Blessed are you, Laudato si

Eternal You,

Invisible and far away

I owe you both my silence and my song,

My loneliness and my desires,

My hunger, all my longings

For you are God.

It all belongs to you

And whether in distress or peaceful

None can call upon you by your true name. 

You are the nameless one and good

Good is the hand that made all things that are;

Blessed are you for Brother Sun

Who daily offers us another day

Who bursts with beauty and with shining power

Who blinds us and overwhelms us

Consoles us and makes us glad

And gives us life.

And Sister Moon is also good

So pretty with her stars

Which you have spun of heaven,

And good like you is Brother Wind

With all his raging clouds

And weather good and bad and

Air in which we live, lowly yet still happy.

I praise you for your gift, our Sister Water

So helpful and so modest, precious and pure;

For Brother Fire who soars against the night

Laughing and leaping, subsiding;

And for our Mother Earth

Bearing up our feet who guides our path

Provides us every fruit

And gives us herbs and flowers, all flashing.

And blessed are you, Misunderstood Transcendent

For all who, acting out of love for you are merciful,

For all the sick and long-enduring thirsty,

And blessed are all the persevering,

never crowned their whole life long—

will you proclaim them?

And cursed, misunderstood are you,

Yet still blessed for her, our Sister Death

No living soul can possibly escape her.

And blessed are all who seek for you;

The second death shall never overcome them.

Farewell to all, and bless and thank

Your Lord and God, recall him, serve him

In humbleness.

St. Francis of Assisi

Canticle of the Creatures

composed 800 years ago in 1225

translated by Huub Oosterhuis

Blessings,