In honor of both the Feast of Saint Francis and World Animal Day today, I am reposting the following:

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi came from a wealthy family. He had all the comforts of luxury for his day, but he saw that material things and pleasures could not fill his heart and soul with joy and peace. He left this existence of emptiness and suffering for the life of an ascetic monk. He chose a life of material poverty so that he could find abundance within his heart through teaching love and compassion and providing service towards others, not only to humans but also towards both animals and the environment. Today he is the patron saint of gardens and animals.

Though we do not have to choose a monastic life to find everlasting fortune and abundance in our own lives, we can choose to work towards finding the courage to let our egos die by not being attached to the material and fleeting, and to work towards filling our hearts with the same passion for compassion that Saint Francis exemplified. May The Prayer of Saint Francis be a mantra for us to live with our hearts:

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love,
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
Oh Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all men that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

To listen to The Prayer of Saint Francis, click here.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. 

– Mahatma Gandhi