O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom;
O Hidden Light, shining in every creature;
O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness;
May all who feel themselves as one with Thee,
Know they are therefore one with every other.
-Annie Bessant

This past July 4th Independence Day weekend, I attended a retreat at the Christine Center led by Franciscan sister, Gabriele Uhlein, which honored the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ writing of the Canticle of Creation. I had had a very busy, challenging year and I was feeling very exhausted. I decided that a weekend away to rest and recharge my energy was needed and, loving everything St. Francis, decided to go.

I feel so blessed and grateful that I did, as 6 weeks later I received an email from the Christine Center saying that Sr. Gabe had been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was found to have stage 4 metastatic cancer. She had chosen to have hospice care and was brought back to her home at the Christine Center. Only a few days thereafter she peacefully passed on. I was shocked because she seemed to be her usual energetic, healthy, smiling self at that retreat!

I was surprised how hard her death hit me! Over the years I had spent time with Gabe at retreats she presented, such as the Hildegard retreat that she led every September, or when I more peripherally encountered her when I was there for other retreats. I myself, as a devotee of Hildegard of Bingen, had long ago purchased and loved Sister Gabe’s book, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen. Gabe was a scholar of both St. Hildegard and St. Francis, as well as an amazing creative artist. I always appreciated her so much, for her smile and welcoming presence, her creativity, and her scholarship.

I don’t think she would mind too much if I shared a few of her thoughts from that last retreat. So, here are several of her quotes that resonated with me regarding St. Francis’ Canticle of Creation.

“O Hidden Life…O Brothers and Sisters…Peace and all good…a reaffirmation of the relational creativity in which we—and all life—are immersed; a reaffirmation of all we hold within our power, as self-conscious units of life, and the ability to perceive/sense life, whole and splendid.”

“Franciscan prayer is NOT reasonable! The prayer of St. Francis is poetry. Francis offers a canticle the comes from his own most deep BE-ING—a BE-ING all humans share!”

“It is the most true expression of his/our vulnerability and inner experience of Life, deeply sensed:

 > Earth is not dirt. It is our Sister/Mother that sustains and governs us.

 > St. Francis LITERALLY calls all things Brother and Sister, even Brother Enemy and Sister Death.

 > Embracing all creation in its beginning and its ending—in its goodness and tribulations—in its fracturing and its reconciliation and regeneration.”

And the final point from the retreat is not only that everyone and everything from the beginning of creation is interconnected, but that they/we are also INTER-DEPENDENT! Every single thing is, and has always been, interdependent with everything else. Change one thing, and ALL things are changed! How much different would our world, our country, and our planet be now and, in the future, if we really believed and lived this??

There are many translations of the Canticle of Creation by St. Francis, which he wrote in his Umbrian (Italian) dialect, as he did not read or write Latin. It was the very first poem written in Italian and was written on his deathbed. I encourage you to find several versions, and pray them, ponder them, and remember St. Francis and Sister Gabe, and that we are all INTER-DEPENDENT…

– Rita Simon