41.The Canticle of the Creatures
Early in his life Francis had been confined to his room by an illness. As he recovered and was able to walk again he found on leaving the house that the valley below Assisi had lost its beauty for him. This was but a first step in the working of grace within Francis so that he might in future see beauty more as God sees it. This remaking of Francis who, the same as everyone else, was damaged by sin was completed when he was marked with the stigmata, marked as being a perfect disciple of Christ. The remade Francis saw the world in a new light. The work that sums up best the new vision, gained by Francis through his sufferings, is his Canticle of the Creatures. The final form of this Canticle was not completed until a short time before the death of Francis but much of it was written earlier. We are told that Francis said while suffering from weakness and sickness: 'I want to write a new Praise of the Lord for his creatures, which we use every day, and without which we cannot live. Through them the human race greatly offends the Creator, and every day we are ungrateful for such great graces, because we do not praise, as we should, our Creator and the Giver of all good'. In the Canticle, Francis praises God for all the creatures and he singles out the sun, moon, stars, wind, water, fire and the earth. But this vision is achieved at a price because Francis adds praise to God for all who bear infirmity and tribulation and who endure these in peace. He also greets his sister bodily death.
