Darkness and light

From sunsets to sunrises. Misty mornings these days in Cambridge. I like the look.

In the Animal Rescue website I do my daily “click” which is supposed to provide food for homeless animals. I don’t know how they work it out, advertising and sales, no doubt.

Anyway it’s a nice thought and it takes no time so I religiously do it. (Free kibble.com works too)

The other day one of the items on sale was a small St Francis statue. I love St Francis because of his connection with animals.

At my last house I had a big St Francis statue in the garden but he got knocked down so many times by raccoons and bad weather that he fell to bits.

I created a new bird for him, using some sort of plaster but it ended up melting. So when I moved, poor St Francis was abandoned.

So, since buying this little statue was going to supply 34 or something bowls of food….well…there he is with Sasha.

It isn’t just because of the animals that I like St Francis. For many years now I have carried around his prayer in my purse. It feels like a very appropriate time for us to consider it:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive -
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

While I am not a believer in the same Master, I do certainly believe in the same principal as St Francis and his prayer has always been the ideal to which I strive. When I feel down, the words inspire me.

When my mother died, a priest came around to to house to ask for the family’s input for her funeral. My father and brother both being atheists, they had absolutely nothing to offer. I had at least been educated by nuns, but the only thing I could suggest was this same prayer because it is often said at funerals and I find it comforting. So it always also reminds me of Mum.