Stories & Lessons

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Holiday: Feast of St. Francis

The Blessing of the Beasts

Ethel Pochocki
Engravings by Barry Moser

The Blessing of the Beasts

As the church Celebration of Creatures service approaches, Francesca the cockroach yearns to be there,
but Martin the skunk warns her against it:

“I don’t think that we are meant to be included, Francesca. It’s for the respectables, the cute and cuddlies. We are outcasts, my dear. They’ll never let us in. Can’t you just hear the humans shrieking as we walk down the aisle? They’d be fainting left and right.”

Francesca and Martin find a creative way into the church and learn that all of creation has value, purpose, and God’s blessing. Paraclete Press (2007).

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St. Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Illustrated by Dennis Nolan

St. Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy

This is a well-written biography which introduces Francis as a frivolous yet charming “King of Youth” and follows him through his conversion and founding of the Franciscan order, and finally, to welcoming “Sister Death” at the end of his remarkable life. It also describes incidents such as Francis’ reconciliation with the wolf of Grubbio and his relationship with St. Clare, who started an order of nuns similar to the Franciscan brothers’ order. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2005).

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