH FILES

TOMORROW, October 4, is the day when the church remembers St Francis of Assisi. Francis today is mostly remembered for his affinity to animals and for his love of all creation.

Last year, my church held a St Francis service when people were encouraged to bring their animals.

Now we used to have a very naughty terrier called Rolo and I’m not sure how he would have coped with church. I think he may have tried to jump into the pulpit and have a good bark, or set off up and down the aisles nibbling a few ankles. And he certainly wouldn’t have had any truck with other dogs joining him. He wasn’t what you might call inclusive.

But St Francis was. All were welcome with him. This itinerant preacher went about loving people without discrimination, binding up their leprous wounds and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. Sound familiar?

And he was committed to making our Lord loved and known, to peace and justice, to living simply; to do this in his prayer, his study, his work; and to do it in the spirit of love, joy and humility.

And Francis loved the world God made and saw it as his duty to care for it and encourage others to do the same. All of creation was important to him. My daughter sent me a video the other day of my little two-year-old granddaughter watching in awe as a beetle wandered on her arm. She said, seriously, “Thank-you for visiting!” St Francis would like that.

I was only vaguely aware of St Francis for many years. He was a sort of medieval Dr Dolittle who went about talking to wolves and feeding birds. That was about the sum of my knowledge.

But on my Christian journey, I have fallen in with some Franciscans – followers of Francis who have introduced me to someone who cared deeply about every bit of God’s creation, even the troubling bits.

Sometime it’s hard in these Covid days to focus on the good. But tomorrow I will think of St Francis who, like Jesus, loved everyone. He would have tended to the Covid patient, just as he did the leper, and comforted the them.

What a wonderful reminder of the wonderful work our NHS workers are doing.

Eirene Palmer, Derby Cathedral Café Writers