My grandfather's name was Francisco. He had a very humble home that began with dirt floors, an outdoor water pump, and an outhouse. When I would sneek away to visit him, I would go through the side door that led into the kitchen. I would knock on the door and go in to find Grandfather, sitting at the table, eating Spanish rice and pinto beans from a shallow bowl while Grandmother was busy making homemade flour tortillas. On the wall was a beautiful, inexpensive artprint of St. Francis taking Jesus from the cross.
I was surprised to find the picture on the Internet!
I think that this is where my love of art began. It was Grandfather and Saint Francis who first introduced me to art. When they added wooden floors and sheetrock to Grandfather's house, I would take the leftover pieces of sheetrock and make works of art from them. It wasn't until years later that I discovered the beautiful prayer of St. Francis.
So the first Saint that I will honor today is St. Francis. He is the Saint of Animals and the Saint of Peace. Grandfather did not live in the country, but he had goats, chickens, doves, pigeons, ducks, bees, a pig, and a peacock.
St. Francis is sometimes honored in a garden. Grandfather had fruit trees and a vegetable garden. He was like Johnny Appleseed. Anything he put into the ground grew to give us wonderful fruit and vegetables. Grandmother loved flowers. My favorite flowers from Grandmother's flowers were the Four O'Clocks that opened at 4:00 p.m. everyday and the Morning Glories that opened in the morning. It was fun to discover that flowers can sleep.
3 comments:
Facinating. I had a b/f who went to a college maitained by the 'Franciscan Brothers'. I'm not catholic and had no idea what a Fransican Brother was. Out in the country was a park we used to go to and nearby was a boys school with a large marble statue of a 'priest' with birds on his head and hands, animals at his feet. Now I know it was St. Francis. Thank you for sharing this information.
Bethe
My partner is Catholic and his name his St 's names are David Francis.I have just read all these posts and they are beautiful.I am going to come back later to comment on all of them,as this time of morning, is realy busy for me,seeing partner off to work etc.I will be bcak shortly to do more commenting.I am so interested to read them all again.Beautiful pictures.Take Care God Bless Kath
astoriasand http://journals.aol.co.uk/astoriasand/MYSIMPLERHYMES
I always thought that was awesome too...flowers actually sleep....June:)
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