Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,"You owe Me."
Look what happens with a love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
This photograph above and the poem is attributed to Hafez,
a great Persian poet of whom Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Hafez was a poet for poets"
Both the above and this below remind me how sacred is this earth and the WHOLE of the people within it which day by day are being denied their sacredness and the respect due to creation and the Creator. These also inspire me to want my every moment and every choice to demonstrate my love and honor for the same.
Both are re-found with gratitude to this site: here
St. Francis of Assisi prayers or hymns are favorite among both spiritual and creation-centered music. Maybe this is because they are often joyful as well as reverent of nature as sacred. Sometimes people in the so-called "bible-belt" are often thought to treat nature as removed from the Creator. Yet this may be changing.
Perhaps in the past this separation of the sacred values from the secular ones so completely - while necessary in some civil rights respects - has allowed for regretful decisions to be made. Some of these decisions have allowed for the trashing of huge areas of pristine forests and bodies of water and allows pollution to be dumped on lands where people live, breathe and make their livings. Even as I'm posting, I'm sadly reflecting on the way oil has wrecked and is now wrecking the livelihood and well-being of people in such diverse places as Nigeria and Louisiana.
And greed or desperation for oil has been one dynamic leading to the various wars and occupations taking place on the planet - a kind of Crusade for Oil.
Thus perhaps the value of music and poetry has increased - in order to help restore our relationship to one another globally as well as to the whole of creation.
On the Feast of St. Francis, in some churches, people are even encouraged to bring in their pets for blessings and the following lyrics are sung...
May you of other traditions and beliefs provide some slack for some of the "theology" we have inherited which may sound amiss to you here and still may need some revision in the future. In the meantime, find here what you are able as commonalities among the One heart of us all...
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam,
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in heaven along,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice!
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light,
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
====================
By some biographers, St. Francis is credited with writing more than 60 prayer-like poems or hymns in all. Some songs - perhaps even this one - may be someone else's work. Perhaps there are not enough competent biographers and historians available. I met a highly respected Franciscan priest who claimed that the song "Instrument of Your peace" was not actually written by St. Francis. Still, because the words are so like St. Francis' own, they are still compatible and valuable in our storehouse of spiritual tradition. If any have references to origin, do let me know.
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