Dear Francis …

A few words to St Francis on your festival day, October 4th.

Dear Francis,
You were led from your raucousness and debauchery.
As leader of the pack,
they gathered around you, your disciples,
attracted by a charisma that lit up their lives.
Of course, your pockets held the wealth
which made living as free spirits so easy.
You took it all for granted.
The centre of your life was within you,
focussing on that self which has ruined so many.

But another Charisma sought your energy.
Different followers waited to be your disciples.
Different values, to be ripened by true joy.
Perplexed, perhaps that you were losing direction,
uncertainty gripped that carefree heart
and nothing satisfied.

From the centre of things, you were called to the margins,
where your destiny would discover you.
Kneeling, questioningly, in the dereliction of San Damiano chapel,
you were led to examine your own crumbling life.
In the midst of your despair, Jesus spoke to you,

“Francis, rebuild my Church.”

At first, a physical task,
drawing others to your side as only you could,
but there was so much more to come.
You did not always get it right. None do.
That is why God comes among us often,
casting his grace over us, like rose petals at a wedding.

It is said that, near death, Jesus gifted you with stigmata,
scars, wounds of Christ, as marks on your own body.
But you had received these on your heart long ago,
when you walked as a companion of Jesus.
The Way of the Cross gave you Stations of prayer
by which you were able to shepherd poor, unloved,
uncared for humanity; vulnerable animals;
dancing birds, whose capricious flight was a sign of God’s joy.
And you did not forget the rich,
who more than most need to walk with you, into heaven.

[Mr G. St Francis day 2023]

Murmuration

*Starlings on Snettisham Beach, North Norfolk.*copyright RSPB

Snettisham beach in North Norfolk, near Sandringham Royal Estate, is a good place to witness a phenomenon known as murmuration. Usually at sunset, large groups of Starlings occupy the sky alongside the Wash as they swoop and swirl in packs, ducking and diving as they twist and turn across the sky. They make beautiful shape-shifting formations which are spellbinding and fascinating to watch. It is sheer poetry in motion.

The word murmuration which describes this activity is derived from the noise the birds make by the flapping of wings of so many birds in flight.This tends to happen during the Autumn and Winter months, often from October to March, though sometimes earlier. It tends to peak in December to January when native birds are joined by more birds from all over Europe

At sunset, large groups of starlings take to the sky, swooping and swirling into spheres, planes and waves. The phenomenon is called a murmuration, and it’s named after the noise that is made by the many flapping wings of a group of starlings in flight. Being together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotizing flock of thousands. They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas.

Here’s a poem inspired by wading birds at Snettisham, a reminder of Murmuration of Starlings,
by my friend Piers Northam

Myriad waders
ribbon the foreshore,
crisply backlit
as they needle the sands.

Kettled by tidewater,
they lift and resettle
until, rising together,
they skein
like wind-rippled silk;
billowing into clouded
bee-swarm;
funnelling
and shoaling
as they scud across the skies.

Snettisham beach
29 August ’22

Autumn webs

Autumn is the season for spiders both inside the house and also in the countryside and garden.

Not everyone is a fan of spiders and there are many species, from tiny mites to large, slightly threatening ones. Only a very few tend to bite human beings. According to the Natural History Museum, only about 12 species have been recorded as inflicting a bite on humans and of those only three have left an unpleasant or painful sensation. As there are over 650 types of spider the risks are minimal. Mind, if you insist on picking them up they will defend themselves!

The evidence of spiders in our gardens and in the fields can be found on a low misty morning when the ground is strewn with gossamer webs, highlighted by frost. These can be found often in their hundreds. This is the work of one species particularly – the Common sheetweb spider or to give its posh name, Linyphia triangularis. It’s a very common species and its presence easily seen – the name sheetweb – may provide a clue!

This Sunday, many in the UK will be keeping Animal Welfare Sunday. Perhaps we could spare a thought and a prayer for these tiny creatures of God’s creation, often overlooked or avoided. I suspect that he had a lot of fun making them!

My friend, Gill Henwood, has captured this in photos she has taken in the Lake District, so here’s a couple.

[Mr G 28.9.2023]

Gifts of Love

*Mother providing. An Icon of God’s provision.*
*Photo by Henk Vandorp*

A Harvest Thought.

In his book, Letters from the Desert, The Little Brother of Jesus, Carlo Carretto tells of a journey in the Sahara that he made soon after becoming a monk.
He arrived at a place just as the sun was setting and the temperature plummeted. It is a fact that the Sahara is known as a ‘cold country where it is very hot in the sun’. Because of this he carried two blankets. In a village he noticed an old man shivering with cold.
Carlo thought that he should give the old man one of his blankets but he thought of the night ahead and the cold that was descending. He knew that he really ought to have given the old man a blanket but when he drove off in his jeep the blankets were still with him.
Eventually he made camp under a great rock that would give him shelter from the wind.
He wrapped himself in both his blankets and eventually he fell asleep.
And he had a dream. He dreamed that he was lying under the very rock he had camped under.
In the dream the rock moved and a great boulder fell on top of him. It did not kill him but he was no longer able to move his body. He opened his eyes and saw the old man shivering before him. Now, he didn’t hesitate, The blanket was no longer any use to him so he tried to stretch out his hand to offer the blanket but the stone made even the smallest movement impossible. The blanket mocked him and reminded him of his lack of charity.
He wondered how long he might have to remain under the rock and God then spoke to his heart: Until you are capable of an act of perfect love.

In an inverted sort of way this story is about God’s Providence. God provided warmth and protection for the shivering old man but it was denied him by the selfishness of Carlo Carretto.
It isn’t that God hasn’t provided for the needs of the world – the planet teems with everything we need to sustain life and he expects us to share its goodness equally with all.
It’s just that some have more and want even more and so deny Providence to those in need.

In Judaism an essential part of the Covenant was to provide for the poor through the principle of Justice-as-Charity. Prayer to God must be accompanied by how we act responsibly in the world. Creation is the gift we must ensure is enjoyed by all for, as Jonathan Sacks, the late Chief Rabbi, put it in his book To Heal a Fractured World:

God created the world so that others could enjoy it. Goodness is not an attribute of the soul but a way of acting and creating: creating happiness for other people, mitigating their distress, removing even a fraction of the world’s pain. we worship God spiritually by helping his creation physically.

St Ambrose takes this a little further when he says
When you give to the poor it is not from your own wealth; it is a fragment of their property you are returning to them, for it is common property given for all to use that you are keeping for yourself.

An essential part of God’s Providence is ourselves. He has provided us with the ability to help each other.
In a Christian society, as in the Jewish one of our Lord’s time, it is the mutual care we have of each other which makes a real difference to people’s lives. That needs to include those of all faiths if it is to have a Universal application.

Jonathan Sacks says that charity to others is a form of prayer – a preliminary to prayer. It is only when we act with justice and compassion, when we recognize his (God’s) image in other people and hear the silent cry of those in need that we shall really understand that we are part of God’s Providence – and for that be truly thankful.