A New Canticle to Brother Sun

St Francis wrote one often called Canticle of the Sun, but is better called Canticle of Created Things
That can be found in the Temple I wrote this one soon after I became a postulant in TSSF.

Our God, Creator of the Cosmos, and especially planet Earth and all who dwell here: We lift our hands to praise You. And, feeling the Sun upon them, seek parables of Your Ways.

Dear Brother Sun, by whose light we see Creation and on whose energy all life depends: You are a parable of our Creator, forever shining warmth upon us, even when we cannot see you.

Our dear Lord Jesus was sent by God to feel, like us, your warmth upon His back Since then, in 2000 years, we have learnt to associate evil with night and darkness, when you Brother Sun are out of sight.

But in our time, more and more wickedness is committed in what we call Broad Daylight, your light. So you Brother Sun, see, as God does, the evil which Christ confronted, yet still abounds, untamed, even by the Cross:
Ethnic cleansing in The Balkans or armed robbery on a sleepy sub-post office, you now see it all, as God does. And weeps?

So, Sister Rain, who comes when Brother Sun is hidden, are you an adequate parable for His pain. Do your torrents, hurricanes and tornadoes, which cause such misery and destruction, represent God's anger?
And are you, Brother Rainbow, a sign, as of old, of God's promised mercy?

We lift warm hands to praise You our God and cold wet hands to petition You: Have mercy upon us.

As part of creation we are puny and our value comes only from Your love. You seek our love and we offer it, as commanded, with all our heart, and all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength.
AMEN.

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