(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Summer 2025  Issue #116)

Canticle of the Creatures Reflections – Part 2

 Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks

and serve Him with great humility.

What is Ours To Do?

by Vickie Klick, OFS

Chair, NAFRA Centenary Task Force

When I think of Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures, I most often think of the stanzas about the world around us. Less often, I think of the stanzas composed to encourage reconciliation and to honor Sister Bodily Death. However, until now I have largely overlooked the final stanza:

Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks

and serve Him with great humility.

This final exhortation brings us back to the opening lines of the Canticle:

Most high, all powerful, good Lord,

Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honor, and all blessing.

To You alone, Most High, do they belong,

and no human is worthy to mention Your name.

In the end, despite our unworthiness, Francis recognizes that we, like all the other creatures he mentions, must praise and bless the Lord – but we humans must go further. We need to give thanks, and we need to serve Him humbly.

Our praise and blessing are not just from our nature, as they are for other creatures, but they arise from our free will with the help of the Holy Spirit. (No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. [1 Corinthians 12:3]) Our thanks and service are also freely chosen.

At one level, then, our response to this final stanza is obvious. How can we take it further and embed it more thoroughly into our daily lives – the way we live our Rule?

Our commitment to daily prayer helps ensure we praise and bless the Lord regularly. After I started writing this article, I added more thanksgiving to my daily prayer, starting (some days at least) before I get out of bed, and ending with some reflection on what I am thankful for during Evening Prayer. One of the beauties of our way of life, though, is that we can each adapt this exhortation to the rhythm and needs of our own lives.

In our humble service of the Lord, we emulate our Mother Mary. Mary’s first action after the Annunciation was to go in haste to serve her cousin, Elizabeth, in her miraculous pregnancy. It’s hard to imagine a more humble response to the momentous event that had just taken place in Mary’s life!

Taking the Visitation as an example, how can our actions each day help others become aware of Christ’s presence? (Art. 13 of the Rule points out that part of doing that is to be aware of “all people as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ.”) This is a tall order, requiring that “great humility” that Francis mentioned.

In summary, this last stanza of the Canticle invites us to accept the challenge to join in with all of creation in our uniquely human response to the Lord’s goodness. Let us all take this challenge seriously as we strive to live the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis.

St. Francis of Assisi statue at The Franciscan Renewal Center, Arizona

Canticle of the Creatures Reflections – Part 2

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Summer 2025  Issue #116)

 Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,

from whom no one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin.

Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,

for the second death shall do them no harm.

Sister Bodily Death

by Justin Carisio, OFS

In Francis of Assisi, Writer and Spiritual Master, Thaddée Matura, OFM, observes that St. Francis “loved to write or have others write for him. He insisted on the preservation of what he wrote, and he called for the transmission, knowledge and putting into practice of his writings.”[1] Murray Bodo, OFM, reminds us that Francis’ “whole being was that of a poet…he walked and praised as a poet would as he followed Jesus.”[2]

In this calendar year 2025, we acknowledge Francis as writer and poet by celebrating the 8th centenary of his magnificent poem of praise, “The Canticle of the Creatures.” Because of our contemporary focus on care for creation and the designation of St. Francis as patron of ecology, much attention will be given to the first nine verses of the Canticle. These deal with inanimate creatures of the natural world. Brought into existence by our heavenly Father, each is called brother or sister by Francis. He announces their beauty and attributes. He proclaims that through the creatures, God is to be praised.

But the Canticle is about more than nature. It is “a poem of St. Francis’ soul.”[3] We see this nowhere more poignantly than in the final verses. Francis wrote verse 12 as he lay dying: “Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, / from whom no one living can escape.”[4]

Franciscans have a long-established custom of referring to “Sister Death.” Yet Francis did not speak of Sister Death in the Canticle. Writing in his Umbrian vernacular, he was quite intentional in naming this sister he was soon to meet: “Laudato si, mi Signore, per sora nostra Morte corporale.” He speaks of Sister Bodily Death.

Why belabor what appears to be an inconsequential point? Precisely because it is consequential.

Poets measure every word, and Francis wrote “Sister Bodily Death.” Nevertheless, Franciscans have often chosen to express this otherwise. Indeed, in the text of the Canticle in the English Omnibus of Sources – a mainstay reference for many years – the verse does read “All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death.”[5] No mention of the body.

There may be other reasons why usage has favored the truncated Sister Death. Some of the early documents speak of the dying Francis welcoming Sister Death. In English at least, it comes more readily off the tongue when spoken. It is also less graphic than “Sister Bodily Death,” and thus less discomfiting.

Yet, it is likely Francis intended to be graphic. His images in the Canticle favor the bold and the descriptive. When he added this verse in his last days, he was blind and suffering physically. We must conclude he chose his words with care, saying exactly what he meant to say. Fortunately, the editors of Francis of Assisi: Early Documents chose an English translation that conveys the saint’s original words. That text now appears to be predominant, assuming online presentations of the Canticle are representative.

If we want to honor St. Francis’ great hymn of praise these 800 years later, perhaps we can make a resolution: Let us say consciously “Sister Bodily Death” henceforth. In so doing, we can lend renewed power to his poetic voice and show deep respect for the actual words he chose and which he intended us to know and repeat.

[1] Thaddée Matura, OFM, Francis of Assisi Writer and Spiritual Master, trans. by Paul Lachance, OFM (Cincinnati: Franciscan Media, 2005), xiii.

[2]  Murray Bodo, OFM, Poetry as Prayer Saint Francis of Assisi, (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003), 56.

[3]  Murray Bodo, OFM, Poetry as Prayer Saint Francis of Assisi, (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003), 56.

[4] St. Francis of Assisi, “The Canticle of the Creatures” in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents (FA:ED I), edited by Regis Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, William J. Short (New York, London, and Manila: New City Press, 1999), 114.

[5] 5 St. Francis of Assisi, “The Canticle of Brother Sun,” St. Francis of Assisi Writings and Early Biographies English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, Marion A Habig, ed (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), 131.