When [Francis] found an abundance of flowers,
he preached to them and invited them
to praise the Lord
as though they were endowed with reason.
In the same way he exhorted
with the sincerest purity cornfields and vineyards,
stones and forests and all the beautiful things
of the fields, fountains of water
and the green things of the gardens, earth and fire, air and wind,
to love God and serve him willingly.
Finally, he called all creatures "brother" and "sister",
and in a most extraordinary manner,
a manner never experienced by others,
he discerned the hidden things of nature with his sensitive heart,
as one who had already escaped into the freedom
of the glory of the children of God" (1 Cel 81).
CCFMC, Lesson 12
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