St. Francis of Assisi is one of the best men ever and was and is kind to creatures great and small.
The pictures are from Aspen Hill Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland. When we went it was overgrown but very charming. Anyone who has loved anyone or any creature knows that such a place is a place of deep sadness, joy and remembrance of things lost and things waiting to be regained again. Restored in a better place and the perfect time forever and ever. Today we remember a man who can keep them entertained and petted proper until we meet them again.
To just see him as an animal protector and friend is easy but he was a mighty mystic and rejected the secular allure of worldly riches and respect. He wasn’t handsome by all reports but his beauty is unparalleled and his ambition pure, great and should be our prayer as well:
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; 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; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
