Description
FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS depicts Saint Francis’ feeding and preaching to the brightly colored birds of many patterns, gathered around him. Large and small, they peacefully gather together to accept Francis’s gift of food. It reminds us to pause from our own lives to give to others.
Stories, poems and songs on Francis’s love of nature inspired Swanson. Francis spoke to the birds as his brothers and sisters, and they loved him.
Lord,
Make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
– Prayer of St Francis
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FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
Study Of Birds |
FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
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FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
Study Of FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS from Sketchbook |
Study Of FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
Study of FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS from Sketchbook
1985 |
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FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
Study For Lithograph |
Printing at Efram Wolff |
Color Correcting at Efram Wolff |
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FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
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FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
FRANCIS OF ASSISI |
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PAPAGENO |
PAPAGENO |
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FRANCIS AND THE WOLF |
FRANCIS AND THE WOLF |
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FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS |
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FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS – Reflections
and commentaries of writers and theologians. |
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| All sorts of different birds await[ed] Francis in a vast meadow at the outskirts of the town. There were also an incredible number of birds in the trees all around. The crows and their cousins, the long-beaked black rooks, added a serious note to that colorful gathering, which was lightened by the clear notes of the wood pigeons and the orange-throated bullfinches. All the birds of the countryside were there, the birds that pilfered and those that lived only to sing and the ones that haunted the rocks or nested in the furrows. When Francis drew near, not one of them budged, not even a magpie. | |
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Fr. James Torrens, SJ
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Preacher Saint Francis serves up the gospel to birds;my neighbor’s bright red feeders sweeten the hummingbirds;the fish under the pelican flotilla end up as lunch for birds;the world’s surplus of flies is a feast for flycatcher birds;patches of suet on a tree trunk fuel the winder birds;a carcass delights a buzzard, who isn’t the pickiest of birds;worms wriggling through wet ground are a morsel for early birds;Francis with his handful of seed caters to fine-feathered birds;The Lord of heaven portions out the song to birds. |
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Br. Ugolino |
“My little sisters the birds, ye owe much to God, your Creator, and ye ought to sing his praise at all times and in all places, because he has given you liberty to fly about into all places; and though ye neither spin nor sew, he has given you a twofold and a threefold clothing for yourselves and for your offspring.”
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
“O brother birds,” Saint Francis said,
“Ye come to me and ask for bread, But not with bread alone today Shall ye be fed and sent away.” |
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Xavier Schnieper 1981, Frederick Muller Ltd, page 80
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Francis came to see the world and the cosmos as creation praising and magnifying God. This was how he arrived at a vision of nature as reality without sin, the pledge of God’s love. He therefore turned to animals and birds, and to flowers and trees and sought to open the eyes and senses of his contemporaries to the innate essence and wonder of the natural life about them.
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Fr. Jack Wintz, O.F.M. September 28, 2005, Friar Jack’s |
We should see ourselves as stewards within creation, not as separate from it. Francis was ahead of his time, He saw himself, as do today’s ecologists, as part of the ecosystem, not as some proud master over and above it. Francis addressed creatures as “brother” and “sister”—as equals, not subjects to be dominated.
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Gerard Thomas Straub 2000, St. Anthony Messenger Press, page 169 |
First, we must understand that Francis was not merely a nature lover. That’s too simple. Francis loved God…and because God created nature, Francis loved nature. The different kinds of birds symbolized people–people of all races, nationalities and personalities who together make up a single diverse flock of humanity. And Francis has gathered them all together so they can hear him proclaim the Good News of the gospel. Francis is telling us that we must not only take care of nature and each other, but we must also share the Good New with all creation.
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Murray Bodo, O.F.M
2011, St. Anthony Messenger Press, page 83 |
Because he possessed nothing, he was possessed by all the free creatures of God. All of creation loved him, every bird and animal, and Francis knew it and loved them in return.
Francis loved most tenderly the larks of Umbria. In comparison to them as they soared high in the blue skies of spring, he was the merest sparrow of a man. Sparro! How fitting a name for himself. A poor ragged little sparrow. That was Francis. Feathers ruffled and frayed at the ends, brown and plain, perching on the balconies of Assis, chirping his love songs to the poor and meek, the outcasts and beggars who do not need a lark to make them happy. Even he, poor sparrow of faded brown, could cheer them happy. Even he, poor sparrow of faded brown, could cheer the meek who seldom raised their eyes high enough to see a lark magnificent in its soaring and swooping in the clear skies of freedom. |
| Birds appearing in dreams are often viewed as symbols of freedom. They may also represent thoughts, imagination, and ideas that, by nature, require freedom to manifest. In ancient times, birds were believed to be vehicles for the soul, possessing the ability to carry the spirit to heaven. | |
