The Irish poet, Galway Kinnell, describes Francis as “re-teaching things their loveliness.” In his poem “St. Francis and the Sow,” Francis tells a big female pig, through words and touch and blessing, that she is indeed beautiful—she just can’t see it—and most of us cannot see it.
We all have to be mirrors like this, not just for nature, but for one another—and especially for those who cannot see the bud of possibility within them, those who hate themselves, those who’ve been abused, those who’ve been imprisoned, those who think they are no good, those who’ve been discriminated against.
Those are the ones that we have to mirror like Francis mirrored the sow. We, also, must reteach all things their loveliness.
