Richard's Daily Meditations

My friend, Mary, forwarded this meditation to me a few days ago. It seems to go along with yesterday's blog post. I think one of the gifts we most often throw away because we don't recognize it as gift, is the gift of one another. We are inclined to look only at the outside and reject the whole package (person) when God is trying to give us the precious gift of knowing one of His children if we will only unwrap it to see the beauty inside.        I believe the most helpful thing we can do for one another is to look for the gifts inherent in each other and to reflect them back, so that those who have difficulty seeing will recognize their infinite value and worth. St. Francis Preaching to the Birds (detail), Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

NATURE AS MIRROR The Irish poet Galway Kinnell describes Francis as “re-teaching things their loveliness.” In his poem “St. Francis and the Sow,” Francis tells a large female pig through words and touch and blessing that she is indeed beautiful—she just can’t see it. Most of us cannot see it either, unfortunately. We all have to be mirrors like this, not just for nature, but for one another—and especially for those who cannot see the bud of possibility within them, those who hate themselves, those who’ve been abused, those who’ve been imprisoned, those who think they are no good, those who’ve been discriminated against—anyone who feels unworthy in one way or another. Those are the ones that we have to positively mirror like Francis mirrored the sow. We must “re-teach all things their loveliness.” That could be your one and only life calling! From In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation webcast (CD, DVD, MP3)