Global Plant a Tree Day! (And the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi)

The volunteer elm I will put in the ground today. That's its parent to the right background.

Today, 10/4/13, is Global Plant a Tree Day. It is also the feast of St. Francis of Assisi who lived in 12th century Italy before the denominational division in the Church, so all Christians love and accept him. The new Pope took his name, Pope Francis I. I thought I would mention Francis because he is also probably the first Animal Rights activist, known particularly for interacting with birds-- and the planting of trees, of course, provides better habitat for birds. I am blessed with a wonderful array of bird families in my Mojave Desert home. And when I was a little girl, my first pet bird, a canary with a lovely song, I named Francis.

This winter St. Francis will be offering seed to my birds.

St. Francis was also a great supporter of the poor. Which is why Pope Francis took his name. Although St. Francis was born wealthy (his father was a merchant), when he came back from serving in one of the Italian wars of his time, he was very ill. After his recovery, he dramatically changed from the rich, spoiled, let-the-good-times-roll young man and said he had experienced metanoia--being spiritually born again-and believed the Lord wanted him to rebuild  a local poor, broken down church, St. Damians. His heart was now turned to the poor folks, much like Jesus. Actually, he is more like Jesus than probably any other of the saints, in my opinion. He kept a balance of meditation and prayer with human contact and a vibrant sense of nature and enjoying people. He also wrote prose, poetry and music, very eloquently. And I'm proud to state my middle name is Frances, although my mother had no religious reasons for doing that, I'm glad she did. Francis (and Frances) mean Free.

Here is the prayer St. Francis is still famous for. With lots of grace, I try to live by it.

 And a lovely presentation of the prayer as a hymn.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace) -  Sinead O'Connor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vToimPtYGyU