Footprints of God

"These footprints of God impressed on the things of creation enabled Francis to find God wherever he went in the world, and finding God in the things of creation led him to the embrace of Jesus Christ, for Christ is the Word of God made visible in the world." [2] Ilia Delio, A Franciscan View of Creation: Learning to Live in a Sacramental World, The Franciscan Heritage Series, vol. 2 (The Franciscan Institute: 2003), 15–16.

In Ilia Delio's book about learning to live in a Franciscan world, she explains the beautiful Franciscan way of looking at the world and seeing the Beloved everywhere..."the footprints of God" as she calls them. She explains that the link between the Incarnation and the Creation revealed to Francis, as it should to us, that all of Creation is the place to encounter God.

And so I looked up in the sky yesterday morning and beheld the living God. On this day when we remember St. Francis, I pray that we will all have encounters with God in the beauty of Creation, including in that beauty the face of God in each other.

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may, for love of you, delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen