{"id":27715,"date":"2026-10-07T09:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27715"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:10:18","slug":"francis-and-the-natural-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27715","title":{"rendered":"Francis and the Natural World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gungor - The Earth Is Yours Lyrics Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kG4SKwTG9_k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creation as Kin<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday, October 7, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brazilian theologian and philosopher Leonardo Boff highlights how Francis of Assisi recognized the elements of creation as kin:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Francis] walked over rocks with reverence in attention to the One who called himself a rock; he took snails off the roads so that they would not be trampled by people; he gave honey and wine to bees in the winter to keep them from dying of cold and hunger\u2026. Kinship is more than human; it is cosmic\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we observe here is another way of being in the world, one quite different from that of the modernity that we have criticized. The latter stands <em>above<\/em> things in order to possess and dominate them, whereas that of <strong>St. Francis is together <em>with<\/em> them, to love them and live with them as brothers and sisters at home. Even with regard to anxieties and pains \u201che did not regard them as pains but as sisters.\u201d<\/strong> Death itself is greeted as a sister who leads us to life. The Franciscan universe is never dead, nor are things simply placed within reach of the possessive human grasp or tossed one alongside another, without interconnections between them. Everything makes up a grand symphony\u2013and God is the conductor. <strong>All things are alive and personal; through intuition Francis discovered what we now know empirically, that all living things are brothers and sisters because they [nearly] have the same genetic code. Francis experienced this consanguinity in a mystical way. <\/strong>We all live together under the same parental roof. Because we are brothers and sisters we love one another; violence among family members is never justified. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sister Elizabeth Johnson notes how becoming aware of our kinship with all of creation leads to \u201cdeep incarnation\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The flesh that the Word of God became as a particular human being is part of the tree of evolving life on earth, which in turn is part of the vast body of the cosmos\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To catch this broad meaning, the Danish theologian Niels Gregersen has coined the phrase \u201cdeep incarnation.\u201d It is starting to be used in theology to indicate the radical divine reach in Christ through human flesh all the way down into the living web of organic life with its growth and decay, amid the wider processes of evolving nature that beget and sustain life\u2026. <strong>The saving God became a human being, who was part of the wider human community, which shares the membrane of life with other creatures, all made from cosmic material, and vulnerable to death and disintegration\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deep incarnation understands John\u2019s gospel to be saying that the <em>sarx<\/em> [flesh, material] that the Word of God became not only weds Jesus Christ to other human beings in the human species; <strong>it also reaches<\/strong> <strong>beyond us to join the incarnate one to the whole evolving biological world of living creatures and the cosmic dust of which they are composed<\/strong>. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Young; Jesus Calling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stop judging and evaluating yourself, for this is not your role<\/strong>. Above all, stop comparing yourself with other people. This produces feelings of pride or inferiority; sometimes, a mixture of both. <strong>I lead each of My children along a path that is uniquely tailor-made for him or her. Comparing is not only wrong; it is also meaningless.<\/strong><br>\u00a0 \u00a0 Don&#8217;t look for affirmation in the wrong places: your own evaluations, or those of other people. <strong>The only source of real affirmation is My unconditional Love.<\/strong> Many believers perceive Me as an unpleasable Judge, angrily searching out their faults and failures. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I died for your sins, so that I might clothe you in My garments of salvation. <strong>This is how I see you: radiant in My robe of righteousness.<\/strong> When I discipline you, it is never in anger or disgust; it is to prepare you for face-to-Face fellowship with me throughout all eternity. <strong>Immerse yourself in My loving Presence. Be receptive to My affirmation, which flows continually from the throne of grace.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Luke 6:37 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do Not Judge Others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>37 \u201cDo not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>John 3:16-17 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>16 \u201cFor this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Isaiah 61:10 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10 I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; and draped me in a robe of righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; or a bride with her jewels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Proverbs 3:11-12 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>11 My child, don\u2019t reject the Lord\u2019s discipline,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; and don\u2019t be upset when he corrects you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>12 For the Lord corrects those he loves,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creation as Kin Wednesday, October 7, 2026 Brazilian theologian and philosopher Leonardo Boff highlights how Francis of Assisi recognized the elements of creation as kin: [Francis] walked over rocks with reverence in attention to the One who called himself a rock; he took snails off the roads so that they would not be trampled by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27715"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27719,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27715\/revisions\/27719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}