The Franciscan emphasis on the goodness of God and creation focuses on the outpouring of God’s love into the universe. Creation reveals to us God’s love for us and God’s beauty, which is why Franciscans call creation “the mirror of God.”
Francis and the Franciscans honored the world around them and were ignited in praising God from their experiences. Francis was able to see God imbedded in a marvelously interconnected world with God as the source of each and every thing. He saw the world in universal kinship, with the moon, the water, and the birds as his sisters and the sun and the wolf as his brothers.
Franciscan Way of LivingBroadly, the Franciscan way is to live knowing that all of creation is the place to encounter God. Concrete manifestations of this involve living more simply on the earth and with other people in order truly experience and savor God’s gift of life.
The things of this world are God-like just as they are and reveals God to us in their specificity. Therefore, to deepen our relationship to God we need regular, attentive contact with the world in its simple, humble state. We can forget about a search for things and people that are worthy of love or that will make us happy. The world is full of signs of God’s presence, with God telling us what we need to hear through the bits and pieces we encounter in a day. In an ongoing way we are converted to the gospel through God’s daily work inside and outside of us.
Francis’ first biographer, Thomas of Celano describes the way of Francis like this:
Who could ever express the deep affection Francis bore
for all things that belong to God?
Or who would be able to tell
of the sweet tenderness he enjoyed
while contemplating in creatures
the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator?
From this reflection
he often overflowed
with amazing, unspeakable joy
as he looked at the sun,
gazed at the moon, or observed the stars in the sky.
Excerpted from franciscanaction.org.